Episode #355: Ellen Naylor

A win/loss analysis is simply having a conversation with your customers and prospects about their perception of your company versus the competition. You want to cover every part of the sales process. Did you address customer problems and goals with the proposed solution? Doing a win/loss analysis the right way will help you gain a competitive advantage. But what is the right way? Ellen Naylor—a pioneer in the field of competitive intelligence (CI) and Win/Loss analysis—shares her strategy in this episode of Sales Reinvented.

Common insights you can gain from a win/loss interview

Ellen believes that the most important thing to find out about pre-sales is how you did versus the competition. How does your product compare to the competition? How was the demo? Depending on your set of questions, you can learn how they make decisions. What sources influence them? What is wasting your time and money? 

Best practices for conducting win/loss analysis 

Ellen prefers to conduct win/loss interviews within three months of the deal. When you conduct it depends on the length of the sales cycle. If the sale and implementation were quick, do the analysis as soon as you can. If it’s a longer sales cycle, Ellen shoots for 3-6 months later. 

Ellen asks different questions with each customer. But she always starts by getting them to talk about themselves. It serves to warm up the conversation. Then Ellen will ask about the problem the solution has solved. What was their former product or practice? After that, it’s easy to segue into the buying experience. She always asks questions about decision-making and the role they played. 

Some of her clients want to know how the customer found them. She asks them for the top reasons why they made the decision they did and how the winners and losers fit. She’ll also ask about the proposal, the demo, clarity, responsiveness, etc. versus the competition. 

She asks specific questions about the product as well. Price usually comes up as one of the top factors for or against a choice. So Ellen will dig into the specifics of the price. She’ll ask if there’s anything else they could’ve done to win the business. What could they improve to meet their needs better? Would you make the same decision now that you’ve already made? 

Top three win/loss analysis dos and don’ts

Ellen compiled a great list of dos and don’ts when it comes to win/loss interviews:

• Make sure you’re connecting with the right person at the company you’re going to talk to. That person should know the answer to most of the questions. It’s also likely the key person in your CRM. 
• Make sure the person interviewing the customer is a skilled conversationalist that can build trust instantly and can listen without interrupting or judging. They also need business sense to assess what’s important to the customer.
• Organize a cross-functional team to act on the findings of the win/loss analysis. If you don’t do this, you’re wasting your time.
• Don’t have sales conduct win/loss interviews. They get basic facts around losses wrong consistently. 
• Don’t be so inflexible that you can’t go off-script with the questions. You have to figure out what you don’t know. Be open to the customer sharing their experience and avoid leading with your assumptions.
• Don’t talk too much. But talk enough to keep the conversation interesting for the customer. Figure out their communication style quickly and make it easy for them to converse with you. 

Use a win/loss analysis to inform change

One of Ellen Naylor’s clients refused to offer Azure as part of their lineup. At the time, Azure was the fastest-growing product in Microsoft’s portfolio. They were losing business left and right because of it. They knew this. 

Ellen couldn’t get someone to respond to a request for a win/loss analysis. When he finally responded, he stated that he only wanted to deal with one company to support his networking needs. Because her client wouldn’t offer Azure, they lost this prospect. 

But this was the straw that broke the Camel’s back. Her client finally chose to support and offer Azure. Sadly, it was too late to save the sale. A win/loss analysis can make a difference but only if companies choose to listen to the feedback and implement changes. 

Connect with Ellen Naylor

• Connect on LinkedIn
• The Business Intelligence Source

Connect With Paul Watts

• LinkedIn
• Twitter

Subscribe to SALES REINVENTED

Audio Production and Show notes by
PODCAST FAST TRACK
https://www.podcastfasttrack.com

Learn More About Ellen Naylor

Are there any books on or Win Loss Analysis that you recommend? I recommend the one I wrote in 2016, Win/Loss Analysis: How to Capture and Keep the Business You Want. 

What are your top ten questions to ask during a Win Loss Analysis – Your Golden Question Set? I don’t have a Golden Set. It depends on what the customer is looking to achieve through Win/Loss interviews. Below are some I usually include:

• Get them to talk about themselves. This warms up the conversation and gives me their perspective. 
• What problem was the solution meant to solve and what was your former product/practice?. 
• What was your initial impression of our company? Did it change during your buying process?
• What are the top reasons you selected the winning solution provider? Who else was considered?
• Why didn’t you select the others?
• What role did you play in decision-making, who else was involved, and who was the ultimate decision-maker? 
• Presales: Proposal, demo, clarity, responsiveness vs the competition
• Product or service: features, price, implementation, procurement including specific questions to probe depending on how they answer. 
• Price often comes up within the top reasons: ask for more specifics towards the end of the conversation.
• If lost, is there anything we could have done to win your business if they’re a direct person.

Less direct: If there is a next time, what could we improve to be stronger next time? (Meet your needs better)

What are some of the most important metrics that companies should be tracking as part of their Win Loss Analysis process? It really depends on what their goals are for doing Win/Loss. Obviously they want to improve win rates! But they may want to reduce costs in certain areas of their operation or product.

Are there any metrics that companies should be cautious about when conducting Win Loss Analysis? 

It’s mostly a qualitative analysis, so I wouldn’t be too focused on the numbers! For example, companies learn the likelihood of winning deals based on similar business/industry experiences, and also which deals to walk away from since their likelihood of winning isn’t worth the effort. 

How do you handle situations where a loss is attributed to factors outside of your control, such as budget constraints or unforeseen market changes? There is not much you can do about that except try to approach the customer when times are better, and qualify leads before investing too much time in pre-sales. 

Can you share some examples of how Win Loss Analysis has helped companies identify gaps in their sales process or product offerings? In one case, Sales was too aggressive and didn’t listen and serve the customer. In SaaS, many deals have been lost due to a poor demo. In another we found out customer service was so bad that word got out to prospects and the competition which reduced the company’s win rates. In another we learned that legal/procurement was very difficult to deal with compared to the competition. 

We uncover product deficiencies and sometimes customers suggest product features that a competitor offers or that they wish our company would develop that no one offers.

Are there any aspects of your own Win Loss Analysis skills that you are working on improving at the moment? I’ve been doing Win/Loss analysis for over 30 years and am interested in learning how to better use technology to automate aspects of analysis.

Hobbies, Interests? I have two brother cats who are my babies. I enjoy hiking, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, cooking, travel and am an avid reader. I am writing a second book with the working title of Loosen Their Lips. 

How can our listeners contact you? ellen@ellennaylor.com or 720-480-9499