12/5/2023-Your Closed-Lost Insights

Understanding why your buyers buy is one of the more challenging yet fulfilling parts of being a sales pro. Every buyer and sale is different; learning all you can to help for the next time is key.

If you had a dollar for every time your manager told you how important it is to learn from your mistakes, you’d be retired.

But you probably don’t slow down enough and do what’s needed to learn why you and your offering fell short on your "Closed Losts." After all, it’s so easy to move on to the next moving target. (Not to mention how hard it is to get access to the buyer and learn the truth.)

Don’t feel sheepish…just think about how you can change your actions to get valuable info for the next battle.

When you lose a deal, don’t just tick your CRM’s Closed-Lost box and move on to the next hot opp. Maniacally push for buyer access to learn what happened. The info you learn will give you a competitive advantage on the next opportunity…which will come sooner than you think.

You may not get all of the truth from the buyer that you need – but walking away without getting any insights creates future vulnerability.

Today, prepare your plan for gaining access and learning the insights on lost business that you and your company deserve to know.

Think of the leverage you’d have if you knew everything about why a buyer didn’t buy. Sure, there are lots of reasons why they don’t buy, but you don’t need to know all of them; you merely need to find out which ones are the most important.

Table stakes include things like timing, fit, need, etc. But those are variables much easier to manage versus issues that are harder to uncover and more nuanced.

What about connecting with a buyer? Literally, it suggests you didn’t get access to the KDMs you needed. But the next layer might imply you and a KDM weren’t communicating as effectively as needed.

Who knows? It could have been personality or stylistic differences. But you can’t just move on and keep your head buried; it’s your job to figure out how to solve it. And to address what skill issues you need to develop so that losing business doesn’t become habitual.

Obviously, losing creates a massive learning opportunity. Everything – and anything – you learn is insightful and will help you the next time. And the good news is there’s always a next time.

This R-rated 2-minute clip from the movie Analyze That leaves no imagination why Robert DeNiro’s character didn’t make the sale.

No company on earth has a Closed-Lost CRM option titled "Offend the Buyer with Vulgarity." If there were, DeNiro would own that option.

Unwritten Rule #1: Ya may wanna avoid insulting customers.

Rule #2: when you tick the "Closed-Lost" box in your CRM, don’t view it negatively; instead, look at it as an opportunity to shorten the distance between you and the next sale.