Win-Loss

Brought to you by Jody Geiger, Jenna Bugiardini and Klue

Voices of Revenue is a monthly newsletter spotlighting revenue operators making waves and sharing best practices.

The pace at which content is produced, lands and leaves our feeds is remarkable and alarming. We are here to ensure you don't fall behind the curve!

Volume 11

While we were all glued to our screens during the 2024 Olympics, 17-year-old Summer McIntosh was busy turning the swimming pool into her personal record book. Three gold medals later, she's got us all wondering: what's her secret?

Spoiler alert: It's not just talent. It's smart training, constant refinement, and a dash of teenage fearlessness. Now, imagine if we could bottle that success and sprinkle it over our sales strategies. That's where win-loss analysis comes in – it's our very own Olympic training camp, minus the 5 AM wake-up calls and chlorine-scented hair.

Just like Summer analyzed her competitors' strokes and perfected her own technique, win-loss analysis helps us understand why we're winning or losing deals. It's about diving deep into our sales process, examining our strengths, and yes, facing our weaknesses head-on.

So, grab your goggles and let's dive deep into the world of win-loss analysis. We'll explore how to proactively understand and influence the factors that contribute to your sales team's gold-medal-worthy performances. By the end of this newsletter, you'll be ready to reduce customer churn faster than Summer McIntosh's record-breaking 200M butterfly!

Building a Win-Loss Program

How to Lay the Foundation for Successful Win-Loss. Created by Robyn Welfare and Dylan D'Urso

Link to Original Voice: Laying the Foundation for an Impactful Win-Loss Program

Quote: “I thought it [win-loss program] was just about why we are winning or losing deals. I didn’t realize it was about the decision-making criteria or the resources they’re leveraging in the process.”

Takeaways:

• Multiple types of win-loss programs will drive different outcomes. Typically, the change and insight-based programs will drive decision-making vs. a program focused on collecting data.
• When you don’t have a thorough research approach designed you won’t be able to challenge your assumptions.?
• Where to start? Focus on understanding: What are the objectives your company wants to achieve? How are you going to use the win-loss data? Who are your stakeholders? What's the plan to get there? Do you have enough interviews to achieve your objectives??
• Framework for building the program: Focus > Insight > Action. If we have a focus, how can we get an insight and make it actionable??
• Make insights digestible for your users. Senior stakeholders don’t have time to read a report but want to see a 1 min video of their customers talking about things that are top of mind to them.
• Use win-loss to answer the questions that matter. Don’t boil the ocean because you only have one chance to get your stakeholders to trust you and impact change.?

Experimenting at Klue:

• At Klue our Competitive Enablement Manager uses win-loss insights within battlecards to make the content actionable for sellers. Similarly, on the executive front, our team gets an executive summary that highlights insights and initiatives they care about. When our Win-Loss team gets a report they are thinking of ways to ensure all stakeholders (sellers and execs) can action the content.

Running a Win-Loss Program is one of the most important PMM projects. Created by Cody Bernard and Eric Holland ??

Link to Original Voice: Two Reasons Why Product Marketers Shouldn’t Run Win-Loss Alone

Quote: “The lag time in just setting up interviews [yourself] is nuts. It took roughly three months to just get introductions from customer success, and another month to schedule the interviews.”

Takeaways:

• As a PMM you have a lot on your plate and time is limited. To run a win-loss program solo is hard work. To do it right, it takes time and effort in both landing interviews and conducting analysis.
• The process of scheduling interviews can take months, leading to delayed insights that may not accurately reflect the buyer's decision-making phase.
• Analyzing the data manually is extremely time-consuming, and most of the time results in getting outdated insights that can’t even be used to inform product decisions.
• Third-party win-loss can get you rich, unbiased insights without having to go through the time and effort. These insights will be valuable to all your work as a PMM.

Experimenting at Klue:?

