Win/Loss Analysis
The Core of Win/Loss Analysis
At its core, the premise of win/loss analysis is simple. Think of it like your batting average. Each business has their own batting average, but yours might look like:
- Relative to your leads, how many new clients do you land?
- For every 10 proposals, how many do you win?
- Of all your clients, how many repeat?
The goal of win/loss analysis is discovering what it will take to improve your batting average; what will lead to more wins resulting in more closed deals.
The key drivers of winning new business
The hard truth is that until you ask prospective customers direct questions seeking honest feedback, you won’t know the real reasons why you won or lost a recent deal.
You can strategize all you want, but if the data you’re using to make decisions is faulty, so is your strategy.
After years of asking our clients’ customers, we can confidently state that winning a piece of business is usually driven by three to four factors.
Yes, price often comes into play as one of these factors, but rarely is it the deciding factor.
Instead, your customers’ perception of your product or service is usually a primary factor.
Beyond price and product, often intangibles come into play. Such things as the rapport built by the sales rep, the perception of your team, or your responsiveness to various requests.
The key is to know how you measure up; where you’re strong and where you fall short. Moreover, the key is to understand how you compare to your competitors. That’s the tricky part to discover, unless you’re using a third party that can get you real responses.
The hard truth is that until you ask prospective customers direct questions seeking honest feedback, you won’t know the real reasons why you won or lost a recent deal.
Crafting your win/loss analysis
One of the benefits of our customer research is uncovering the nuances of your customers’ decisions — aka their real drivers.
Our goal is to ask probing questions that seek to get to the heart of their decision making. Often, these interviews uncover sobering revelations, ones that the supplier would never hear if they asked the questions themselves.
Our research will discover not only how you measure up, but also how your competitors are perceived. We’ll aim to discover what they do differently, that is, why they have the edge.
Our objective is to provide actionable insights of what’s working and what’s not to propel your business forward. Armed with this information — you’re ready to take the steps needed to win more and lose less.
Raising your batting average with win/loss research
Care to learn more? We’re here to help you take the first steps building insights from your win/loss research. Get in touch to start the conversation.
