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Other Added - Business Competition Best Practices: Win Loss Research
Everyone has difficult clients, the ones that make you wince when they call, you dread meeting with, and you lose sleep thinking about sending your bill to and having to deal with their adverse reaction. However, there are simple steps you can take to improve your business relationships with these loose cannons. The following are six ways to handle difficult clients:1. Watch for warning signals. It's easier to not start a relationship than it is to sever an ongoing relationship. When you are interviewing potential new clients keep an eye out for warning signs such as potential conflicts of interest, involvement
3) Development of a stimulating research survey that operates as a guide rather than a questionnaire is the backbone to outstanding results.
Surprisingly, the tone and quality of the initial research request can make or break your ability to get robust participation.
A common pitfall among companies that report doing Win Loss Research is that they have their employees, typically the sales representatives, perform the research. You do need to have your sales people find out what happened. This should precede Win Loss Research which goes beyond the limited conversation from your sales reps' debriefing. Also, it defies human behavior to think that the customer will feel comfortable being candid with a sales rep who has not met their expectations or that the sales rep will be candid in
THERE is an alliterative saying I learnt in the Air Force: Prior Preparation Prevents Pretty Poor Performance.The 6P Rule is central to many things, especially those requiring structure and excellent organisation. Why? Because if you don't get it right, every one of the participants will know you have dropped the ball.The first necessity is to know exactly what you want; will you provide lunch, include accommodation, include freebies such as brief cases, package the conference with discount airfares, hire cars and a trip to a local tourism venue? What about spouses and partners, will they be included?
The benefits that Win Loss Research routinely delivers include:
* Increasing your rate of successful wins in competitive sales situations
* Enhancing your product management and development initiatives
* Reducing the level of uncertainty involved in sales forecasting
* Strengthening top and bottom line results for your business
* Improving the efficiency of your sales cycle process
* Setting the stage for future business growth
Win Loss Research is a succinct, guided discussion with decision makers and influencers who have been involved in your recent win and loss sales decisions. The goal is to learn what key distinctions they saw between you and your competitors, the importance of those distinctions and the value they assigned to each competitor. While the focus of this research is on gaining insight into how your competitors operate and how you fare in comparison, it is inevitable that you also gain valuable customer information in the process.
Win Loss Research drills down beyond standard pricing issues and gets into territories such as: decision process, sales team approach and professionalism, company reputation, product attributes, service issues, and handling of proposals. Although pricing information is involved, it should not be the centerpiece of the research unless it becomes apparent that it really was the key issue that drove the decision. The goal of Win Loss Research is to provide you with competitive insight you can act upon - actionable competitive intelligence - for sales process improvement and better results.
Typically this research is conducted either over the telephone or in a face-to-face interview. The latter is more common in places and cultures where that is the preferred communication modality. Getting the results that you want out of Win Loss Research is a combination of art and science; art being the skill of the researcher in eliciting the intelligence that you need; science being the development of a research guide that facilitates the discovery of actionable competitive intelligence.
As with almost anything worth doing, focusing on Critical Success Factors (CSFs) increases the likelihood that you will get what you need. For Win Loss Research, focusing on the following CSFs will greatly increase your likelihood of obtaining productive competitor intelligence:
1) Use professional competitive researchers who are skilled in drawing out actionable competitive intelligence. They will also be perceived as unbiased, thereby ensuring candor.
2) Selecting the optimal mix of win and loss opportunities to research is a reasonably complex task which must be done correctly to ensure that you are gaining insight from the target markets that matter most.
3) Development of a stimulating research survey that operates as a guide rather than a questionnaire is the backbone to outstanding results.
Surprisingly, the tone and quality of the initial research request can make or break your ability to get robust participation.
