It is a foregone conclusion you will get access to a buyer soon after hearing you’ve lost a piece of business. (Promise you’ll fight to find someone to talk to you??) Don’t take the easy road and move on to the next opportunity without learning as much as you can from the lost deal.

Moving on without learning anything is the equivalent of quitting…and you’re not a quitter.

Even though the decision has been made, you are obligated to yourself and your organization to close the book correctly: learn and gain insights from the buyer on everything possible about your sales approach, offering fit, and objectives. (It’s common for buyers to shift their objectives and strategies midstream during the proposal process.)

Learning where you fell short is key in developing your personal AI knowledge for every subsequent opportunity that comes next. What you learn informs how you’ll play it the next time.

Once you gain access, realize you may have about four or five questions to ask the buyer before the buyer wants to move on. The first and most obvious question to ask is… "What did the vendors who won the business have and do that we did not?"

But don’t stop there; prepare your list of questions to ask that update your knowledge and set you up for the next time.