Sales Intelligence – Increase Market Share (Learn from Past Mistakes)

The sales world is an interesting place, especially in a complex sales environment. So much effort on the part of so many people comes together to accomplish the goal of selling a measure of value to a prospective company. In reality, the only thing a business can do is create revenue and profit. The services and products offered are the tools to accomplish the goal of the business entity.

But things don’t always work out as you would like. Prospects often zig when you expect them to zag. Sometimes, a lost sales opportunity looks like wasted time and expense. But, there is much more to a lost sale than lost time. There are lessons to be learned. Improvements in performance should be made. If mistakes caused the sales opportunity to die, those errors should be corrected. Otherwise, they will end up being very costly mistakes indeed.

Most companies perform some sort of sales debrief with the sales reps involved in the lost opportunity. That’s a start, I suppose. But, really? Shouldn’t you spend your time with the prospect, understanding your company’s performance from their point of view? After all, they have the money. Who cares what the sales reps say? The only perception that matters is that of the prospect. So, ask yourself, “How well would you be able to understand how to win a similar account in the future based on your experience in this recent opportunity?”

Benefits
Market share is built one account at a time. An increase in sales win rate today will equate to significant increases in market share in the near future. Great companies are those that learn from past experiences and translate them into future successes.


Marketing
Understanding those things that work most consistently in different industries and segments ultimately provides your company with the ability to execute more effectively. Would you rather be a company that follows best practices in your industry or that establishes them?

Sales
The least likely outcome of most sales losses is a thorough, honest debrief from the prospect. By the time most deals are done, the sales professional has moved on to the next opportunities and the prospect is unlikely to proactively reach out on their own to provide feedback on the sales performance. However, a consistent feedback program has the potential to show a sales professional how to be more effective next time around.

Recommendations

Make time to follow up on a large percentage of recent sales opportunities

Establish an expectation with sales management that these efforts will be distributed to the sales professionals

Review sample win loss opportunity profiles from Primary Intelligence to determine whether the intelligence is useful and packaged in a professional format.