A common pitfall among companies that report doing Win Loss Research is that they have their employees, typically the sales representatives, perform the research. You do need to have your sales people find out what happened. This should precede Win Loss Research which goes beyond the limited conversation from your sales reps' debriefing. Also, it defies human behavior to think that the customer will feel comfortable being candid with a sales rep who has not met their expectations or that the sales rep will be candid in p
Over one half of all new businesses fail within the first 3 years of trading. But with sound planning, some business knowledge and most important of all a great dream you can dramatically improve your chances of surviving, growing and succeeding.Have Long Term GoalsThe primary task in managing a business is deciding its long-term objectives. If you can imagine what you want your business to look like in five years time you have more chance of achieving your dreams.Create your VisionYou need to seriously think about what products and services you will be offering and to what type of customer. Co
* Setting the stage for future business growth
Win Loss Research is a succinct, guided discussion with decision makers and influencers who have been involved in your recent win and loss sales decisions. The goal is to learn what key distinctions they saw between you and your competitors, the importance of those distinctions and the value they assigned to each competitor. While the focus of this research is on gaining insight into how your competitors operate and how you fare in comparison, it is inevitable that you also gain valuable customer information in the process.
Win Loss Research drills down beyond standard pricing issues and gets into territories such as: decision process, sales team approach and professionalism, company reputation, product attributes, service issues, and handling of proposals. Although pricing information is involved, it should not be the centerpiece of the research unless it becomes apparent that it really was the key issue that drove the decision. The goal of Win Loss Research is to provide you with competitive insight you can act upon - actionable competitive intelligence - for sales process improvement and better results.
Typically this research is conducted either over the telephone or in a face-to-face interview. The latter is more common in places and cultures where that is the preferred communication modality. Getting the results that you want out of Win Loss Research is a combination of art and science; art being the skill of the researcher in eliciting the intelligence that you need; science being the development of a research guide that facilitates the discovery of actionable competitive intelligence.
As with almost anything worth doing, focusing on Critical Success Factors (CSFs) increases the likelihood that you will get what you need. For Win Loss Research, focusing on the following CSFs will greatly increase your likelihood of obtaining productive competitor intelligence:
1) Use professional competitive researchers who are skilled in drawing out actionable competitive intelligence. They will also be perceived as unbiased, thereby ensuring candor.
2) Selecting the optimal mix of win and loss opportunities to research is a reasonably complex task which must be done correctly to ensure that you are gaining insight from the target markets that matter most.
3) Development of a stimulating research survey that operates as a guide rather than a questionnaire is the backbone to outstanding results.
Surprisingly, the tone and quality of the initial research request can make or break your ability to get robust participation.
A common pitfall among companies that report doing Win Loss Research is that they have their employees, typically the sales representatives, perform the research. You do need to have your sales people find out what happened. This should precede Win Loss Research which goes beyond the limited conversation from your sales reps' debriefing. Also, it defies human behavior to think that the customer will feel comfortable being candid with a sales rep who has not met their expectations or that the sales rep will be candid in
Don’t believe the scuttle butt. Presented well and to the right audience with the right follow-up systems; seminars are still an extremely effective marketing tool for financial advisors. The problem is that many advisors aren’t paying attention to these details. Are there advisors using seminars effectively? Yes! In fact, some of the very top advisor coaches are convincing their clients to focus more on seminar marketing in these turbulent times and these advisors are reaping large harvests from their efforts.Why use seminar marketing?Begin with the end in mind, says Steven Covey. In this case, we want to
Typically this research is conducted either over the telephone or in a face-to-face interview. The latter is more common in places and cultures where that is the preferred communication modality. Getting the results that you want out of Win Loss Research is a combination of art and science; art being the skill of the researcher in eliciting the intelligence that you need; science being the development of a research guide that facilitates the discovery of actionable competitive intelligence.
As with almost anything worth doing, focusing on Critical Success Factors (CSFs) increases the likelihood that you will get what you need. For Win Loss Research, focusing on the following CSFs will greatly increase your likelihood of obtaining productive competitor intelligence:
1) Use professional competitive researchers who are skilled in drawing out actionable competitive intelligence. They will also be perceived as unbiased, thereby ensuring candor.
