Comments on: Win/Loss? Anyone?

By: Happy (belated) birthday to us (again)! « On Product Management

Happy (belated) birthday to us (again)! « On Product Management — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 02:25:31 +0000

[...] Win/Loss Anyone? [...]

By: How to get a lost account to speak with you « On Product Management

How to get a lost account to speak with you « On Product Management — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 03:51:00 +0000

[...] Win/Loss? Anyone? Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Who is doing Win/Loss?CALL IT A WIN, OR CALL IT A LOSSThe first time … calling himRobin Doesn’t Call Batman Anymore [...]

By: saeed

saeed — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 17:36:15 +0000

Agree with Stewart here. Win/Loss is not simply running a report on the CRM system tabulating the reasons cited by sales. It’s more like a forensic investigation, where CRM data constitutes one input, but other information, both primary and secondary is used to piece together patterns and insight. From here, conclusions can be drawn regarding ways to improve wins and reduce losses.

The fact that many people cited Sales as a barrier to this indicates to me that Sales does not understand the motives nor the value of this exercise. If they are defensive, they should understand that all parties, product management, marketing, sales, support, SEs, etc. can benefit.

Saeed

By: Stewart Rogers

Stewart Rogers — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 16:17:46 +0000

Tom, the CRM systems are great to tell you which deals are won or lost but that is about the extend of information you should pull from the CRM system. The Product Manager must do (or outsource to a 3rd party) the win/loss and should pick up the phone otherwise it is just rumour and opinion. I hope the Product Managers are not using the lack of access to a CRM system as an excuse. I know you know this but worth mentioning anyway. -Stewart

By: Roger Allison

Roger Allison — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 18:07:02 +0000

Thanks Saeed. I find that the topic that win/loss analysis rolls up into is Buyer Alignment. This is an organizational transformation topic regarding alignment of: Processes (Sales, Buyer Evaluation); Differentiation (Solution, Company) and Messaging (Internal, External). Why? Because 3 out of 4 organizations have failed to get the return from any of the many sales process trainings available because they did not invest into the Big 3 alignments, nor do they have an iterative process ensuring on-going alignment. Other symptoms of buyer misalignment are products that underwhelm, messages that don’t resonate and marketing frameworks that have never been fulfilled by the actions required. In order for Buyer Alignment initiatives to be successful, they must have commitment (resources and process) and discipline (training) of the cross-organizational tri-facto (Sales, Product and Marketing management). Then, managers will be measured and incented on their ability to connect and extract actionable intelligence from their buyers. To learn more, feel free to sign-up for my Jan 22nd Webinar, titled “Introduction of Buyer Alignment” by going to http://www.salescycleanalytics.com/events-seminars-webinars-upcoming.php. Always glad to have people attend who understand the issues.

My 2 cents anyway!

By: Product Managers: Show your mettle! « On Product Management

Product Managers: Show your mettle! « On Product Management — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 02:55:11 +0000

[...] some recent lost accounts — yes it’s that Win/Loss topic again — and find out why you [...]

By: Tom Grant

Tom Grant — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 16:24:37 +0000

Since not a lot of PMs use the CRM system (and even sales managers have their doubts about the quality of the data), I’d be surprised if the number doing win/loss analysis would be high, unless PMs based the analysis on some other data source.

By: saeed

saeed — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 03:41:36 +0000

Roger, thanks for your detailed comment and no need to apologize for the length. Your comments are most welcome.

Seems like a meaty topic for discussion. The poll is progressing and I’ll post some of the results soon.

Wonder if there are any other topics like Win/Loss that we all know should be done but very few of us do.

Saeed

By: Take the Win/Loss Poll….pretty please. « On Product Management

Take the Win/Loss Poll….pretty please. « On Product Management — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 18:10:38 +0000

[...] the Win/Loss Poll….pretty please. Not only do very few PMs/PMMs conduct Win/Loss analysis, but it seems even fewer want to spend 10 seconds to take the Win/Loss poll I’m [...]

By: Mark Allen Roberts

Mark Allen Roberts — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 21:30:37 +0000

Nice to see Roger, an expert in win loss chime in. If you have not seen his webinar on win loss check it out at http://www.pragmaticmarketing.com/resources/archived-webinars/the-eight-rules-of-successful-win-loss-analysis .

We teach you must do win loss. However, for whatever reason this valuable exercise falls to the bottom of the list of 42 things to accomplish today.

So if you are not doing win loss what are you doing to gain market feedback?