• At Klue we have our own internal Win-Loss team run by our expert Research Directors, Customer Success Team, Editors and Data analysts. These folks meet bi-weekly with our PMM team to talk strategy, results and how to bring the program forward. Taking this off of the PMM’s plate and instead having them served with insights is hugely valuable for the team.

Spot the Difference: Pricing versus Pricing Experience. Created by Ryan Sorley

Link to Original Voice: Nuance Matters

Quote: “Price isn’t killing your deals. Your “pricing experience” is.”

Takeaways:

• Capturing buyer feedback is the backbone of a win-loss program. But how you do it, matters. There is nuance at play.
• What questions you ask will determine what answers you get.
• Let’s take price as the topic, as it is a common one. Are you even in sales if you haven’t recorded a loss due to price?
• Ryan, whose team has conducted 1000’s of win-loss interviews, advises breaking down topics into smaller parts.
• For example, "Price" = What you charge vs. "Pricing experience" = How your sales reps discuss what you charge.
• “Here's why: price questions reveal market-fit and pricing experience questions uncover sales execution”
• The nuance lies in your ability to accurately capture what is broken.
• Only then can you determine what you should change in your strategy.

Experimenting at Klue:

• In Enablement, part of the job is identifying gaps and figuring out how to solve for them.?
• What makes the job tricky, is that the root causes of the gaps aren’t obvious. They are hidden behind incomplete and dirty CRM data, sellers and managers trying to cover their butts and management chasing too many priorities.
• Since we kicked off our formal Win-Loss program at Klue a few years ago, it is the source of truth for analysis.?
• Buyer experience matters and by having an always-on pipeline of win-loss interviews conducted and analyzed, we can spot trends sooner and fill the gaps with the right plan.

The Game Changer: Win-Loss. Created by Aditi Agrawal

Link to Original Voice: Importance of Recruitment

Quote: “If you want to speak to 5 decision-makers, keep a backup of 20 ready with you, in case a bunch of them say "NO”.”

Takeaways:

• Many Product Marketers are tasked with conducting win-loss interviews on their revenue team’s deals.?
• What they might not realize is how big of a job it is to deliver win-loss insights consistently.
• Aditi shares how tough recruiting buyers for interviews can be.
• If you are trying to run win-loss on key deals selected by management, but can’t get a hold of the buyers, it can be stressful.
• Aditi suggests having multiple deals teed up, with the full list of stakeholders involved, so you increase your chances of connecting and conducting successful interviews.

Experimenting at Klue:

• Our team responsible for recruiting buyers for interviews at Klue manages themselves like a recruitment agency.?
• Their roles include the ability to listen and capture client's input to prescribe best interview recruitment strategies, build and manage lead databases and lists, execute recruitment, and schedule campaigns to drive engagement.
• Having a solid pipeline of deals and buyers to interview is what keeps win-loss insights fresh and relevant.
• Without partnering with a company who specializes in Win-Loss, like Klue, it can be tough to maintain the rigor required to maintain a successful win-loss program as a PMM.

Buyers Insights for Strategic Decision-Making

The real reason you are losing deals. Created by: Ryan Sorley?

Link to original voice: You’re losing deals but not for the reason you think?

Key Quote: “The result? They got in front of new decision-makers before competitors even knew there was a change. Low and behold – they started winning more deals.”

Takeaways:?

• Most organizations think they have an idea of why they are losing deals.?
• The article references a client who assumed they were losing deals to price, product or sales execution. However, when they conducted a third-party win-loss interview they uncovered that 90% of the time when buyers were considering switching it was due to new leadership.?
• New leaders bring different perspectives and biases, often overlooked by sales teams who focus on price, product features, or competitor actions.
• The client responded by monitoring leadership changes, researching new leaders' preferences, and proactively engaging with personalized outreach.
• As a result, they were able to connect with new decision-makers before competitors and began winning more deals.
• Without the unbiased win-loss intel, their team would not have been able to act on these changes.

Experimenting at Klue:?