2) Selecting the optimal mix of win and loss opportunities to research is a reasonably complex task which must be done correctly to ensure that you are gaining insight from the target markets that matter most.
3) Development of a stimulating research survey that operates as a guide rather than a questionnaire is the backbone to outstanding results.
Surprisingly, the tone and quality of the initial research request can make or break your ability to get robust participation.
A common pitfall among companies that report doing Win Loss Research is that they have their employees, typically the sales representatives, perform the research. You do need to have your sales people find out what happened. This should precede Win Loss Research which goes beyond the limited conversation from your sales reps' debriefing. Also, it defies human behavior to think that the customer will feel comfortable being candid with a sales rep who has not met their expectations or that the sales rep will be candid in
There are no excuses for lost sales...But, if you're like me, you've given plenty. Among my favorite are the following:"I only get bad leads.""I don't have enough time.""I can't make someone do something.""I'm having a bad month."Most of the time we use excuses in place of well-honed technique. Instead of putting in the energy to master the basics of sales, and constantly improve, we would rather invent another creative reason of why every force in the world is against us meeting our quota.Here's a secret....(it's a freebie, so no need to send money)...the number one reason
As with almost anything worth doing, focusing on Critical Success Factors (CSFs) increases the likelihood that you will get what you need. For Win Loss Research, focusing on the following CSFs will greatly increase your likelihood of obtaining productive competitor intelligence:
1) Use professional competitive researchers who are skilled in drawing out actionable competitive intelligence. They will also be perceived as unbiased, thereby ensuring candor.
2) Selecting the optimal mix of win and loss opportunities to research is a reasonably complex task which must be done correctly to ensure that you are gaining insight from the target markets that matter most.
3) Development of a stimulating research survey that operates as a guide rather than a questionnaire is the backbone to outstanding results.
Surprisingly, the tone and quality of the initial research request can make or break your ability to get robust participation.
A common pitfall among companies that report doing Win Loss Research is that they have their employees, typically the sales representatives, perform the research. You do need to have your sales people find out what happened. This should precede Win Loss Research which goes beyond the limited conversation from your sales reps' debriefing. Also, it defies human behavior to think that the customer will feel comfortable being candid with a sales rep who has not met their expectations or that the sales rep will be candid in
Careers in medical fields require great responsibility; dexterity in the specialized line of medical affairs is an inevitable part of the whole thing. As time goes by, a career in the medical profession is becoming more of a challenge, adventure and competition. One can belong to any of the fields of medical science.One can be a doctor, medical officer, pharmaceutical manager, administrator of a hospital, a nurse, medical transcriptor, medical biller, medical coder and much more. Many new medical careers are related to the manufacturing, business administrative and management fields of medicine. Among all the vario
3) Development of a stimulating research survey that operates as a guide rather than a questionnaire is the backbone to outstanding results.
Surprisingly, the tone and quality of the initial research request can make or break your ability to get robust participation.
A common pitfall among companies that report doing Win Loss Research is that they have their employees, typically the sales representatives, perform the research. You do need to have your sales people find out what happened. This should precede Win Loss Research which goes beyond the limited conversation from your sales reps' debriefing. Also, it defies human behavior to think that the customer will feel comfortable being candid with a sales rep who has not met their expectations or that the sales rep will be candid in passing along information that may be construed as unfavorable to them.
An extraordinary thing about Win Loss Research is that any size or category of company should be able to implement this as an ongoing business practice and see steady gains in their customer acquisition and sales. This form of research is not particularly costly or difficult to do, yet it does take a certain willingness to expose yourself to news that may make you uncomfortable at times.
One of the most frequent comments our researchers hear is a compliment to our clients for taking the time to learn and improve from their experience. Once you establish a practice of doing Win Loss Research routinely and take action on the results, your company will realize the benefits of implementing this business competition best practice.
(c) 2005. Bishop Market Resources. All rights reserved. Permission to reprint granted provided the article and byline are printed intact with all links made live.
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