Sales Feedback for Sales Execs

Sales leaders are always in a quest to win more business for the company. Some sales leaders even turn to statistics and research to determine best practices. The most successful implementation of these programs often brings consistency in the best practices to the middle and lower parts of the sales achievement pile. You don’t always have to make the eagles fly higher. It is often better to figure out how to get the sparrows and crows up where the eagles fly.

One of the most effective pieces of information is the answer to “Why do we win and why do we lose?” Many companies don’t yet know this answer objectively. Some are starting. In my experience at Primary Intelligence, very few have been scientific about this.

The best place to start to answer this question is to understand what went right/wrong in your most recent sales opportunities. There are many ways to gather this info. I’ll discuss a couple.

After the sales deal is done and you have won or lost, who do you turn to for feedback on the actual sale? Many say that they do a post mortem review with the sales rep or team involved in the deal and this is a good start, but let me tell you why this is a system that is bound to fail from the start.

1. Sales guys are naturally going to take credit for the wins. It is stereotypical, but sales reps are likely to take a substantial amount of credit for bringing in business. I can understand that fact, but the result of this exercise is not likely to produce a program that will help elevate the middle of your sales pack. There is only so much you can do with the message, “I won because I’m good!”

2. Sales guys are likely to deflect the blame for losses. “We were beat on price” or “the deal got fouled up when the owner’s brother came in with a different provider.” Again, you have to have a pretty strong self-perception to be successful in sales and taking the blame for deals gone bad does not help you much at all.

3. Sales guys may not know what went wrong. After all, if they knew exactly what the prospect wanted from the beginning, they would have been able to perform better or get out of the wrong deal earlier.

4. In the end, it doesn’t matter what the sales rep or team says. The only perception that matters is that of the prospect. I don’t care what the sales rep says nearly as much as what the prospect perceived throughout the sales engagement.

Personally, I recommend that you spend all of your energy gathering the feedback from the lost prospect or won client. If you want to know why companies select you or walk to a competitor, that’s the only information that really matters.

If you have successfully implemented a win loss post-sales analysis, let me know. And, if you would like to see a very nice compliment from one of our clients, check out my other blog here.

Talk to me about your thoughts. Post a comment or give me a call (801-838-9600 x5050, cdalley@primary-intel.com)