The “Loss Review” got lost…
by Todd Youngblood
Check your calendar. When did you last participate in a loss review? You know how effective (and important) it is to learn from your own mistakes, right?
Virtually every sales manager I talk to agrees that conducting a Loss Review after a significant “non-win” is a good idea. The logic is simple. By doing so immediately following the prospect’s final, “No,” the details of the whole sales effort are still fresh in the minds of all involved. Passion is still high and the “agony of defeat” still stings. In other words, it’s the perfect setup for honing sales strategy and tactics aimed at shortening sell cycles and increasing the close rate.
Ah, but it’s so easy to delay. “She’s one of our best reps, no need to drag her through all that right now.” “He’s one of our weakest reps, what could we learn anyway?” “We had a rep, a consultant, a product manager, a tech support manager and two of our best IT professionals assigned to that opportunity. We can’t afford to drag them all back together.” Pretty soon all parties have moved on to other priorities and really are too busy to rehash old news. The learning opportunity is gone.
But… I know that you are the exception. You get the entire team that lost the deal together within 30 days. A knowledgeable person or two not connected with the sales effort is invited. Everyone knows it’s not a witch hunt, but a concerted focus on Continuous Improvement & Defect Prevention. Your lead rep prepares an agenda something like this:
- Prospect & Opportunity Background
- Sales Strategy
- Timeline of Key Events
- What worked?
- What didn’t work?
- What was missing?
- What was unnecessary?
- Key Reason(s) For Loss
- Lessons Learned
You document the key points in the discussion and share it with the rest of your sales force. Finally, you keep track of the mistakes to avoid repeating them.
So how long has it been since you participated in a Loss Review?
Think about it…
