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 |  |  | This service goes to the heart of what successful CRM should be about. | ||||||||||
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We really like these folks:
Doc Searls |
Win/Loss Analysis Service Overview (presentation) There are few things that can contribute as directly to an organization's bottom line as improving sales effectiveness, and a key factor in improving sales effectiveness is knowing the real drivers that are causing deals to be won or lost. Often, the key information about past wins and losses that an organization needs to be effective is in the heads of sales reps, product marketing personnel, or the customers themselves. Cerado has a number of proven business processes for getting that knowledge "out in the open," analyzing it, delivering actionable results based on that analysis, and aiding an organization in moving to a more efficient state, where regular win/loss analysis is a fundamental part of the way things are done. The first step in beginning a relationship with Cerado is a basic one that, despite its simplicity and importance, most "vendors" seem to forget. By way of a series of discussions between your team and the professionals at Cerado, we will jointly identify the areas within your sales organization, your customer base, and your key strategic accounts that will be likely to yield the best results for your investment in this process. There may be a particular geographic region, product line, or set of strategic accounts that are likely to yield the best results of an analysis, and these discussions allow both parties to understand the unique situation so that activities can be tailored to help ensure success. A key deliverable from this part of the relationship is the identified list of direct sales reps, telesales reps, customers, and prospects who will be asked to participate in the project. Identifying Areas of Potential Benefit It is Cerado's belief that "analysis" activities without a clear goal and without a clear commitment to improvement and change are destined to fail. To prevent his common pitfall that causes many organizations" investments to underperform, a key portion of the initial phase of work is the identification of areas of benefit that are relevant to your company. Tools such as the ROI analysis can be used during this part of the process to help highlight the areas of potential benefit, as well as the costs and risks associated with pursuing those benefits areas. It is important to note that the goal of this part of the process is not to create a "shelfware" report that is immediately forgotten. Rather, the intent is to create a roadmap that executives and sponsors can use to help ensure that the investment in this process is a worthwhile one. Sales Rep Interviews (sample) Some of the key constituents in the overall process are the members of the sales force. Both direct representatives and telesales representatives possess significant insight into the reasons why deals are being won and lost. In most cases, this valuable information is not currently being captured from these professionals in a timely, simple, repeatable fashion. Cerado gives these individuals a very rapid and easy-to-use set of web-based tools for capturing information about the deals they were involved in that were recently won, lost or deferred. Over a relatively short period of time (typically one to two weeks), the results of these surveys provide one source of valuable information that feeds back into the organization and can help in reducing the amount of time that reps spend playing "voicemail tag" and sending broadcast emails to their colleagues, looking for current competitive proof points, case studies or references. Customer Interviews (sample) While the sales force provides information from an "internal" view on the market, customers themselves provide the most valuable feedback on why deals are being won. In contrast to the sales rep interviews, which are enabled via a web-based survey, interviews with customers are accomplished via live phone calls. These conversations, conducted by Cerado with an unbiased point-of-view, cover a broad variety of topics, including who the competition was and why your organization was selected over them, what products were purchased, direct questions regarding what your organization is doing well, what your customers think are your areas that need improvement, and the customer's perception of your organization's capabilities on topics such as technical competence, support efficiency, and pricing. These customer interviews typically contain twenty to thirty questions, and transcripts are provided for all interviews that are completed. These customer interviews, of course, provide valuable feedback on what your sales organization was doing "right" to win the sale. These findings can then be used to develop strategies to help disseminate these best practices throughout your sales and marketing organizations, and can be used as case studies to enable both new reps and experienced professionals to sell more efficiently. In addition, these interviews are a mechanism for early identification of customer satisfaction issues, which may be limiting your organization's future revenue. It is these hidden, unexpected gems of customer insight, and sometimes customer pain points, that are often the most valuable. Prospect (Competitive) Interviews (sample) The process for interviewing past prospects is similar to the process for interviewing customers. Once a list of prospects, typically those who chose a competitor over your solution, is identified, Cerado conducts phone interviews with the organizations to determine what the reasons were for their purchase decision. Similar to the customer interviews, the prospect (competitive) interviews are handled live, and typically consist of twenty to thirty questions. One key question that is usually added to these interviews is "What could [your company] have done differently to win this business?" Prospect organizations are often quite willing to express their areas of unmet needs and existing pain that still exist. It is these insights that can aid in identifying areas of improvement for your organization, as well as highlight a number of the competitive "traps" that are being laid for your sales team. The reasons these prospects give for choosing a solution other than yours are, in many cases, shaped and influenced by the messages the prospect had received from your competition. Transcripts are also provided for these interviews as well. Information Analysis's (sample-part 1) (sample-part 2) Immediately after the sales rep surveys are collected, and immediately after the customer and prospect (competitive) interviews are conducted, Cerado's analysis activities begin. Executive"level breakdowns of win/loss results by region or geography, product line, product combination, competitor, price, and decision reason are provided in an easy-to-understand format to enable you to see that is truly going on in your customer base. In addition, all detail down to an individual sales rep or customer is provided as well, to enable deal-level understanding. These results are delivered to you in both report form and in electronic form to enable integration with your existing CRM or other sales effectiveness systems. Actionable Results, Continuous Improvement A large part of Cerado's value comes from enabling a repeatable process for capturing, managing, and disseminating win/loss information that augments, not hinders, your existing sales process. And, in addition to the charts and reports provided, Cerado's analyses contain insight that is a result of years of experience enabling sales teams to execute more effectively. Certain details that are heard in a number of customer interviews may be indicators of a potential customer service problem. An offhand comment or an interesting turn-of-phrase made by a prospect may indicate a new competitive threat. Cerado's results highlight these bits of information, and include suggestions for actionable steps that can help to improve the effectiveness of your sales efforts. Cerado's Win/Loss Analysis Service is available either as a standalone service, or combined with Cerado's other services. Interested in learning more about how Cerado can get you up-to-speed on emerging tools that enable you to develop better connections with your customer community? Contact us and we'd be happy to answer any questions you may have. |
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