At Egress, we see a disturbing trend -C-Suite, Sales, and Product Management are diving deep on the ‘Loss’ analysis and ignoring the ‘Wins’.
After all, the ‘Wins’ are already won – right?
Wrong!
At Egress, we believe the importance lies in gaining the Buyer’s Insight rather than the Seller’s mistakes
Not every sales win is good for the company and with proper analysis, a ‘Win’ can be just as informative if not more informative than a ‘Loss’ analysis.
In a recent Win/Loss Analysis Assessment, we identified that the top sales performers were outpacing everyone else on a number of deals and the total revenue generated but tended to only sell the lowest margin products.
In the same assessment, the deals that represented the largest number of wins across the entire sales team and produced the highest contract value and margin fell into three distinct customer segments. The client was focusing its marketing broadly across all customer segments and now realized they had an opportunity to refocus their efforts and dominate those 3 segments. By doing this, sales would spend less time and effort on lower percentage opportunities.
From some simple calculations, it is anticipated the client’s Win/Loss percentage will improve from 43% ‘Win’ rate to a 62% ‘Win’ rate within 2 quarters. All this because we examined the ‘Wins’ and helped them refocus their efforts.
Don’t get us wrong, there is plenty to learn from the “Loss Analysis” as well. But the Berenstain Bears mentality of showing us ‘what not to do’ doesn’t teach us the ‘how to do things the right way’ (even if some of our mistakes are pretty funny).
Read Our Blog
The ABCs of Win-Loss Analysis
Perhaps the problem comes from the name itself… “Win/Loss”. It’s naturally polarizing and figuring out what not to do is often easier than figuring out what to do, despite not having as much impact on a deal. At Egress Solutions, we believe that the importance lies in gaining the Buyer’s Insight rather than the Seller’s mistakes. This is one of the reasons this type of analysis should not be done by the Sales team. Even the most honest attempt from the sales team is biased. The Product Management team should own this effort and it isn’t a one and done. We recommend establishing a baseline and repeating the effort quarterly.
A true Buyer’s Insight Assessment can increase your win rate, making each at bat more productive for your team. At Egress Solutions, we help build Buyer’s Insight programs for our clients, so they can accelerate growth. Contact us today for more information about our Buyer Insight Assessment offering.
