In the learning and development world there is a concept known as the Four Stages of Competence. Stage 1 is “Unconscious Incompetence” – meaning that the learner is both ineffective and unaware that there’s a problem. Stage 4, on the other hand, is “Unconscious Competence.” At that level the learner has mastered their craft to the point that they no longer have to think about how to be successful.
Like people, companies exist at all four levels. Losing a deal, coming in 2nd place on a big request for proposal, or having a customer defect to the competition are all real events that happen to good companies as well as bad. The problem is that when companies lose, too many times they don’t really know why they lost – or how to win the next time. That’s the business equivalent of Stage 1.
Similarly, when companies win a new piece of business or successfully wrestle market share away from a competitor, they don’t really know why they were successful. They assume too much – “we had the best price/solution/quality/value” – but don’t take the time to verify with the customer why they were chosen. It’s great to win, but to build a sustainably effective enterprise knowing how you won is essential.
Benefits of Win/Loss Analysis:
- Feedback to guide improvements in your proposals and how they’re developed
- Capture buyer perceptions of your value proposition’s strengths and weaknesses
- Verification of buying criteria used by customers and prospects
- Competitive intelligence regarding pricing, solutions, sales process
- Better win rates
How E.G. Insight Can Help:
We’ll help your organization develop a win/loss analysis process tailored for your company. We’ll help you launch it, equip you to gather the data or do it on your behalf, analyze and summarize the key findings, and present recommendations to your team.
