Menang Atau Kalah Dalam Sales

Sales Win / Loss Analysis
Increase your sales closure ratio by 10% in

less than 6 months
by Roch Gauthier
The copyright of this work belongs to Roch Gauthier, who is solely responsible for the
content. Please direct content feedback or permissions to roch.linkedin@yahoo.ca. You
may not extract or re-use any of the images in this document.
rochgauthier eooklet 2009. All rights reserved. Page 1

Sales Win / Loss Analysis
Introduction
Starting a Sales Win / Loss Analysis Program: Rochs Top 10
1. Find out what it is worth to your company
2. Inform sales & marketing management what it is worth
Contents
3. Ask prospects permission to contact them following
their purchasing decision
4. Eliminate the potential for biases
5. Conduct the sales win / loss interview soon after a deci-
sion is made
6. Manage expectations and keep the sales win / loss in-
terview brief
7. Ask the right questions
8. Generate lessons learned with key stakeholders
9. Share the sales win / loss insight
10.Internalize the lessons learned

Increase your sales closure ratio by 10% in less than 6
months
I have been working with hi-tech sales and marketing executives
Introduction
and directors since 1995. Some of the chief concerns I hear
from these people include:
Our sales quotas keep increasing and so does the pressure to

deliver. I need to find new ways to meet these targets.
Were losing business to competitors. My sales people tell me

its because of price. I think theres more to it than that.
Weve had a lot of turnover in the sales force. I need to find

ways to make the new hires productive fast!

Introduction
Driving improvements in a companys sales closure ratio is one

of the most effective ways to help sales executives and their
teams to achieve their sales quotas. There are various ap-
proaches that can be employed to do this, but I find that a quick
way to get results is to implement a quality sales win / loss
analysis process.
My goal in writing this eooklet is to share with you some practi-

cal advice on this matter based on my hands-on experience.
What is win / loss analysis?
Sales win / loss analysis is the process by which a company ob-

tains feedback from a sales prospect and the account team
members, following a purchasing decision. The goal of the proc-
ess is to understand why a company won or lost the sale, share
that information inside the organization, and take action as re-
quired.

Introduction
Quality sales win / loss analysis drives dramatic im-

provements in sales
Many companies are looking for the next big thing. They spend
large amounts of money developing new products and services
in the hopes of increasing sales. Although product and service
innovations are important contributors to the bottom line, there is
often another powerful, yet neglected driver.
Using some straightforward analyses, I have demonstrated to

sales executives and managers that their biggest opportunity
lies in improving their sales closure ratio. Implementing a sales
win / loss analysis process is a quick and low cost way to get
bottom line results.

Introduction
Sales win / loss analysis also helps companies

achieve these goals:
Understand how to win against the competition
Understand customers decision criteria
Identify the typical roles involved in the customer decision

making process
Increase sales productivity
Shorten the time required to make new sales hires productive
Quickly identify market trends and take appropriate action
Improve marketing messages and collateral
Help company representatives speak the same language

used by your customers

Find out what it is worth to your company

Implementing a quality sales win / loss analysis process is a key
way for many companies to achieve their sales quotas. If this is
the case, why arent more companies doing this? The answer is
simple; they have not taken time to work out the math.
Ive included a table on the next page that will allow you to
quickly approximate the dollar value of increasing your current
deal closure odds by a meager 5%. Just follow these three easy
steps:
1. In the Bids per year column, locate the number that best
represents the amount of quotes that your company tenders
yearly.
2. In the Typical order size row, find the amount that best
represents the average dollar value of those bids.
3. The intersection of your Bids per year and Typical order
size selections represents the increase in yearly revenue as-
sociated with improving your winning odds by 5%.

Typical order size ($)

$ 10,000 $ 25,000 $ 100,000 $ 250,000
5 $ 2,500 $ 6,250 $ 25,000 $ 62,500
10 $ 5,000 $ 12,500 $ 50,000 $ 125,000
Bids per year

50 $ 25,000 $ 62,500 $ 250,000 $ 625,000
100 $ 50,000 $ 125,000 $ 500,000 $ 1,250,000
200 $ 100,000 $ 250,000 $ 1,000,000 $ 2,500,000
300 $ 150,000 $ 375,000 $ 1,500,000 $ 3,750,000
Can your companys winning odds be improved by 5% within a

year? Absolutely! It is not unreasonable to even plan on in-
creasing your win rate by up to 10% in less than 6 months
as a direct result of implementing a quality sales win / loss
analysis process.

