Why Loss Reviews Don't Work and Win Reviews Do
In any sales process the opinion of the client can provide invaluable feedback to improve future performance.
However, many organisations while insisting on conducting a loss review fail to consistently undertake win reviews.
It is easy to understand why, after losing an expensive and time consuming pre-sales process organisations want to understand where they went wrong and ensure similar mistakes don't occur in the future.
Although a well conducted loss review can do many things like clear the air with a customer or re-establish a personal relationship, they rarely deliver the most important element - truth.
Clients will tell you how close you came, how difficult the decision was but ultimately they are unlikely to tell you the real reasons behind their decision. They've already been the "bad guy" they need to re-balance the ledger by telling you nice things. The irony being that the most valuable thing they could tell you would be the cold hard facts.
The win review on the other hand is a very different beast.
In a win review the client has rewarded you with their business, and they are normally only too willing to tell you how close they came to awarding the business to another, again to re-balance the relationship.
There are many reasons why win reviews are much rarer than loss reviews. Firstly you are normally so caught up in delivering the business that neither party sees a win review as a high priority.
Sales people will often feel that the win itself is sufficient feedback that their process "worked". Nobody likes changing the positive mood of a recent win and focusing the things in the sales process that didn't go so well.
These are the factors that when addressed successfully make a win review the ultimate sales improvement process.
5 Tips for a Successful Win Review
1. Do it quickly. As soon as possible following the award of the business, schedule the win review. At this stage (like a police investigation) all the facts and details are fresh in the client's mind. These details quickly get replaced by impressions and vague recollections. What the client thinks is important 2 months later may not be the real opportunity to learn from the process.
2. Don't let people who were involved in the sales process do the review. For consistency and transparency it is vital that the client isn't asked to critique a process with the person or persons responsible. However disciplined the individuals it is almost impossible to remain detached when someone is telling you how you could have done something better.
3. Use an independent facilitator. A third party facilitator almost always helps both parties to examine an issue from all sides. Facilitated discussions can deliver a more complete and non-judgemental exploration of the issues especially when the sales process was long, involved and expensive.
4. Focus your questions on the 5Ws and 1H. A strong, consistent process will allow you to build a picture of your sales process across a variety of opportunities.
5. Listen. Voice of the customer should, where possible be captured verbatim. Don't try to analyse or synthesize the feedback in the review itself. Take away all the data and have a separate session which looks at the possible lessons to be learned from the process.
Document the results, formally thank the client and roll the results back into the sales and delivery process.
Win reviews when conducted properly are one of the most valuable research tools any organisation can employ.
However, many organisations while insisting on conducting a loss review fail to consistently undertake win reviews.
It is easy to understand why, after losing an expensive and time consuming pre-sales process organisations want to understand where they went wrong and ensure similar mistakes don't occur in the future.
Although a well conducted loss review can do many things like clear the air with a customer or re-establish a personal relationship, they rarely deliver the most important element - truth.
Clients will tell you how close you came, how difficult the decision was but ultimately they are unlikely to tell you the real reasons behind their decision. They've already been the "bad guy" they need to re-balance the ledger by telling you nice things. The irony being that the most valuable thing they could tell you would be the cold hard facts.
The win review on the other hand is a very different beast.
In a win review the client has rewarded you with their business, and they are normally only too willing to tell you how close they came to awarding the business to another, again to re-balance the relationship.
There are many reasons why win reviews are much rarer than loss reviews. Firstly you are normally so caught up in delivering the business that neither party sees a win review as a high priority.
Sales people will often feel that the win itself is sufficient feedback that their process "worked". Nobody likes changing the positive mood of a recent win and focusing the things in the sales process that didn't go so well.
These are the factors that when addressed successfully make a win review the ultimate sales improvement process.
5 Tips for a Successful Win Review
1. Do it quickly. As soon as possible following the award of the business, schedule the win review. At this stage (like a police investigation) all the facts and details are fresh in the client's mind. These details quickly get replaced by impressions and vague recollections. What the client thinks is important 2 months later may not be the real opportunity to learn from the process.
2. Don't let people who were involved in the sales process do the review. For consistency and transparency it is vital that the client isn't asked to critique a process with the person or persons responsible. However disciplined the individuals it is almost impossible to remain detached when someone is telling you how you could have done something better.
3. Use an independent facilitator. A third party facilitator almost always helps both parties to examine an issue from all sides. Facilitated discussions can deliver a more complete and non-judgemental exploration of the issues especially when the sales process was long, involved and expensive.
4. Focus your questions on the 5Ws and 1H. A strong, consistent process will allow you to build a picture of your sales process across a variety of opportunities.
5. Listen. Voice of the customer should, where possible be captured verbatim. Don't try to analyse or synthesize the feedback in the review itself. Take away all the data and have a separate session which looks at the possible lessons to be learned from the process.
Document the results, formally thank the client and roll the results back into the sales and delivery process.
Win reviews when conducted properly are one of the most valuable research tools any organisation can employ.