We have been told from a young age that the fastest way forward is through learning from our own and others' mistakes. But how often do we actually and consciously do that? And how often and consciously do we analyze our business results? How often do we review with our sales teams why we did or didn't do well on any given job? How often do we look in our own CRM and go through closed business opportunities? I'll tell you...
Not as often as we should. If we ever analyze anything at all.
But that's a big mistake. Because regular detailed analysis doesn't just tell you how and where to improve your sales process, or which of your salespeople need to improve on what. In fact, in my experience, this analysis will provide you with important data for virtually every area of your business. It's not for nothing that I consistently say in my posts that sales is the periscope of your business.
Now, if you can't imagine what a detailed analysis would be good for, here are some practical examples
Improving conversion rates
If you understand what makes you win or lose business, you can improve on that issue or start to consciously focus on it and use it more. This will rapidly improve your conversion of potential into actual clients. Your salespeople won't be as stressed and will be happier.
Faster sales cycle
With detailed analytics, you will understand your customers' decision cycle much more deeply. Selling today isn't about pushing something on someone. Today's selling is about managing the expectations and decision cycle of the counterparty. But how do you manage something if you don't understand it? Detailed analysis will allow you to do just that. Both the understanding and the subsequent management. And thereby significantly accelerating your sales cycle. By tens of percent.
More accurate forecasting and planning
If you understand in detail what is happening in your sales team and how your customers behave, you can better calculate how your month/quarter/year is likely to turn out. This in turn allows you to better plan capacity not only in the store, but also in production (not only physical production, but also the capacity of the development teams, for example). It also allows you to more accurately set reward systems and targets for individual salespeople.
Better allocation of investments
You may be surprised, but WIN/LOSS analysis can also have positive impacts on your investment decisions. Should I develop this or that product? Do I need people here or there? Where should I pour my marketing money? All based not on feelings, but on clearly measurable numbers.
Clear feedback
As you can see, analyzing business cases won or lost can positively impact many other areas. However, so far we have touched on more tactical or short-term measures. However, if you perform detailed analysis on a regular basis, such as quarterly, you'll quickly get consistent data and trends that will also help you with the longer-term direction of your entire company. You will find out where to adjust or completely change your corporate (and subsequently business) strategy, which processes are holding back your acceleration, what knowledge and experience you need to add to your team in the long term, etc. And this in almost real time.
Where to start
In order for the positive impacts mentioned above to happen, you need to collect more data than you are currently used to. And, most importantly, subject it to a detailed and critical review, even by people outside the sales team. Because more eyes can see more. Because the obligatory "why did you win/lose" question asked during a sales meeting doesn't help much. We need to go deeper. Yes, it takes a lot of effort and time. But believe me, it's worth it.
Since this is a complex topic, I will be devoting several articles to it in turn. In today's one, I'll focus specifically on gathering the initial data on which we'll build. I will also briefly mention some areas of your business that can be quickly optimized with WIN/LOSS analysis.
How to get quality data for WIN / LOSS analysis
As we have already said, effective analysis of won and lost opportunities is not possible without good data. It's just that in many cases, the only data we have, if any, is that which your sales team adds to the system. This data is by nature very subjective, incomplete and containing a lot of assumptions like:
We're too expensive
They've chosen the competition
They didn't let me see the decision makers
They stay with the current solution
All of this in the event of a lost business opportunity. It's no different in the event of a win (not to mention that some CRMs don't even collect the reason for the win in their baseline) ...
They bought it because of me
We were the best
We gave the best price
The customer likes us
That it's vague and doesn't say anything? That there's nothing much to analyze about it? Exactly. And a lot of companies don't even collect that.
So, to analyze effectively, we need to start collecting more data consistently. Ideally, in a way that doesn't put wrinkles on marketers' foreheads and give them something to grumble about. The data we collect must quickly inform the marketers themselves, and they can improve their performance based on it. We all like success. Salespeople, especially acquisitive ones, doubly so. If they smell success, they'll fill in the data in your CRM, too. Tested firsthand.
