Presentation given at ProductCamp St. Louis - March 28, 2015 How do you get into the mind of B2B customers and prospects to find out what they really think and desire? B2B companies are typically a lot less vocal on social media and you might not be able to observe their behavior … so how do you learn about them? If you’re looking for strategic and tactical insights from your B2B customers and prospects — how they make decisions, what they value, where they’re headed, how they identify vendors, what they think of your offerings and what they think of competitors — the best (and perhaps only) way to get this information is through in-depth interviews in a process called win/loss analysis.

1. © 2015 Insight Researchers LLC
Win/Loss Analysis:
Insight into the Minds of
B2B Customers/Prospects
ProductCamp St. Louis
March 28, 2015
Presented by: Shelly Azar, Insight Researchers

2. © 2015 Insight Researchers LLC 2
What is Win/Loss Analysis?
Interviews with customers (wins) and
prospects (losses) after deals close to
learn how the decisions were made.

3. © 2015 Insight Researchers LLC 3
Gain Strategic & Tactical Insight
 Info About Your Firm
 What you do right
 What needs to improve
 Why you win/lose
 Advice from others
 Competitors
 Who they are
 Strengths / weaknesses
 Pricing / sales strategy
 Product info
 Customers
 Customer personas
 What they like/dislike
 What they want
 How they decide to buy
 Where they’re heading
 Products/Services
 Most important
features/functions
 Desired
features/functions

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3 Types of Scenarios
 Interview sales force
 Interview customers/prospects
(by someone in your company)
 Interview customers/prospects
(by external third-party)

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Win/Loss Process
 Identify who to interview
 Identify which deals to include
 Get buy-in from management / sales
 Decide what to ask / get input
 Conduct interviews
 Analyze results
 Disseminate findings

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Tips
 Ask both qualitative (open-ended)
and quantitative questions
 Sales should NOT do the calls (bias)
 Timing – should be ongoing process

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Examples of Win/Loss Findings

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Win & Loss Reasons
Price
23%
Relationship
w/Competitor
18%
Product
Attributes
6%
Technology
24%
Stay
w/Incumbent
29%

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Win/Loss by Deal Value
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
<$25K $25K-$49K $50K-$99K $100K-$199K $200K-$499K >$500K
Product A Won Product A Lost Product B Won
Product B Lost Product C Won Product C Lost
No Product Purchased

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How Does the Market Find Vendors?
8%
14%
27%
25%
26%
18%
17% 5%
2%
17%
22% 18%
25%
17%
14%
8%
14% 21%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
2013 2012 2011
RFP/RFI
Trade Show/ Conference
Sales Rep / Consultant
Peers/Social Networking
Industry Analyst
Internet Search
Already Knew Vendor /
Product

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Decision-Making Criteria
4.6
2.7
3.7
2.6
3.2
4.4
3.8
4.5
4.1
3.8
3.8
3.2
4.0
3.3
0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0
Technical Fit*
Vendor's Company Size*
Vendor's Financial Stability*
Vendor's Brand*
Vendor's Customer Base*
Product Features
ROI
Successful Implementation
Ease of Use
Product Road Map
Price
References
Integration Capabilities
Partnerships
(1 = no importance; 5 = key criteria)

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Contact Levels From Decision-Maker
0 = self
21%
1 = boss
16%
2 = boss's boss
32%
Finance
5%
Other Dept
5%
Collaborative
Decision
16%
Don't Know
5%

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Would Customers Recommend?
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
AAA BBB CCC
Yes
No
Conditional
Undecided / Haven't
Used It

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Initial / Final Selection Criteria
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Ease of Use
Integration w/HW & SW
Price
Performance / Functionality
Relationship w/Vendor
ROI
Svcs (training, support, proj mgmt)
Tech Support (local)
Time (quick implement)
Vendor Reputation
Vision / Roadmap
Product A Product B Product C

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Vendors: Initial / Short-List / Final
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
Product A Product B Product C

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THANK YOU for attending!
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or if you have any questions,
please contact me:
Shelly Azar
www.insightresearchers.com
shelly@insightresearchers.com
314-225-7815