The Intelligent Approach to Sales Success
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Win Loss Analysis?
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Win Loss Analysis: FAQ
Win Loss Analysis Helps:
Executives
The most commonly asked questions answered
Nothing gives an executive a
clearer picture of the target mar-
What is Win Loss Analysis?
A Win Loss Analysis is a systematic analysis
of the new business opportunities for
which your sales team (or channel partners)
has competed. By implementing a Win Loss
Analysis program you’ll be able to obtain
reliable, actionable and unbiased feedback
about how well your sales team performed
in recent competitive opportunities. And,
you’ll be able to identify much more,
including the best practices of your top
performers, your competitive positioning
within each opportunity, and how well your
products and services were received.
What are the benefits of a Win
Loss Analysis?
A Win Loss Analysis will reveal the risks and
opportunities associated with your sales
strategies, your competitors’ strategies and
your target markets. You can learn about
your marketplace in a way that transcends
simply knowing about your own customers.
A Win Loss Analysis will also reveal the varied buying habits, challenges and adoption
rates of your customers, your competitors’
customers and your mutual prospects.
ket than the perceptions straight
If you want a clear picture of each individual sales opportunity and the emerging
trends across multiple opportunities to help
sales professionals win more business, a
Win Loss Analysis can do the following:
• Improve individual and company-wide
competitive win ratios
• Establish clear Win Loss benchmarks
• Increase sales per employee
• Build successful sales organizations
that are always improving
• Discover the reasons for lost
opportunities
• Increase your competitive advantage
• Enhance your understanding of
competitors
from decision makers. Win Loss trend reports give
insightful evidence to market desires and changes.
Sales Managers
Training is important for managers, and Win Loss Analysis gives
direct feedback on the issues
about which prospects are most concerned. Using
this information, training can be set on key points.
Sales Professionals
True professionals always look for
ways to improve. By listening to
the voice of the customer, sales
professionals can cater their messages to the needs
By obtaining reliable and unbiased feedback
from your recent sales opportunities, sales
representatives can refine their techniques,
learn how to effectively target a client’s
needs, and make appropriate presentations
that put your company and products in the
best possible light. A Win Loss Analysis will
provide you with empirical, yet pragmatic,
information to drive your business, products, and marketing decisions toward an
of their prospects and win more deals.
Marketing
Marketing is always looking for
the points that sway the marketplace. Win Loss Analysis reflects
the true voice of the customer, providing marketing with strategic knowledge on creating effective
messages.
improved competitive advantage, increased
revenue growth and greater market share.
Category
Third Party
In-House
Performing Win/
Loss Assessments
Experts in Win Loss collection
and analysis on a daily basis
Tend to think of Win/Loss
Assessment as just conducting
interviews
Resources
Trained, Experienced and
Dedicated Staff
Will do Win Loss projects if and
when time permits
Methodology
Successfully implemented and
proven over time
Will need to create based on a
best guess
International
Language
Available for interviewing in
most languages around the
globe
May need to receive assistance
from international offices
Data Analysis
Experienced analysts use
statistical software tools to
review raw data
Staff may need to learn how to
review and analyze raw data
Report Creation
Ability to publish first class
reports designed to meet
client needs
Use spreadsheets or Word
documents to present data
Presentation of
Results
Senior researchers analyze
data and prepare an executive
summary.
Data typically presented to
executives in raw data format
Success of Project
Very high. Most customers
repeating and expanding
their projects based on having
received actionable and
relevant information
Low. Project tends to cost more
in time and resources than
expected. Results not delivered
on time due to resource
constraints
Use of Data
Actionable
Interesting, but sometimes out
of date and no longer relevant.
Can’t we do this in-house?
Many companies claim to have performed
Win Loss research, but further investigation often reveals they have only captured
information from their sales representatives. Although this is a very important
aspect of Win Loss, such information usually relates to pricing and products only.
True Win Loss Analysis not only captures
information from your sales representatives, but also from the evaluators, decision makers, approvers, and users in your
competitive wins and losses.
