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Win-Loss Analysis

Win-Loss Analysis: Getting Customer Interviews Lined Up

by Sue Raisty-Egami on February 3, 2009

in Win-Loss Analysis

OK, you know you have to do Win-Loss Analysis. We talked about this earlier.  It’s one of the best ways to make sure you correctly understand the market and its problems — upon which you based, well, everything.

But unfortunately, it is very difficult to get these customers/former prospects lined up for Win-Loss interviews, and even rarer for the interviews to actually happen. Why? Because the Win-Loss interview usually benefits only the vendor and not the interviewee.

I’ve done many Win-Loss interviews, so here’s my advice for getting these interviews to happen.

1. Ask for Win-Loss interviews about 3-4 weeks after the deal closed or was definitively lost. You want them to clearly remember why they did or did not pick you, so don’t wait too long. But if you approach them too early,  lost prospects might decline from fear that you are really trying to re-open the sales process. Or you might unknowingly introduce doubt in the mind of a “won” customer who hasn’t yet paid for your product.

2. Make the following exceedingly clear in your request for an interview:

  1. The interview will last no longer than 20-30 minutes.
  2. You will not be attempting to re-open the sales process. You are not in Sales, you are in XXXX (i.e. Product Management, Marketing, Development, etc…).
  3. Your main motivation is to make sure you correctly understand the market, and can build the best product for that market.

3. Promise some degree of confidentiality. Obviously, you want to share the results of Win-Loss interviews internally and can’t provide complete confidentiality. But to get honest feedback about, for example, whether a personality conflict with your sales rep was a factor in a loss, you should give interviewees the option to request that certain remarks be “off the record.”  Explain that for “off the record” comments, you might include the remark in an aggregate report that covers many customers, but only if it can’t be traced back.

4. Offer something in return. All the above suggestions make it less painful for customers/lost prospects to participate in Win-Loss analysis interviews, but there’s still nothing it it for them.  By making the Win-Loss interview an exchange, even a very lopsided one, you significantly increase your chances of landing an interview.

For “won” customers, offer something that will help them become more successful with the product more quickly. This might be a white paper, access to a special web-based training session, or something similar.

For lost prospects, it’s tougher to offer them something without the appearance of impropriety — as if you’re trying to buy your company back into the game.  To avoid this, one possibility is hiring an outside consultant, and having him/her say “thank you” to interviewees with gifts of nominal value, such as low-dollar-value Starbucks or Amazon gift cards.  Another idea is to thank them by donating $100 to a a charity they choose or to a neutral charity like United Way or the Red Cross.

5. Be persistent but very nice. More than likely, you will have to work hard to set up a full schedule of Win-Loss interviews with customers and lost prospects.  If they don’t call you back, call again later  and send and follow up with an email.  I typically call five times before I give up.  Each time, be as nice as possible.  Remember, you are asking for a favor!

6. Be prepared for last minute cancellations and postponements. It’s going to happen. Your Win-Loss analysis is much more important to you than to your customers and lost prospects, so many will blow you off. Expect this, but immediately try to reschedule for a specific time and day.  If your target interviewee declines, ask if there is someone else at the company you might ask who has a deep understanding about the factors that drove the purchase decision.

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Who Should Do Win-Loss Analysis?

by Sue Raisty-Egami on December 26, 2008

in Win-Loss Analysis

At most companies, everyone agrees that Win-Loss Analysis is very important.

After all, without understanding why you are winning deals and why you are losing, how are you to know what you’re doing right and what you need to change?  Are your sales people blowing it by not properly qualifying the deal or understanding the prospect’s problems?  Is your product a true winner or is it deficient in critical ways?  Are your products priced competitively?  Are you lacking in other components of the big picture, such as professional services or customer support?

However, for some reason Win-Loss Analysis rarely gets done… especially when the economy turns, jobs get cut, and the surviving staff all end up with far too much work and very limited time.  The product managers and product marketing managers, who are traditionally responsible for Win-Loss, tend to be especially busy and overloaded.  Often those job functions are hit disproportionately hard compared to Sales or Engineering.

But there is hope. Win-Loss Analysis is a perfect job for an outside consultant or contractor, and can often be done extremely cost effectively while freeing product management and product marketing staff to focus on similarly high-value tasks that cannot easily be done by outsiders.

In fact, a consultant might get better and more accurate results that employees because the lost prospects are more likely to be honest with an outsider.

Why? Because:

  1. They don’t have to worry about offending the sales person, the product, or the vendor as a whole.
  2. They don’t have to worry about the consultant using the Win-Loss conversation to try re-opening the sales process – a decision prospects are often loathe to revisit after a protracted selection process.  This fear is a major reason lost prospects turn down requests for Win-Loss interviews.

A Win-Loss consulting engagement usually involves interviewing a majority of the customers and lost prospects from the last quarter or half.  The consultant has a short conversation with the internal account team for each customer or prospect to learn their take on why the customer was won or the prospect was lost.

Then, the consultant interviews each customer and prospect, delving into the areas most likely to provide actionable feedback.   Depending on the account, topics might include the business problem driving the product purchase, product fit (or lack of) with the problem, competition, account team dynamics, and the customer’s internal decision-making process.

If done right, these conversations — without fail — uncover distinct patterns across several customers.  Follow-on conversations — both internally and externally — dive into the causes and effects of these patterns.  Finally, the consultant works with internal employees to identify specific initiatives and actions to improve the situation.

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