“You should also conduct a Closed Lost review and take a look back at all of the deals that you lost.” – Scott Ingram in today’s Tip 683
How many did you lose to no decision? How many did you lose to a competitor?
Join the conversation below and send me an email or shoot me a note on LinkedIn!
[email protected]
Scott Ingram on LinkedIn
681: Closed Won Review
Submit a Sales Tip
Have feedback? Want to share a sales tip? Call or text the Sales Success Hotline: 512-777-1442 or Email: [email protected]
Transcript
Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. A couple of days ago in tip 681, I suggested that you review all of your Closed Won opportunities from the year to identify trends in both how you sourced winning deals, as well as what you did well to win. Today I’m going to suggest the opposite. You should also conduct a Closed Lost review and take a look back at all of the deals that you lost. I know this probably won’t be fun as you get to recall all of your disappointments through the year, but again you want to look for the trends. Again, consider the source. Did a bunch of your losing deals come from a bad source? It may make sense to look harder at potential opportunities coming from that particular source in the future.
Then look for the reasons why you lost. How many did you lose to no decision? How many did you lose to a competitor? Be honest with yourself and consider deals that you lost because of something that you did or didn’t do in your process. Then keep digging and looking for those trends. What are the commonalities in the deals that you lost?
You’re really looking for two primary things here. The first is areas that you can improve. Are there commonalities that are showing up that you can fix yourself. Something in your process or your approach. You might also identify issues that you can bring to your product team or other leaders in your organization because the issues are fixable, but maybe just not by you.
The second thing you’re looking for is the things that signal that you’re likely to lose. The opportunity in understanding these signs is that you can work to lose faster in the future. You might even incorporate some new questions into your qualifying process to identify these likely losers and get out faster because the time you spend on a deal you’re ultimately going to lose is time that you could have spent prospecting and finding an opportunity you’re more likely to win, or investing time in a bigger deal or an edge case deal that you can win with a little bit more effort and attention.
Remember, first place goes to the seller who wins the deal, but if there is such a thing as second place, that goes to the seller who spent the least amount of time on that lost opportunity.
Hope that helps. Again, I’d love to hear what you uncover through this process. Send me an email or shoot me a note on LinkedIn.
Then, be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!