In analyzing lost sales opportunities that were rated ‘likely to close’, it’s common for the reason provided by the sales rep in the CRM to boil down to a simple word, or phrase – we lost on price.
The reality is that most complex products and solutions are rarely decided on price alone, and studies show that when multiple providers are evaluated, the selected solution provider is rarely the one with the lowest price.
Companies invest a lot into CRM deployment and reporting, so this trend is doubly disappointing – losing both the deal – AND – leadership visibility of factors that really drove the decision from the customer’s point of view. Add to that – not getting relevant insight into what would have swung the sale in your direction.
In fact, in most mid-market or enterprise B2B opportunities, there are multiple decision influencers, but typically the rep driving the deal is only speaking to one point person. And post-decision, if the disappointed rep calls to find out how or why the decision went the other way, there is an instant discomfort that point person experiences – he or she feels bad about disappointing someone who has worked hard and whose company had a viable solution.
So rather than risk a needless confrontation, what the rep often hears is one of two things:
- Our (fill in the blank) executive drove it in another direction at the last minute, or
- The (selected) solution provider came in with the lowest price and we have a mandate to trim budget
The phantom decision influencer story can be real and usually can be addressed in the sales process with proper training. The PRICE explanation is almost always a canard. Most buying decisions are careful ones and are based on value perceptions. These value perceptions aren’t a judgment of the sales rep’s approach or work ethic; they speak more directly to the product or service and how it adapts to the use case.
There is always the possibility that the decision is largely a reflection of the sales rep’s acumen or responsiveness as well. But in either case, leadership will never learn about the true drivers from the rep’s CRM notes.
Key takeaway: the available learning is instructive across the marketing/sales spectrum.
Fortunately, there are proven methods that reliably get to an actionable set of truths. And we have been practicing those methods for 25 years.
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