Analyzing lost sales opportunities is
never a pleasant task, which is why companies tend to focus most of their attention and effort on gathering information
about their competitive wins. However, it
is a well-known fact that we tend to learn
more from our mistakes than from our
successes. For this reason, it is critical that
a company expend the necessary resources
to analyze and completely understand its
competitive losses.
What are the benefits of using
an independent third-party to
capture Win Loss information?
A Win Loss Analysis conducted by an unbiased third party will give you a complete
picture of what is taking place in your company’s marketplace. It will also provide you
with the means to track and measure the
effectiveness of your current and revised
marketing strategies and sales processes.
Capturing what took place during
the sales cycle of wins and losses can be
a labor- intensive, time-consuming and
difficult task, especially if you don’t have
the appropriate expertise. Furthermore, it
may be impossible for an organization to
get unbiased, factual information without
the help of an experienced third party.
Unlike an outside, objective third-party;
your in-house researchers will often find
buyers unwilling to reveal their real decision criteria for fear the sales manager
may attempt to reengage them in the sales
process. When this occurs the data upon
which you’re making critical decisions may
not be accurate.
Which departments within an
organization are impacted by
a Win Loss Analysis?
Although many people assume the information from a Win Loss Analysis is only for the
sales force, we have found that Win Loss will
impact every department in your organization. Additionally, key individuals in your
organization such as Sales Representatives,
Sales Management, Product Development,
Marketing and Executive Management
will all be able to leverage the actionable
information that is captured in a Win Loss
Analysis program to make better decisions.
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Toll free: 800-400-2174 • Tel: 801-838-9600 • Fax: 801-838-9650
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Sales Representatives will better understand the perception of their prospects and
what they were really thinking about the
representative’s abilities and effectiveness.
Sales representatives will also begin to better understand their strengths and weaknesses, the company’s positioning, their
competition and the overall marketplace.
Sales Managers will get data on the key
issues that are hampering their over all
sales efforts. Hard data on what your competitors are doing right, what you’re doing
wrong or not doing, and data on how the
market perceives you. This information will
help sales managers to refocus, redeploy,
and retrain where it’s most important.
Product Development can now begin to
understand more about where a solution or product may be lacking against
their competitors and what features and
functionality are most important to the
prospects in the pipeline.
Marketing will receive direct feedback
from their audience as to what is working
and what isn’t working. They’ll learn which
marketing tools have the most impact with
whom and which are not worth the investment of time and money.
Executive Management will now get
actionable intelligence on every aspect of
the entire sales process. They’ll learn about
new players in their markets and gain
insight into current market trends.
What can I expect as
deliverables?
Most customers can expect to receive
two different types of reports: Individual
Opportunity Reports; and, Management
Trend Reports.
Individual Opportunity Reports focus
on individual Win Loss opportunities
and describe what happened in each sales
opportunity. They provide you with an
insight into how well your sales team
performed, how well they understood
the needs of each sales opportunity and
how well your product and services were
received. You will also learn how well your
competition performed, how they positioned themselves, their pricing, and what
the customer perceived as their strengths
and weakness. Finally, the reports will
help you understand why each prospective
customer selected your company or one
of your competitors. Typically, the sales
representatives and their managers are the
recipients of this report.
The Management Trend Report is a
quarterly report that provides a macroview of all the opportunities analyzed in a
specific quarter. It focuses on and provides
actionable information on the trends that
are appearing in the marketplace, the positioning and pricing of your competitors,
emerging competitors in your markets, the
strengths and weakness of your products
and services, and the abilities of your best
and worst performers. Typically, Sales
Management, Product Development, and
Executive Management are the recipients
of this report.
All reports are designed to meet your
specific goals and requirements.
Win Loss Analysis, the actual amount
of time required from your company is
limited. Since the interview instrument is
a key factor in the success of any Win Loss
project, we will expect your internal project
manager to review and approve it before
use in the project. Your company must also
provide contact information for each opportunity targeted for review. The contact
information may be provided in any type
of database.
Is there a limit to the number
copies we can make of the
report?
