Win / Loss Reviews

An effective framework for strengthening competitiveness by learning from past deals and applying insights derived from them.

Every sales opportunity, whether won or lost, has useful nuggets of information that can be harvested and used to improve performance. When those pieces of information are aggregated, analyzed and made available for all to use, the organization’s competitive position is greatly enhanced.

• Reveals how to turn field sales teams, a mostly underutilized resource, into net producers of competitive intelligence
• Exposes new and unconventional approaches for gathering and democratizing sales insights for a broad stakeholder audience
• Presents a proven knowledge sharing model that is being adopted by major companies worldwide

Win/Loss Reviews shows how every company can improve top and bottom line performance by systematically capturing the key insights from deals that have been won, lost or delayed. While the book talks to decision makers and business strategists, the principles and disciplines explored are aimed at bridging the flow of competitive intelligence between sales and marketing, simultaneously providing insights and line-of-site to the dynamics affecting business performance.

Preface xiii

Acknowledgments xix

CHAPTER 1: Introduction 1

Trusting Today’s Seller 5

Listen to the Customer, Too 7

Driving Scale and Accuracy 8

A New Approach 9

Summary 16

Notes 17

CHAPTER 2: Win/Loss Reviews and Business Intelligence 19

A New Knowledge Model 22

BI Governance 25

Providers of Self-Service BI 26

Pocket BI: Intelligence to Go 27

From BI to Competitive Intelligence 28

Summary 30

Notes 31

CHAPTER 3: Why Do We Win or Lose? 33

Factors Contributing to Wins and Losses 34

Is a Win Always a Win? 37

Narratives Provide Additional Context 38

Factor Weighting 39

Do We Learn More from Wins or Losses? 40

Disengaged Opportunities: What’s the Real Story? 41

Delayed Deals Benefit from Win/Loss Reviews 43

Summary 46

Note 46

CHAPTER 4: Capturing the Data 47

Unlocking Tacit Knowledge 48

Opportunity Details 50

Outcome Factors 51

The Narrative 59

Accommodating Multiple Languages 62

Summary 62

Note 63

CHAPTER 5: Surfacing the Insights 65

Tactical Insights 67

Strategic Insights 73

Summarizing the Information 75

Accountability for Surfacing Insights 77

Trends and Statistical Evidence 80

Summary 83

Note 84

CHAPTER 6: Beyond Competitive Insights 85

Award Programs 88

Recognition 89

Marketing Case Studies 91

Summary 93

CHAPTER 7: Measuring Process and Outcome Performance 95

Scale Drives Quantity 96

Quality Drives Value 99

Value, Expectations, and Policy 100

Setting Expectations 103

Policy Considerations 104

Measuring Outcome Performance 105

Summary 109

CHAPTER 8: Stakeholder and Cultural Considerations 111

Account Manager 113

Sales Manager 115

Product Manager 116

Marketing Manager 118

Corporate Leadership 119

An Emerging Career Skill and Role Requirement 120

Corporate and Leadership Culture 122

Culture and Social Networks 124

Social Media Paradigms 126

Summary 128

Notes 129

CHAPTER 9: Implementing a Win/Loss Review Program 131

Establishing Business Goals and Objectives 132

Planning Phase 133

Elicitation, Documentation, and Review Phase 134

Gathering Insights from Current Tools, Processes, and Documents 140

In-Person/Group Input 142

Concerns and Issues 143

Consolidation and Publication of Results 144

Managing Phase 145

Design, Develop, Implement, and Support 145

Training and Guidance 148

Summary 151

Note 151

CONCLUSION: A Look Forward 153

APPENDIX A: Process Improvement: A Case Study 157

Background 158

Problem Statement 159

Hypothesis 159

Approach 160

Define Phase 161

Voice of the Customer 161

Stakeholder Analysis 164

Measure Phase 168

Analyze Phase 169

Improve Phase 170

Control Phase 173

Contents xi

Results 174

Note 176

APPENDIX B: From the Blogosphere 177

On Whether Sales Teams or Customer Interviews Provide Most Insights 178

Effect of Social Networking on Win/Loss Reviews 179

What Win/Loss Reviews May Reveal Beyond Pricing Issues 180

Win/Loss Review Process Improvement 181

APPENDIX C: Software and Services for Win/Loss Review 183

Software Sloution 183

Partner Profiles 184

Glossary 187

About the Author 195

Index 197

"An effective framework for strengthening competitiveness by learning from past deals and applying insights derived from them." (Ad-Hoc-News, November, 2011)

