Increase your win rate with Loss Previews
In this week’s newsletter I’m going to walk you through the exact process I use to reduce lost deals - lost to no decision and lost to competitors.
Its called the Loss Preview.
A typical scenario in a sales team is that a salesperson has a critical deal. The kind of deal that can make their quarter. Not only that, it can help their manager make their quarter.
“This is definitely ours” commits the salesperson.
“This is definitely ours” commits the manager to the VP Sales.
The weeks creep by towards the end of the quarter.
“Its all OK, they are just a bit quiet at the moment” says the salesperson as they start to get a little worried.
The last week of the quarter comes around.
“I’m still confident, but it might slip out of the quarter” the salesperson offers up.
Under pressure on the last day of the quarter, the customer lets the salesperson know that this project has been put on hold for now or that they have decided to stay with their current vendor.
The frustrated sales manager and VP Sales berate the salesperson for not being on top of their business and arrange a "Loss Review” session to go through the deal and see what lessons can be learned for next time.
The problem with this situation is that the Loss Review happens too late.
Much of the learning is deal specific - and this specific deal has already been lost.
So instead, what I run is a Loss Preview session.
I conduct these during the customer’s buying process - typically once we are past the presentation stage and have been shortlisted.
It is at exactly this stage of the process when it is easy as a seller to have happy ears and to think that the hard work has been done - ‘now we just need to follow the process and get the contract signed.’
Here’s how the Loss Preview works.
Include the wider deal team
Its no good just running this session with your manager. You both have a sales perspective and can easily revert to why this is going to become a deal.
You want your wider team - your solution consultant, your lawyer, your deal desk, your customer success manager - anyone on the team that has some insight into this customer and this opportunity.
Get together in person
Ideally you’ll come together in one physical space. You cannot beat workshopping this on a whiteboard in person, but if virtual is the only option then make sure it is cameras on.
Download a Loss Preview Canvas
If you are in a room together then put the headings up on the whiteboard and give everyone a pen and some Post-it Notes.
If you are virtual then bring it up on the screen and walk the team through each section.
What don’t we know and who don’t we know?
As you guide your team through these first two sections you are going to feel like rubbish.
You’ve spent the last few weeks telling your manager how on top of this deal you are, and now you are going to hear your lawyer and your solution consultant rip it to pieces.
“We don’t know the CFO”
“We don’t know what their current payroll system is”
“We don’t know why they would change their process”
Ouch.
But you want to hear this now instead of in three weeks time when the deal dies.
Suck it up and write it down.
Why might we lose?
Having got back up off the floor after the first section you now want your team to tell you all the reasons why you might lose this deal:
“We don’t integrate with their bespoke CRM”
“They have a strategic partnership with XYZ”
“Our solution is not a great fit for what they want to do”
“They are demanding to use their own contract template”
Ooof. This is the opposite of what you’ve been telling your manager over the past couple of weeks.
How can we avoid it?
But now we turn a corner.
One by one go through each of the reasons why you might lose and as a team think of some mitigating activity to turn these around.
If the CFO is very cosy with a competitor can we get our CFO to connect directly with them?
If we don’t integrate with their HR platform can we find examples where partners have helped other customers get around that?
Your customer will be thinking about these issues, and if you don’t help them to address it now it will be too late.
Next steps
We then wrap up the Loss Preview by assigning specific actions for those in the room, or outside, to complete promptly - making connections, arranging deeper dive sessions, aligning with partners.
And repeat.
The Loss Preview is not something you only do once.
If you have a long strategic sales cycle then you might run these every two weeks or every month.
What has changed? What are the reasons we might lose it now?
Stay paranoid.
So there we have it. The Loss Preview.
A easy way to look at your deals from the other side.
I can’t guarantee it will bring every deal in but I am confident you will come up with at least one new strategy or idea to help improve your success rate.
And even where you are not successful, you will have a detailed breakdown of what you did to try and win that deal if you ever do find yourself in a real Loss Review!
See you next week.
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