The average interview with a customer
is also 15 to 30 minutes, depending
upon your Interview Instrument and the
amount of detail they’re willing to go into.
Since most individuals won’t be intimately
aware of all the evaluation criteria and the
decision processes, we typically complete
multiple interviews with users, evaluators,
decision Makers, and approvers in each
opportunity targeted for review.
There is no limit to the number of copies
you can make and there is no limit on redistribution such as posting on a company
intranet.
What will Primary Intelligence
expect from our company?
How much of my sales
representatives’ time will it
consume?
We know it’s important to you that they
spend most of their time selling, so our
goal is to take as little of their time as possible. An interview with a sales representative takes 15 to 30 minutes depending
upon the interview instrument and the
amount of detail the sales representative
can provide. For those companies that feel
strongly that their sales representative
remain in the field selling and not participating in surveys, we offer Internet-based
online interviewing that will allow a sales
representatives to complete the interview
process as schedules permit.
How long is a typical interview
with a client?
By selecting a third-party to perform your
11778 Election Rd., Suite 120, Draper, UT 84020
Toll free: 800-400-2174 • Tel: 801-838-9600 • Fax: 801-838-9650
primary-intel.com • [email protected]
Can we select the questions to
be asked or is there a standard
script?
We understand that every company has
different products and services as well
as different research needs. Therefore,
interview instruments are customized to
each customer’s specific products, services,
and research needs. We typically create
an initial interview instrument for each
customer based on their study objectives.
Then work with the customer to refine the
instrument so that it meets the customer’s
specific research objectives.
Which accounts and how
many accounts will be
targeted?
The accounts to be targeted for Win Loss
review will be determined by you. Some
companies choose to select specific key accounts for review, while most others elect
to review a percentage of all their opportunities within a given time period.
Typically the number of accounts
analyzed for a company in a given quarter
range from a low of 10 to a high of 500.
Ultimately the number selected should be
based on your available budget for Win
Loss and the goals you’re hoping to accomplish with this program. Research analysts
are available to help assist you with recommendations so your objectives are met.
How is the information
collected?
For most Win Loss projects, the information is primarily collected via telephone
interviews. All interviews are conducted
in-house with a dedicated, full time staff of
trained research analysts and are recorded
for internal review and analysis. For interviews in a language other than English (if
not already in-house) Primary Intelligence
will use a global strategic partner or bring
in the necessary resources.
Who do you interview to get
the information that goes into
a Win Loss report?
In most Win Loss projects we will interview your sales representative as well as
the individuals at your prospect that would
be considered users, evaluators, decision
makers and approvers. By completing
interviews with multiple individuals, you’ll
gain a greater insight into the dynamics of
the sales process.
Are the reports only published
in English?
The reports which will be delivered to you
can actually be published in most foreign
languages, but English is the language of
choice. For those reports which require
translation from English before being delivered, a certified translation service will
be employed to provide the actual translation. There is typically a small surcharge
applied to projects that require report
translation.
Are both US and International
accounts supported?
Yes, we are able to conduct interviews in
most languages and translate the deliverables into your native language.
How many wins versus losses
do we include?
Most customers request an equal number
of wins and losses. The actual number of
interviews will vary based on your specific
project goals and your available data. Analysts are available to help you determine
the best ratio to meet your objectives.
Will you be able to get every
account we win or lose to
participate?
In some cases all opportunities targeted
for review have participated, but in other
projects it has proven impossible. The
actual participation in every project varies
based on a number of factors including,
your sales relationship with the prospect,
the amount of lapsed time since the decision was made, turnover and relocation
of key persons in the accounts, types of
questions asked, and the actual time to
complete the interview.
Therefore, we have determined that a
50% response rate is a fair expectation.
The final participation rate could be much
higher or lower, but you’ll only be billed for
those which are completed and delivered.
What are the costs?