RICK MARCET is the program director for the World Class Selling initiative at Microsoft. He is responsible for leading the drive to increase the sales capabilities of field sales organizations through both the art and the science of selling, across all customer segments. He accomplishes this through the effective use of inquiry-led sales techniques and business and competitive intelligence to drive sustained sales growth and achieve consistently high customer satisfaction.

In Win/Loss Reviews, Rick Marcet reveals a new knowledge model that taps into one of the most underutilized sources of business and competitive intelligence—your sales staff. But this book isn't about Sales 101. It deals with empowering and encouraging your sales force to extract the most they can from their sales opportunity outcomes—whether won or lost—to cull valuable strategies, insights, and opportunities from every sale, and capitalize on every opportunity, every conversation, every call. It's about leveraging the competitive intelligence right under your sales force's nose—what customers are saying about their needs, which tactics the competition is using, and how your products could more effectively support the customer's strategic vision.

Cutting through the biases that lead you to believe that you win because of great sales skills or lose deals because of price, Marcet reveals the factors that can truly affect the outcomes of deals and offers a systematic and institutionalized way of capturing and sharing real-time information that complements corporate marketing research studies, competitive intelligence reports, and customer surveys.

Want to protect your company from competitive threats encroaching in all areas of your business? Through quickly and effectively capturing competitive win and loss information from the sales force at the front lines with the clearest view of the action, your company will achieve "crowd wisdom"—a grassroots, bottom-up approach of gathering micro-intelligence to harness the most accurate, relevant, and practical insights to benefit your company's stakeholders.

Win/Loss Reviews is built around practical foundations and real-world examples, with insight into how technology and social media are enabling intelligence to proliferate and be accessed where and when it is needed. Its hard-won wisdom lets you in on field-tested, practical information you can use now to make every sales call—even the not-so-great ones—a true win.

WIN/LOSS REVIEWS A NEW KNOWLEDGE MODEL FOR COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE

In Win/Loss Reviews, Rick Marcet reveals a new knowledge model that taps into one of the most underutilized sources of business and competitive intelligence—your sales staff. But this book isn't about Sales 101. It deals with empowering and encouraging your sales force to extract the most they can from their sales opportunity outcomes—whether won or lost—to cull valuable strategies, insights, and opportunities from every sale, and capitalize on every opportunity, every conversation, every call. It's about leveraging the competitive intelligence right under your sales force's nose—what customers are saying about their needs, which tactics the competition is using, and how your products could more effectively support the customer's strategic vision.

Cutting through the biases that lead you to believe that you win because of great sales skills or lose deals because of price, Marcet reveals the factors that can truly affect the outcomes of deals and offers a systematic and institutionalized way of capturing and sharing real-time information that complements corporate marketing research studies, competitive intelligence reports, and customer surveys.

Want to protect your company from competitive threats encroaching in all areas of your business? Through quickly and effectively capturing competitive win and loss information from the sales force at the front lines with the clearest view of the action, your company will achieve "crowd wisdom"—a grassroots, bottom-up approach of gathering micro-intelligence to harness the most accurate, relevant, and practical insights to benefit your company's stakeholders.

Win/Loss Reviews is built around practical foundations and real-world examples, with insight into how technology and social media are enabling intelligence to proliferate and be accessed where and when it is needed. Its hard-won wisdom lets you in on field-tested, practical information you can use now to make every sales call—even the not-so-great ones—a true win.