Inform sales & marketing management what it is

worth
Now that you have an idea of what sales win / loss analysis is
worth to your company, your next step is to make your sales and
marketing leadership team aware of this. Develop a concise
business case to help management understand the essentials of
a sales win / loss program. Your business case should provide
answers to the following questions:
What is sales win / loss analysis?
Why should your company do anything in the first place?

What is the value? How quickly can you expect to capture
this value?
Why do this now? What are the consequences (if any) of not
doing anything?
What is being proposed? What is the process? What are the

deliverables?

Investments in sales win / loss programs should be relatively

quick and easy to fund given the associated return on invest-
ment. Make sure to appoint an independent and objective per-
son to conduct the sales win / loss interviews (more about bi-
ases later).
Someone responsible for customer, competitive and market re-

search inside your organization might be the right person to own
this process and create the sales win / loss deliverables. If you
cant find someone inside of your organization, you may wish to
consider outsourcing this activity to a reputable third party.

Ask prospects permission to contact them following

their purchasing decision
Get sales people to ask prospects upfront for their permission to
have someone contact them following their decision. Explain to
them that your company is committed to better serving the
needs of the marketplace and that customer feedback is of vital
importance. Many customers will be impressed that your com-
pany wants to learn the reasons why you win or lose.
Some prospects will need to be reassured that in the event of a

NO decision, your company simply wants to learn from the ex-
perience and move on. These prospects dread having pushy
sales people calling them when theyve made up their mind.
Having your sales win / loss analysis conducted by an inde-
pendent and objective person can help reduce a prospects re-
sistance and anxiety.

Eliminate the potential for biases

Lets face it the truth hurts. Yet pain is one of our greatest
teachers. You owe it to yourself and your company to obtain
candid and constructive feedback from customers. Letting an
independent and objective person conduct your sales win / loss
interviews will eliminate the potential for biases.
I know many companies that let sales people follow up directly

with customers in order to conduct loss interviews. The problem
with this approach is that sales people tend to go on fishing ex-
peditions in order to find reasons to justify to their management
why they didnt make the sale. This approach is absolutely the
wrong way to go! In all likelihood, youll never get valuable infor-
mation regarding the buyers opinion of the sales persons
knowledge, demeanor, and manners when interviews are con-
ducted in this manner.

Conduct the sales win / loss interview soon after a de-

cision is made
There are two reasons for interviewing customers sooner rather
than later:
First of all, they will remember more and be in a better position

to tell you the specific reasons why they made the decision the
way they did. The value of sales win / loss interviews dimin-
ishes with time. This is especially true when a prospects pur-
chasing decision process was lengthy and/or involved numerous
vendors. A lost customer I interviewed told me: Ive spent the
past month reviewing the offerings of eight vendors who made
our short list. Im having difficulty remembering your companys
product demonstration. Everything has become a blur. It was a
shame that I wasnt able to conduct the interview earlier.

Secondly, the longer you wait to interview customers, the less

chance you have to obtain emotionally charged responses.
Frustrated, angry, or disappointed customers tend to be a
goldmine of feedback!

Manage expectations and keep the sales win / loss in-

terview brief
Its been my experience that prospects will grant you time to
give feedback if you ask for it in the early stages of the sales cy-
cle. Be courteous to the prospect and set appropriate interview
time expectations with them up front. I recommend that inter-
views be 5-10 minutes for business-to-consumer pursuits, and
15-30 minutes for business-to-business pursuits.

Ask the right questions

The value of your post-decision interviews will depend on the
questions you ask customers.
For companies that leave it up to the sales person to conduct

their own interviews, the questioning tends to go like this: Why
did we lose Was it because our price was too high? If you let
sales people go on fishing expeditions, theyll likely come back
with price as a main reason. Its been my experience that price
is usually not the main reason for losing a sale.
Questions are powerful things they help guide thinking (yours

and your prospects!). Figure out what you want to learn from a
customer and craft your questions carefully.

Generate lessons learned with key stakeholders

Once youve interviewed the customer, schedule a meeting with
stakeholders in your organization. The goal will be to review the
interview findings, reflect, and develop key lessons learned
from the sales pursuit. This 360 degree feedback is especially
important in significant sales pursuits (e.g. new product introduc-
tions, large revenue opportunities, key customers, etc.). Con-
sider inviting:
Members of the sales team involved in the pursuit: Give

these folks an opportunity to reflect upon the pursuit and the
customers opinions. If they were asked to pursue a similar
opportunity, what would they do differently if anything?
The owner of your product or services development road-

maps: Customers often provide valuable feedback about
your products strengths and weaknesses. Does your product
or services roadmaps need to be modified based on the feed-
back?

A representative from marketing: In win situations, market-

ing will get a better handle of the companys differentiators.
Loss situations will provide them with an opportunity to reflect
on positioning, messaging, buying criteria, etc.

