Lost deal

Very early on in my career, I received a piece of advice I will never forget. I was doing a deal loss review, highlighting all the reasons why we lost. I can’t remember the specific reason, but it’s was likely one of the usual suspects like; Budget suspended, Project leader left, Company got acquired, Competing priorities, Decided to do nothing, Competitor had features we didn’t, Price.

Of course, it wasn’t my fault. After all, what could I have done? Right?

Wrong – my boss told me the only way I would learn from a loss is if I took full responsibility. Every loss is your fault, he said. Harsh words for a young and still very green seller, but very powerful. It took a while for me to internalize what he meant, but when I did, it was liberating.

 

It wasn’t me

Natural human instinct is to apportion blame when things go wrong. It is a self-defense mechanism. It helps us cope and feel better – my bad situation is someone else’s fault! In sales, unless your conversion rate is north of 50%, we lose and are rejected the majority of the time. When we lose, we simply select the loss reason from a picklist in our CRM, and just like that, we have shifted responsibility. As Shaggy sang in 1999 – It wasn’t me! We dust ourselves off, confidence intact, and move on. Taking this approach is a missed opportunity.

 

Change loss to learn

If we change the psychology of the loss from a negative to a positive, we can change a bad feeling into a good one. Here’s how.

1. Every time you lose a deal, take full responsibility, and ownership.
2. List all the factors YOU believe contributed to not winning.
3. With the benefit of hindsight, what could YOU have done differently?
4. Set up a review session with your manager to brainstorm the above, get their input, and discuss what you have learned.
5. Share these learns with your colleagues

 

Simple examples

Let’s take a perhaps oversimplified view of some examples using the list of hypothetical loss reasons in the first paragraph.

1. Budget suspended

This can be a bolt from the blue. Case in point – COVID-19. But in most cases, there were warning signs. From the outset ask if this was defined project with budget and timelines associated. Your contact may be taking a speculative approach to the project and has no budget and no idea how to get it. If no budget or project, you need to understand all steps required to create a project and have a budget assigned. Then see how you can help your contact build their business case. Beware, you may be wasting your time on a time-waster.

2. Project leader left

Caught in the one contact trap? In the world of decision-by-committee, we know that many people want their thumbprint on a decision. Early on we have to negotiate and earn the right for access to multiple stakeholders, so our destiny is not in the hands of a single contact.

3. Company got acquired

Unless this came out of the blue and the project team genuinely had no idea, which can happen, there is usually some signal. Always ask; Is there anything that could cause this project to not happen? Are there any competing initiatives?

4. Competing priorities

Early on you may want to ask where this project sits among all the other priorities? Is there a virtual priority queue? If it is low down, try to understand if it is possible to leapfrog your way up the list. You also want to understand if there are any dependencies for your project to happen and be a success – track these closely, as dependencies directly impact your project.

5. Decided to do nothing

This is a killer. All the time, effort, and resources you invested, and they do nothing. This happens a lot. Knowing this is the case, address it early by calling it out. Ask what would cause this not to happen. How do we empower the project team to pound the table and insist on this happening – is there a solid ROI/business case that helps them do this?

6. Competitor had features we didn’t

This is very seldom the real reason you lose. Most times there are a number of suppliers who will satisfy the baseline requirement. The winners are those suppliers who are able to expand the scope of what is required to match the additional widgets they have. If this happens, you have been outsold.

7. Price

Sometimes competitors buy the business, and you might choose not to go there, but nine times out of ten, I don’t believe it. In reality, a vendor is chosen because they have met the requirements and the organization wants to do business with them. Once that decision has been made, procurement goes to work on negotiating the price. If you have not been given the opportunity to work on the numbers, I’m afraid you have been outsold and pricing was used as an excuse to say goodbye.

 

Parting advice:

• Lose early friends, the tears are smaller!
• Continually inspect your deals thoroughly and ask;
  • what am I missing?
  • what could go wrong?
• Deal with the risks head-on
  • ask the tough questions you may be afraid of asking
• Hope is not a strategy
  • don’t cover your ears and sing la la la la

 

It’s easy if you know how