A Closer Look At "Lost" Opportunties

"Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently"
-Henry Ford

Here’s a little exercise that I highly recommend:

Go back 60 days in your CRM database and glean through your ‘lost opportunities’.

From these opportunities, randomly select 10-15 prospects.

Next, examine your notes (you do log notes don’t you?) to uncover why the deal fell through.

Now that you have reviewed your list and notes, check the 'reasons' why you lost the sale.

Did you lose out because of:

1. Competition?
2. Pricing?
3. Timing?
4. The economy?
5. Lack of follow up/follow through?
6. Inability to reach the decision maker?
7. Prospect no longer interested?
8. No idea?

If any of the above eight reasons came into play (it helps to be brutally honest here), then it is well worth your while to revisit what you could have done differently since each one of these reasons suggest that you very well could have!

No one, of course, is expected to convert every opportunity into a win—however, you can certainly narrow the number of opportunities that tend to drop off your radar along with the reasons typically associated with them.

Paying attention to the ‘whys’ of previous lost deals will help to increase your awareness/sensitivity around selling with greater
focus--being able to lead with value, handle objections persuasively and elevate customer dialog.

Staying true to the technique of identifying need, budget, time frame and authority, will invariably create clarity and intelligent effort around understanding every layer of your prospect and his/her business...while improving your sales effectiveness.

In doing so, you will notice your ‘win' column gaining momentum while your loss opps not so much!