Share the sales win / loss insight

Sales win / loss analyses contain valuable lessons that can be
used by other sales people. This is particularly true for compa-
nies having geographically dispersed sales teams. The informa-
tion contained within these analyses serve as excellent training
material for new sales hires.
Furthermore, comprehensive competitor specific guidelines can

be created once your company accumulates enough win / loss
information. These guides are invaluable resources that help
sales people win new business.
I speak from experience when I say that these sales win / loss
insight documents will quickly become one of the most
downloaded and valuable resources from your companys intra-
net.

Internalize the lessons learned

The real value from sales win / loss analysis comes from inter-
nalizing what you learn. Make sure to implement business proc-
esses to institutionalize lessons learned.
Here are some ideas:
Incorporate sales win / loss case studies during formal sales

training programs. Its a great way to engage sales people in
a dialogue and is the total opposite of the typical death by
PowerPoint approach.
If you are a Sales Director, consider facilitating a discussion

about sales win / loss findings during monthly meetings with
your sales team. How can the lessons learned be applied
to current sales pursuits?
Update your competitive fighting tactics resources on an on-

going basis using the sales win / loss findings.

About me: Roch Gauthier

Its interesting when you dis- I am a marketing and management consulting professional currently working
cover why you won or lost a sale. in the software industry. I have been responsible for conducting sales win /
loss analyses for the past three years. I keep being pleasantly surprised by
It becomes exciting when your
company uses that knowledge to how quickly SVP and CXO decision makers reply to my email request for 15
defeat the competition.
minutes of their time to get their candid feedback on why an opportunity was
won or lost.
Contact me at: roch.linkedin@yahoo.ca

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Sales Win / Loss Analysis

Increase your sales closure ratio by 10% in

rochgauthier eooklet 2009. All rights reserved. Page 1

rochgauthier eooklet 2009. All rights reserved. Page 2

Our sales quotas keep increasing and so does the pressure to

Were losing business to competitors. My sales people tell me

Weve had a lot of turnover in the sales force. I need to find

rochgauthier eooklet 2009. All rights reserved. Page 3

Driving improvements in a companys sales closure ratio is one

My goal in writing this eooklet is to share with you some practi-

What is win / loss analysis?

Sales win / loss analysis is the process by which a company ob-

rochgauthier eooklet 2009. All rights reserved. Page 4

Quality sales win / loss analysis drives dramatic im-

Using some straightforward analyses, I have demonstrated to

rochgauthier eooklet 2009. All rights reserved. Page 5

Sales win / loss analysis also helps companies

Understand how to win against the competition

Understand customers decision criteria

Identify the typical roles involved in the customer decision

Increase sales productivity

Shorten the time required to make new sales hires productive

Quickly identify market trends and take appropriate action

Improve marketing messages and collateral

Help company representatives speak the same language

rochgauthier eooklet 2009. All rights reserved. Page 6

Find out what it is worth to your company

rochgauthier eooklet 2009. All rights reserved. Page 7

Typical order size ($)

Bids per year

Can your companys winning odds be improved by 5% within a

rochgauthier eooklet 2009. All rights reserved. Page 8

Inform sales & marketing management what it is

What is sales win / loss analysis?

Why should your company do anything in the first place?

What is being proposed? What is the process? What are the

rochgauthier eooklet 2009. All rights reserved. Page 9

Investments in sales win / loss programs should be relatively

Someone responsible for customer, competitive and market re-

rochgauthier eooklet 2009. All rights reserved. Page 10

Ask prospects permission to contact them following

Some prospects will need to be reassured that in the event of a

rochgauthier eooklet 2009. All rights reserved. Page 11

Eliminate the potential for biases

I know many companies that let sales people follow up directly

rochgauthier eooklet 2009. All rights reserved. Page 12

Conduct the sales win / loss interview soon after a de-

First of all, they will remember more and be in a better position

rochgauthier eooklet 2009. All rights reserved. Page 13

Secondly, the longer you wait to interview customers, the less

rochgauthier eooklet 2009. All rights reserved. Page 14

Manage expectations and keep the sales win / loss in-

rochgauthier eooklet 2009. All rights reserved. Page 15

Ask the right questions

For companies that leave it up to the sales person to conduct

Questions are powerful things they help guide thinking (yours

rochgauthier eooklet 2009. All rights reserved. Page 16

Generate lessons learned with key stakeholders

Members of the sales team involved in the pursuit: Give

The owner of your product or services development road-

rochgauthier eooklet 2009. All rights reserved. Page 17

A representative from marketing: In win situations, market-

rochgauthier eooklet 2009. All rights reserved. Page 18