Finding Out Why You Lost

Nobody likes losing a deal, but after we do, most of us would like to know why. And most prospects don’t want to tell you.

We want to shore up weaknesses in our offer or learn from our mistakes. They don’t want you trying to upend their decision or don’t feel comfortable relaying the truth because they’re not sure how you’ll react.

The Buyer’s Perspective

Let’s look at this more closely from the buyer’s perspective.

If they tell you the real reasons why you lost, many prospects are afraid you’ll use that information against You’ll try to change their mind or having failed that, try to go around them and appeal to someone higher in the organization. Not only can it make them look bad, it can create more work for them. They already have enough on their plate, tasks that got deferred during the project evaluation, with much more coming as they get ready to implement.

Or, they may have grown to like you during the sales process and don’t want to hurt your feelings, especially if another stakeholder in their organization was turned off by you or unimpressed with what you said or did. It’s a small world and they may run into you again as you or they work for another company in the industry. Who needs the drama?

The essence of the problem is a fundamental lack of trust. The risk in trusting you with “why you lost” information is just too high.

So, what can you do?

If you want to find out the real reasons you lost the deal you have two basic strategies. One you execute early in the process and the second comes at the end. Know going in that neither one will get you 90% success. But, they will increase your odds, so they’re worth a try.

(1.) Feedback as part of the process – As a part of discovery, once we establish there’s a deal worth working on, we usually try to lay out the steps they’ll go through to make a decision. And, if we’ve done a good job up to that point, we’ll usually be able to influence that process.

This is the time to add a step. There will be a value exchange throughout this process. You’d like their agreement that you will be able to have a 15-minute telephone conversation after they make their decision to find out why they made the selection they did. Whether they select you or not. The purpose for the feedback, you’ll explain, is continuous improvement, not some counterstrategy if they decide to go with your competitor.

If you do it right, at this early stage there’s less perceived risk for them to say yes. It’s not immediate. It’s sometime in the future. And you’re a viable alternative.

The hardest part for you will be within your own company. Chances are someone higher up will want you to push to reopen the door once told that your solution lost. Which means you (and your company) lose all credibility. It’s a lot easier if your group decides what to do with all deals ahead of time.

(2.) Feedback to a third party – After you find out that you lost, you ask them if they’d be willing to participate in a 15-minute phone call with a third-party organization that you guys hire. Like the first strategy, you have to emphasize that the purpose of the call is feedback for continuous improvement and not to try to change their mind.

As you can see, in both strategies, your focus is on feedback and easing their concern about upending their decision.

Although the odds of every prospect providing you useful feedback are not high, they do improve if you do one thing throughout the sales process. Earn their trust. Follow through on promises. Meet every commitment. Come in prepared and provide value. In other words, good selling!

If you DO get the interview

Let’s end with what you should do if that feedback interview is agreed to. How do you make sure you get true feedback, stuff you can learn from? Make sure it’s a one-on-one discussion, not a survey. The key to success is the interviewer’s ability to drill down (much like discovery).

“We liked the other guys better” or “Price” aren’t the kind of answers that will help you and what you’re likely to get from a survey or inexperienced interviewer. The interviewer has to ask probing questions like, “What specifically about the other guys did you like better? Can you give me an example?” Or, “Besides price, what else made you select them?”

Hope this helps.

Good luck and have a great week!

Bob 

P.S. June is usually a busy month, and as we head into the second half of the year, let me know if there’s anything you’d like help with to finish the year strong. [email protected].