The costs for a Win Loss Analysis is usually
determined by the number of opportunities you would like completed within a
given time period. There are additional
factors that can affect the cost such as
translation and non-English interviewing. You will receive a cost estimate at the
beginning of the project so you’ll be able to
budget accurately. As you’re evaluating the
costs of Win Loss Analysis it’s important
to understand the return on investment
you can expect from an ongoing Win Loss
program. Most organization’s can expect
to get $4 back for every $1 they spend on
Win Loss Analysis based on the conservative assumption that your Win Loss
research will help just 10% of your sales
representatives sell 5% more.
11778 Election Rd., Suite 120, Draper, UT 84020
Toll free: 800-400-2174 • Tel: 801-838-9600 • Fax: 801-838-9650
primary-intel.com • [email protected]
Is a project team assigned to
our account?
Each customer has an account team dedicated to their project with each member
of the team specifically selected based on
their prior industry experience on similar projects. The team size and allocated
resources vary by project.
Most account teams consist of a Senior
Account Manager, Analyst(s), and Data
Collection Specialists. The Senior Account
Manager (SAM) will act as your primary
project manager and will maintain regular
contact with your team for the duration of
your project. Your Senior Account Manager will also have at his or her disposal
two Analysts, assigned to assist in project
planning, managing resources, conducting
research (including primary interviews),
and providing analysis. Rounding out
your project team will be two to ten Data
Collection Specialists, also tasked with the
responsibility of performing many of the
primary interviews.
All members of a project team will be
required to thoroughly understand your
company’s product and service offerings,
as well as those of your direct competitors.
And, each member of the team will become
certified to participate in the execution
of your project by taking and passing an
exam that is specific to your organization,
your research objectives and your industry.
Certification is mandatory for all members
of your Primary Intelligence project team.
Why select Primary
Intelligence to perform Win
Loss Analysis?
We understand the unique challenges
faced by companies in today’s economy.
Business as usual is no longer an option.
Primary Intelligence solutions are based on
structured, systematic, repeatable methodologies. Our extensive experience in
performing Win Loss Analysis, execution
ability and the quality of our work ensure
the success of every program.
Can you name a few
companies that have engaged
in Win Loss Analysis projects?
Win Loss Analysis has been performed for
companies such as Avaya, Microsoft, and
Symantec among many others. The data
collection methodologies and analytical
tools used by Primary Intelligence provide
a solid foundation upon which to conduct
Win Loss Analysis in any industry. Additional references can be provided upon
request.
This is confidential
information. Will it be
protected?
Primary Intelligence has a corporate culture
that integrates confidential information
and intellectual property protection into
the core of our business operations. This
is achieved by empowering employees and
incorporating protection procedures into
business processes. Every Primary Intelligence employee signs a confidentiality
agreement with the company as a condition
of employment. These agreements make
clear an employee’s obligation to protect
our customers’ confidential information. All
Primary Intelligence contracts include standard confidentiality clauses that protect any
proprietary information that is provided
to Primary Intelligence by the customer as
well as protecting any additional information that is gathered or discovered and is
considered proprietary during the course
of any research project performed for the
customer by Primary Intelligence.
The following security measures are
implemented for each customer within Primary Intelligence’s network to ensure that
integrity, protection and confidentiality of
our customers’ data:
• Our customer databases are housed
in a Microsoft SQL Server 2000
database server running Microsoft
Windows 2000 Server. This server’s
only function is as a database server.
The server is only accessible by system
administrators. Each customer project
is provided with its own independent,
secure database. Each database is
assigned a unique user ID secured
with a strong password. Primary
Intelligence analysts working with a
customer are given appropriate access
to the database based on job function
and the level of data access required.
• Analysts are not assigned to
competing projects and they do not
have access to projects to which
they are not assigned. Project teams
are physically separated and project
access is password protected down
to the data collection level. Primary
Intelligence enforces and audits
standard workstation security
procedures.
• Database servers and servers that
house client data are isolated from
external access and all Primary
Intelligence networks are protected by
hardware and software-based firewalls.
Servers are physically isolated away
from project team members. The
server area is physically secured from
unauthorized access.
11778 Election Rd., Suite 120, Draper, UT 84020
Toll free: 800-400-2174 • Tel: 801-838-9600 • Fax: 801-838-9650
primary-intel.com • [email protected]