Win-loss analysis

A record of why your deals are actually won and lost, built from talking to the buyers who made the decision.

Inside a win-loss study

Win-loss analysis asks the people on the other side of a deal why it went the way it did, and sets their answers against what your own team believed was happening. The work usually touches the areas below.

Choosing the deals: Picking a mix of wins and losses wide enough to show a pattern, so one loud account does not stand for the rest.
Reaching the buyer: Getting to the person who actually decided, which is often not the one the sales notes name.
The interview itself: A conversation held by someone with no quota riding on the answer, so the buyer speaks more freely.
Price and value: Finding out where your price sat against the alternatives and whether it was the reason given or the reason meant.
The competitor's story: What the winning vendor said and did that the buyer found more convincing than your account.
The gap in the record: Setting the buyer's version against what your own team logged, and reporting where the two part company.
Reporting to the board: A written account of why deals went the way they did, with how firm each finding is.

Why the sales team's own account falls short

When a deal is lost, the reason that reaches the board is usually the one the salesperson wrote in the system, and that reason is often price. Price is easy to record and it carries no blame. The buyer, asked directly by someone with nothing at stake, frequently gives a different account, such as a missing feature or doubts about whether the company would still be around in two years.

This is why the interviews are run by someone outside the sales team. A buyer will not tell the person who just lost the deal that their demo was confusing or that they never trusted the pricing. Asked by an outside party, after the decision is made and nothing can be sold to them, the same buyer tends to be candid. Winners are worth asking too, because the reasons a company wins are often invisible to it, and copying the wrong strength wastes effort.

The finding that matters most is where the buyer and your own record disagree. A run of losses logged as price, where buyers describe a product gap, points the board at a discount when the problem lies elsewhere. Amos works out which deals to cover and then holds the interviews himself, reporting what buyers said together with how sure he is of each conclusion. Where the deals are too few to tell a pattern from noise, the report says so.

How to start

The brief

List the deals you want covered, won and lost, with a buyer contact for each. Say what your team believes decided them.

Independent interviews

The interviews are held by someone outside your sales team, and buyers are contacted only with your agreement.

Who does the work

Amos Weiskopf has worked with investment firms such as OurCrowd and Rocket Youth, where a company's sales record is judged from the outside.

Questions buyers ask

What is win-loss analysis?

It is a study of why your deals are won and lost, built from interviews with the buyers who made the decision. The interviews are run by someone outside your sales team, so the board hears the real reasons behind each outcome.

Why not have the sales team do the interviews?

A buyer rarely tells the person who just lost the deal that the product fell short or the pricing felt wrong. Asked by an outside party after the decision is settled, the same buyer tends to speak plainly, which is the point of running the interviews from outside.

How is it different from a customer satisfaction survey?

A satisfaction survey asks existing customers how they feel about a product they already bought. Win-loss analysis asks buyers, including the ones who chose a competitor, why they decided the way they did, which is a different question put to different people.

Do you interview buyers who chose a competitor?

Yes. The losses often teach more than the wins, because a buyer who went elsewhere can name what tipped the decision.

How much does win-loss analysis cost?

That depends mostly on the number of deals covered. The price is agreed after the brief.

How many deals do you need to find a pattern?

It depends on how varied your deals are and how clear the reasons turn out to be. Where the number covered is too small to separate a real pattern from chance, the report states that plainly.

Engagements by written brief.

Work begins from a documented problem statement, not a sales call.

Write a brief Or book a meeting