An effective win/loss analysis is very beneficial to any business. Some teams consider doing the analysis a lot of work and time-consuming. It doesn’t have to be. A smart and customizable CRM, which helps generate the data you need to perform the analysis, can make the task very manageable.
Besides, the time and resources you will use to conduct a win/loss analysis will definitely pay off. The data you will gather is extremely valuable and will provide actionable insights.
A win/loss analysis will help establish the answers to these critical questions:
- What factors contribute to your sales team’s wins?
- What factors contribute to your sales team’s losses?
Who Benefits from a Sales Win/Loss Analysis?
Simply put, the whole organization benefits from a win/loss analysis.
- Sales Team: The sales team stands to benefit the most. The analysis helps identify best practices that can be replicated. Conversely, it also helps uncover the weak points that need to be addressed. The analysis creates opportunities for sales reps to learn. They can re-strategize, fine-tune their processes, and improve on their performance. Managers can also identify what kind of further training the sales reps need.
- Marketing Team: Marketing and/or sales enablement teams can also gather insight from win/loss analyses. They can determine which campaigns, content, and other sales enablement tools were most effective. They can rework those that did not translate well. They will also know how to “react” to competition. The Competitive Win Rate, for example, computes for your team's success rate versus competition. If the losses are big, Marketing should strategize on how to counter these competitive claims and strong points.
- Product Team: Product can also get information for product development. Computing Win Rate by Product helps identify which products are moving, and which need more pushing. This data can provide insight on how they can improve upon the slow-moving products—based on the success of the fast-moving ones.
- Customer Service: Sometimes a win happens simply because of the exemplary customer service. But the opposite is also true: a loss happens because of poor customer service. Customer service is critical in sales, and this is why the learning from the win/loss analysis is beneficial to them too. Qualitative data from the win/loss analysis is particularly helpful. In your interviews with customers and lost prospects, make sure to include questions specific to customer service.
- Business Development: Business development is focused on growing the business. It must know what factors are contributing to the organization's wins. It also needs to know the factors preventing the organization from realizing its sales and business goals.
- Human Resources: Even Human Resources can gather insight from your win/loss analysis. Computing for your Win Rate by Sales Segment is particularly useful to them. It compares success rates of different sales teams within your organization. It can help Human Resources officers determine which sales teams or reps need more coaching and training.
How to Make the Most of Your Win/Loss Analysis
But how can these teams begin benefiting from your win/loss analysis? Sharing data from your win/loss analysis must go through a proper process.
- Share the information with the entire team. Sales is not just the job of the sales team. Any sales organization knows that each department contributes to sales success. This is why the win/loss analysis should be shared with all key departments across the organization.
- Proper and quick dissemination is key. Share the information gathered from the win/loss analysis quickly, in real time if possible. And make sure you use the proper tools in relaying the findings.
- Share the actionable insights from the analysis. It’s not enough that you give the data or the results generated from the analysis. The report should come with concrete and specific plans of actions for sales managers, supervisors, and reps to follow. The loss factors should be addressed immediately.
- Make sure the actionable insights are implemented. All future campaigns, presentations, content, and other sales enablement tools must be improved. They must now align with the findings and learning from the win/loss analysis.
- Implement the actionable insights within the sales pipeline too. The sales pipeline should always stay healthy and thriving. The findings from a win/loss analysis can help guarantee this. You can identify and address bottlenecks, churn rates, and other critical issues.
There is nothing to lose and everything to gain from a win/loss analysis. Sales organizations must make it a priority and conduct one every quarter or so. A CRM like Lucrativ makes custom reporting and data gathering and analysis a breeze. This will definitely make the process much easier.
Photos from Pexels
