Win Loss Analysis - Part II

In my last post we talked about the overall scope of the win-loss analysis program.  In this post I will dive into the details of the quantitative aspect of win loss analysis. 

For a recent SaaS client, who is growing at a very rapid clip, we wanted to track the following quantitative information (win-loss was focused on new customers):

• Overall win rate for the quarter, as well as win rate against each competitor
• Number and $ value of wins and losses against each competitor, as well as number and $ value of wins in non-competitive deals (i.e. no competitor was in the deal)
• Trend chart of overall win rate against each competitor
• Trend chart for win rate by each sales region for top 4 competitors
• Trend chart for win rate by each segment (e.g. enterprise, mid-market etc.) for top 4 competitors
• Trend chart in non-competitive deals (aggregate, by sales region and by segment).  This statistic spoke to the reach of marketing programs, as well as brand equity.
• Number and $ value of non-competitive losses (i.e. opportunity closed lost due to a number of reasons such as customer non-responsive or no budget etc.

The data in the last bullet is critical to improving the opportunity qualification process.  Once the opportunity is qualified and pursuit starts, expensive pre-sales and other resources are applied to that pursuit.  Even 10% improvement in opportunity qualification allows you to divert resources to the most qualified (and likely to close) opportunities, improving your overall win rate and quarterly bookings.  By closing the loop of this analysis with sales operations, you can improve the use of current sales methodology in the sales organization.

One question typically gets asked is if you should count every lost opportunity in win-loss analysis.  My answer is no.  Many opportunities get closed (as lost) in early stages when the salesperson is qualifying it.  By including in win-loss analysis, you will distort your counts.  My recommendation is to only include those opportunities that reach a stage in your sales process where resources have been applied and pursuit has started.

Another question on your mind is perhaps – should you do this analysis at the end of the quarter?  It all depends on the linearity of your bookings, but I would assume that 30% to 40% of deals may be closing in the first two months of the quarter.  Since you want to combine quantitative analysis with qualitative analysis (based on surveys and calls with salespeople and customers), the response rate on request for calls  from customers and salespersons is higher when the opportunity was recently closed.  Also, the quality of information you get is better, if you can talk to them soon after the deal was won or lost.   But to identify such conversation opportunities, you need your quantitative analysis to be continuous.  If you only do your analysis once a month, you will end up batching all the calling opportunities until after the end of the month and would lose out on the quality of information from such calls.

Hope this post answers some of your questions re: the quantitative aspect of the win-loss analysis.  If you have questions or comments, keep the conversation going.