• When we ran our first win-loss program at Klue the insights that were uncovered blew the leadership team away. The defensible and evidence-backed reasons into why we were losing deals was the proof we needed to start making changes. From the highest level, these new insights were immediately acted on and we were able to drive the business forward. We would have never been able to receive this clear and focused direction by relying on seller feedback alone.

The Truth Will Set You Free. Created by Michael Price

Link to Original Voice: Win-Loss Truths

Quote: “It all came out in the win-loss analysis.”

Takeaways:

• It is a rare seller who knows exactly why they lost a deal. Often we are guessing.
• As Michael points out, winners seek out the reasons for their wins and losses, so they can get better and win more.
• They seek out win-loss analysis on their deals.
• With it they can understand things like how they misunderstood the prospect’s agenda and sold to the wrong need/pitched to the wrong pain.?

Experimenting at Klue:

• Sales is a long game. It can feel short when QTR after QTR results are required and scrutinized, but it is a long game.?
• Enterprise sellers get hired for their customer contact lists which are built over time through selling effective and valuable solutions. How do they get there? They learn from their deals and don’t make the same mistake twice. They engender trust through experience.
• The best way we know to learn from your mistakes in deals and gain valuable experience is to hear directly from your buyers. The good, the bad and the ugly win-loss truths can be fuel for your game.

Can You Risk Not Knowing? Created by Adam Houghton

Link to Original Voice: How to Avoid Being a ‘Might Have Been’

Quote: “That business was once the market leader, with its closest early head-to-head enterprise rival now a $2.5B market cap public company (Sprinklr), and what was once a perceived distant competitor and SMB ankle biter (Sprout Social) now a $2B market cap public company. Both are now great public companies, and the third might have been too.”

Takeaways:

• The only constant in life is change, ya?
• Your company is evolving, your customers' businesses and markets are changing and so are your competitors.
• The best way to stay on top of the changing landscape is to have an always-on faucet of win-loss data and insights.
• Doing so will allow you to know how to enable your teams to meet your customers where they are.
• Adam’s lived experience of working to build a market leader, only to be eclipsed by the competition is a warning sign for us all.

Experimenting at Klue:

• Our teams have supported customers for 10+ years with win-loss analysis. We have found that always-on win-loss insights increases win rates. Sellers who use competitive enablement content powered by win-loss insights, win more.?
• We have found that product teams who leverage win-loss insights find and keep product market fit.
• We have also found win-loss interviews, particularly the direct quotes and clips from buyer interviews, to be a great vehicle for delivering tough messages internally to create necessary change. No one wants to be the bad-news messenger, and no one wants to point fingers at other departments. Our customers have found that win-loss reports can bring clarity to executive decision making and keep leaders rowing in the same direction.

Your Buyer’s Voice. Created by Pete Stanley

Link to Original Voice: The One That Got Away

Quote: “What if you could find out why? What could you do with that information?”

Takeaways:

• It is painful to mark a deal closed-lost in your CRM, particularly when it is one you have been forecasting to make your number with.
• If your sales team has strong GTM leadership, you are likely going to need to debrief on the loss reasons. If you are like most sellers, you are wondering where you went wrong and you have a few educated guesses. The problem with these guesses is that they are only half of the story.
• Pete is asking, what if you didn’t have to guess? What if instead you could hear directly from your buyer about their experience and learn from it?
• He suggests 3 things he would do with this intel: work on a blind spot, give feedback to product teams, or alter a pricing structure.

Experimenting at Klue:

• We believe that first hand experience is the best way to learn. So, this QTR we have our selling team diving deep into win-loss learnings. They are learning how to recruit for a buyer interview, conduct an effective interview with a buyer, transcribe the interview and text code it for win-loss themes. They are learning this because they will be responsible for conducting one loss interview with a buyer one of their teammates lost a deal with.
• This immersive experience will allow our sellers to see the impact first hand that win-loss insights they generate can have on a team. We will use these themes at our next QBR for self-reflection and development as well as to inform decision making.

As we continue to spot trends, we'll keep you updated. See ya next month!