Episode #356: Bill Storey

A win/loss analysis is a conversation with prospects or customers where you identify why you won—or lost—a particular opportunity. The ultimate goal of the conversation is to gather information to help you win more deals in the long run. How do you gather unbiased information? How can you leverage technology? What mistakes should you avoid? Bill Storey covers it all in this episode of Sales Reinvented.

Outline of This Episode

• [1:17] What is win/loss analysis and why is it important?
• [1:43] The insights you can gain from a win/loss analysis
• [3:55] Common mistakes salespeople make with win/loss analyses
• [5:17] How to make sure the feedback you gather is unbiased 
• [6:18] Best practices for conducting win/loss interviews 
• [8:15] The role of technology in win/loss analysis
• [10:12] Top three win/loss analysis dos and don’ts
• [12:07] Every win/loss analysis yields different results

The insights you can gain from a win/loss analysis

Why is it important to do a win/loss analysis? It’s an effective way to help your company win more business and retain more customers. Who did you lose to? Or who did you win over? Why did you win or lose? 

Over time, you can identify product limitations or strengths, pricing limitations or strengths, pros and cons of implementation, etc. This will help salespeople be more confident in their roles and more strategic with future opportunities.

Sometimes you need to know when to walk away from a deal that isn’t a good fit. You need to pre-qualify opportunities and know how to position your product/service against competitors. A win/loss analysis can give you information you can use to stand out against competitors.

You need to know your product insight and out and be able to listen to your prospects’ needs. So when they have a need, you know how your product/service can address that. You also want to address concerns that may come up about your company

Common mistakes salespeople make with win/loss analyses

A salesperson may conduct a detailed debrief on their own, which is perfectly fine. But they may sugarcoat and hold back answers if they were directly involved in the opportunity. Bill has a background doing win/loss analysis both in-house and from a third-party perspective. You’ll get more of an unbiased answer using a third party. 

You can’t worry about being embarrassed. A win/loss analysis isn’t a witch hunt. The end goal is to help salespeople win more business. As a third party, his goal is to uncover constructive criticism and positive feedback to help you win more business. 

Best practices for conducting win/loss interviews 

It’s best to conduct a win/loss analysis before the opportunity is stale. If you wait too long, people may not remember details. Or, they might be going through implementation through whomever they selected. Within a few weeks to months is ideal.

A pre-scheduled conversation with the decision-maker is the way to go. Ask both open-ended questions and ranking questions. Don’t assume you came in runner-up. Perhaps you were the 5th choice. Find out why four other vendors beat you, not just the winner. 

Make sure you apply previous responses to future questions. Capture whatever you can and use what they share as fuel for the rest of the conversation. 

The role of technology in win/loss analysis

Bill recommends using your CRM to track leads. You need the name and contact information for key people you want your third party to reach out to, along with data points you want to track (what the opportunity was worth, products proposed, etc.). Anything else will come out in the conversation.

Secondly, Bill recommends using Zoom or Teams to make the conversation easy. They also use Calendly to make it easy for the customer to pick a date and time that works best for them. Lastly, Bill recommends transcribing your conversation. This allows for a quick turnaround time for findings for your customers. 

Listen to hear Bill’s top win/loss analysis dos and don’ts!

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Learn More About Bill Storey

Are there any books pertaining to Win Loss Analysis that you recommend?

I have purchased and read numerous books pertaining to win/loss. I find each to contain good guidance and advice to consider when conducting your own internal win/loss program or working closely with an unbiased consultant to manage your program together. I suggest visiting Amazon or your local bookstore to preview a few and see which author’s style best aligns with your reading preferences. 

In the field of Win Loss Analysis – Who do you most admire and why?

Our customers! They understand the benefits of our win/loss expertise and take action to win more business and retain more customers.

What are your top ten questions to ask during a Win Loss Analysis – Your Golden Question Set? Each program is unique and customized but some minimally essential questions in a win/loss program should include, among others:

• What were the final vendor rankings in your evaluation process?
• Why did the winner win?
• Why did the others lose?
• What could each vendor have done differently to win?
• What did you learn from contacting the references we shared?
• Who were the key decision-makers in your evaluation process?
• When was the tipping point in your evaluation process?
• Is there anything else you would like to share?
• Can you suggest someone else who may be able to share their insights?

What are some of the most important metrics that companies should be tracking as part of their Win Loss Analysis process?Are there any metrics that companies should be cautious about when conducting Win Loss Analysis?

Each program is unique but we recommend considering tracking top winning and losing factors, net promoter score, win rates (overall, and vs all competitors), key product differentiators, among others. We recommend being cautious of automatically trusting ‘won over / lost to’ or ‘loss reason’ information in your CRM tool since these fields are usually inaccurate and cause misleading results.

How do you handle situations where a loss is attributed to factors outside of your control, such as budget constraints or unforeseen market changes?

If budget constraints is a recurring interview theme, we recommend to our customers to focus on pre-qualifying each prospect before fully engaging and using resources on an unqualified prospect. 

Unforseen market changes (COVID pandemic, stock market declines, etc.) are usually underlying win/loss factors. We typically see them as ‘no decision’ factors but our savvy customers know to not let these ‘excuses’ prevent them from moving forward toward a win/win conclusion with their prospects.

Can you share some examples of how Win Loss Analysis has helped companies identify gaps in their sales process or product offerings?

If your win/loss program asks the right questions, you will begin to learn where additional sales training may be helpful and/or what new bells and whistles may enhance your product / service to be more competitive in future opportunities.

Are there any aspects of your own Win Loss Analysis skills that you are working on improving at the moment?
I am a big believer in continuing education. To that end, I enjoy enrolling in local college courses, seminars and workshops to better understand organizational behaviors to help make our win/loss conversations as beneficial and actionable to our customers as possible. 

Hobbies, Interests?

Golf, all racquet sports, biking, gardening, family time.

How can our listeners contact with you?

Bill Storey, President and Sr. Consultant
11124 Kingston Pike, STE 119-352
Knoxville, TN 37934

bstorey(at)voc-research.com
(802) 985-0105