Why Win-Loss analysis is essential in Competitive Intelligence?
This article is an elementary introduction to Win-Loss Analysis and asks why Win-Loss analysis is essential in Competitive Intelligence? Competitive intelligence, also known as corporate intelligence, is the fundamental way to gather information on competitors, customers, & other market factors. Then and analyse and synthesise the information to create actionable insights.
Only twenty percentage
Win-loss programs are essential at every level of an organisation because it helps explain why customers choose or do not choose specific solutions. It’s a forensic market research exercise that captures and analyses why a company wins or loses sales opportunities. Only 20% of companies have been seen to value win-loss analysis, but it’s clear that the more an enterprise know its customers & the market, the faster it can grow its business.
And Win/loss programs help better understand customers’ buying behaviour and learn more about competitors. To increasing deal win rates, sharpen their product strategy, and build sustainable competitive advantage, companies need win/loss analysis. An effective win-loss program can help firms enhance marketing strategies, foster strategic alignment, prioritise product gaps, and improve sales training & messaging to a great extent.
A win-loss program creates a robust platform for daily interaction for the Competitive Intelligence team with sales staff and other parts of the company, including product design, development, support, service, etc.
What is Competitive Intelligence?
Competitive intelligence is the finding, sorting and critical analysis of information. To make sense of what’s happening and why. Predict what’s going to happen and give the options to help you control the outcome. Competitive intelligence offers certainty, competitive advantage, insight, growth & security.
Greater perspective on the competition
Regular interactions offer the Competitive Intelligence team a greater perspective on the competitive situation, thereby helping create insight channels and promoting the aims of Competitive Intelligence throughout the company.
Moreover, a win/loss program can gather quantitative and qualitative information on competitors’ new and future product pricing, features, functionality, or other factors. Such information can create lucrative opportunities in the market. Analysing aggregate performances across various deals can determine the buyer’s most critical decision factors in different segments.
Win-Loss provides sellers with insights into what is most important to the buyer. The value proposition with each decision factor of the buyer can be matched will allow for value-based pricing. So, the insights offer more effective product positioning when product messaging, and decision factors are aligned. A Competitive Intelligence team can also develop sales battle cards that highlight the competitor’s weakness.
Improve sales
During the interaction with company leaders and senior executives, the Competitive Intelligence and win-loss teams can present market insights and recommend actions to improve sales. And when a comparative advantage in the selling process is made, your offer looks more attractive to the buyer.
It has been estimated that organisations conducting win-loss programs have been experiencing improved company performance metrics compared to those that don’t. Effective win-loss programs share findings with stakeholders across the organisation and encourage action, which in turn, becomes easy for stakeholders to search, study, and adopt the results. If your company has no win-loss program in place, you can start to win your game. Beat your competitors and increase revenues.
A win-loss analysis roadmap should look something like this:
- Determine the questions associated with a purchasing decision, sales team ability, pricing, contracts and feature and benefits of your offering
- Understand which departments and product lines need to know the results of the Win-Loss analysis
- Develop an understanding of your sales and marketing process, product lines and target market
- Conduct impartial interviews with the decision-makers at your new customer or prospective companies to discuss won and lost deals
- The interactions are analysed, and overall key findings and trends are reported within an agreed time frame along with the original interview material.
- Take time to understand what you can do with the results.
- Over several successful and failed deals will look to gather a list of recommendations about your sales process and approach, value proposition, perceived features and benefits and isolated potential alternative USPs.
- And the results can also be used to praise sales and after-sales teams and suggest new ways of working without singling out individual salespeople for criticism.
Why Win-Loss analysis is essential in Competitive Intelligence?
This is a joint article by Octopus and Suchita Gupta called why win-loss analysis is essential in Competitive Intelligence?
Author’s Bio – Suchita Gupta is an explorer, musician and content writer. While pursuing MBA, she found that nothing satisfies her more than writing on various domains. She is a writer by day and a reader by night. Besides, she can be found entertaining her audience on social media platforms. Find her on LinkedIn & Instagram.
