On Product Management

No Win/Loss? Blame…

As promised here are the results from the Win/Loss poll I ran last week.

First, thanks to all those who responded.

The question was:

Why are you not performing Win/Loss analysis?

Here are the high level results:

As you can see, the most common answers are:

• Got way too many other things to do. (24%)
• I don’t know how to do it (24%)
• Other (29%)

Many of the “Other” responses looked like this:

• Our sales tracking system is screwed up
• Sales rarely allow access to losses
• Reluctance by sales to let us in
• Sales lies when recording win/loss reason
• Hard to collect loss information from sales
• Sales is supposed to do it but doesn’t and won’t let me  do it.

See a pattern? So why are we not doing more Win/Loss?

1. A lot of PMs are busy, but are they productive? What one or two things can you not do and instead replace it with Win/Loss analysis to gain insight into the market?
2. A lot of people stated they don’t know how to do it — this is not surprising as who teaches how to conduct Win/Loss?
3. Sales is blocking the way — again not surprising, but rather frustrating.

Note to sales: You’re losing money by blocking PMs access to Win/Loss.

Saeed

P.S. To the person whose response was:

I do it… why is this not an option?

I will say the following:

1. Thanks for participating in the poll
2. Congratulations for being one of the few who actually does Win/Loss
3. Read the question again! It was specifically about why people AREN’T doing Win/Loss.

Related posts:

1. Win/Loss? Anyone?
2. What’s the deal with Win/Loss Analysis?
3. Take the Win/Loss Poll….pretty please.
4. How NOT to do Win/Loss Analysis part 1: CRM Reporting
5. Win/Loss Analysis: What to do if you’re not allowed to call customers