So what to collect?
First, you need to detail your sales process. Both the activities that need to be performed during each phase and, most importantly, the clearly defined data that needs to be in the system before moving to the next phase. Even at the cost of having automation in place that simply won't let the salesperson into the next phase before completing critical information. This will allow you to guide traders through the process step by step and clearly track their progress. Collect data. Analyze. It's worth the grumbling of the merchants. Because it lets you know ...
where in the process you're most likely to lose an opportunity,
what each trader's success rate looks like,
where their weaknesses are and what they need to learn individually,
which competitors we're losing to most often,
what products, services, industries/regions we are strong/weak in,
which decision maker has most often issued us a stop sign and why
and much more
I recommend visualizing this data. There are tons of tools that are good for this, even Excel or CRM system alone will suffice in the beginning. In fact, it's quicker to find significant trends in graphical data compared to spreadsheets. Your decision-making will be faster. Especially if the data extraction and visualization is automated.
How to get the most out of WIN / LOSS analysis
When we think of win/loss analysis in companies, we shortcut to two areas - checking the performance of individual salespeople and setting their goals. It's good to remember that this is the reason why many salespeople fill out data in CRM with considerable reluctance. They feel that they are working against themselves. Hand on heart, they are often right.
That's why it's a good idea to set your sights elsewhere. On areas that will in turn help them develop and more easily achieve what we want them to do. After all, the data we collect allows us to take a detailed look at every aspect of the sales and marketing process and identify points of improvement.
Personally, I recommend taking a closer look at the following areas.
Review of business strategy and segment/area extraction
Check to see if your offering is aligned with the expectations and needs of your target audience. And do this by market segment or geographic region. More often than we like it happens that what is required in Prague is not available in Ostrava. What is good for the construction industry does not pass in accounting firms. I deliberately choose extremes. They are obvious to everyone. In reality, the differences are much more subtle, but the results can be just as unsatisfactory. Look closely at the data and try to track what you can. And focus in the first phase on expanding those who are already buying. The others don't want competition for now. Don't sweat the T-shirts unnecessarily.
Profile of the ideal customer
Related to the above point is this one. Is our customer avatar as we got it from our marketing still valid? Does it still have the same pains? Has the situation changed? Are we still qualifying our opportunities correctly and not wasting time somewhere? These are all questions that we usually seek answers to only when things stop going well.
Sales execution
During onboarding, team building and other opportunities, we are constantly pushing what we want to salespeople. How they should proceed in the sales process. But are we checking in other ways than during one-on-one conversations? Do we trust the data more than our own feelings? In my experience, no. Trust that a good salesperson will appreciate data-driven feedback that will contribute to their improvement.
The business process
The times are constantly changing rapidly and if we rigidly insist on a business process that no longer matches the counterparty's buying process, we will only achieve two things - a rapid decline in success rates and pissing off the sales team by requiring things that only burden them. So it's a good idea to constantly check, based on WIN/LOSS analysis, where the biggest obstacles are that we are losing opportunities to. Discuss regularly with the sales team what we can do to prevent this from occurring. Alternatively, to check that the process is actually being followed.
Personalise sales training
We all know the drill. It doesn't work, so management orders sales training. For everyone, without distinction. Nobody's having fun. Not the sales team, not the trainers. The weekend is lost, so we need to at least drink it in. But this is easily avoided with WIN/LOSS analysis. With data, we know exactly who needs to improve where. The result is faster remediation, more engaged salespeople with tailored training that also costs significantly less money. And if training isn't the right fit, what about giving the team or individual salespeople a coach or mentor?
That's certainly not all. I've picked out just a few things that have an impact on the business. But you can also use WIN/LOSS analysis to improve your product and service development, better upselling or cross-selling, better "farming", the aforementioned production planning, and so on. Let us know where you see the benefits.
If you're interested in the above ideas, great. If you feel like doing something about it, even better. And if you want to discuss it directly with me, check my calendar and book a consultation. We'll discuss the above directly using your example.
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