Why Did You Lose The Last Sale...Really?

It's time once again for your weekly or monthly sales meeting. You go around the room reviewing activity- chastising some, praising others. Now that that's out of the way, time for the meat and potatoes. You lean back in your chair, put your hands behind your head and with your best steely eyed stare ask the question.

"What have you sold"

One by one the epic tales begin to flow. A mixture of drama, misdirection, comedy, intrigue, victory and tragedy! You sigh... its a typical week of wins, losses, delays and non-sales issues. You look at your watch for a moment pondering the fact that this went faster than planned. Pickings are thin in this turbulent economy.

You close your eyes trying to decide whether to send them out into the field or come up with some brilliant insight to fill the time and actually increase sales. You think to yourself...man, I'm dying here. Dying? Then it hits you... postmortem!

You sit up straight abruptly, grab your pad and flip to a blank page. With pen in hand you ask the question.

"Why did you lose the last sale?"

The room is uncomfortably quite for what seems like an eternity, until a timid voice of a new sales rep is cut off by a booming voice.

"Price... our prices are just too high"
"No one is spending money in this economy"
"Yeah" a couple of voices chime in
"We were late to the table"
"The competitor knew the CEO"
"Someone in another department killed the deal"
"Someone in another department forced the prospect to go with the competitor"
"Our product wasn't a good match"
"The prospect lied to me"
"I didn't exactly lose the deal it just got postponed"

The conversation decays to everyone talking over each other

You write feverishly until the conversation dies down. Dropping your pen you stare at the pattern emerging from the scribbles on your pad. After quickly dismissing everyone you head to your office and pull up each opportunity and study the specifics and the recorded activities.

Your analysis reveals not one but two giant pink elephants in the room.

Your team chases deals that are not winnable and you're being out sold by your competitors!

Stay tuned...