Untapped Sales Intelligence – 3 Steps to Learn from Sales Wins

Does Your Team Learn from Sales Wins?
Many high performing sales teams learn from sales losses and projects that go awry with project post mortems.  Most experienced sales leaders and coaches are adept at post-loss reviews and uncovering what went wrong to improve future close rates.  Few, however devote much time or energy to learn from sales wins.

Why Sales Teams Do Not Debrief Sales Wins
Once the deal is won and the contract has been signed, most sales teams celebrate and then do what it takes to make sure that the contract is successfully fulfilled.  Sure, you deserve to celebrate.  And making sure you follow through on your commitments is a given, but wait — there’s valuable learning to be done that can help in future sales.

The First Step after a Sales Win – Learn!
Even before you celebrate, we recommend your first step once the sale is final should be to analyze why you won. High performing sales teams consistently learn from sales wins.

In the words of John Dewey, American philosopher, psychologist and educational reformer: “We do not learn from experience; we learn from reflecting on experience.”

Why Learning from Sales Wins Matters
For the same reason it makes sense to conduct sales post-loss reviews, it makes just as much sense to increase your insight into what worked, why it worked, and how you can carry those winning sales lessons forward.

By reviewing the whole sales process and debriefing the experience with your customer and your team, you can pressure test your sales strategy, value proposition, target client profile, pricing, negotiating, contracting, and sales methodology.

Why you win contains a treasure trove of information so you can continually improve your consultative selling techniques and grow your business.

Three Steps to Learn from Sales Wins
Review the solution selling and buying experiences by examining these aspects of the sale:

1. The Buyer
   Think carefully about the buyer. Certainly it helps to know such basics as their industry, company size, and job title; but it also helps to know their working and communication styles, their actual function within their organization, and the kind of influence they wield.

   What are the characteristics of this buyer that enabled you to make a strong connection and earn their trust? How close did they fit your target client profile?

   Once you deeply understand the attributes of your ideal buyer, you have a better chance of finding and winning others like them — especially through sales referrals.

2. The Buyer’s Experience
   Think from the buyer’s point of view — how would they describe your company and what differentiated you and your offerings from the competition?

   Remember, it’s not how you describe what your organization does but how the buyer perceives the company and the value you bring.

   That’s what really defines your brand promise and your competitive edge. Know what the buyer valued most and compare that to your value proposition and go-to-market sales strategy. Any changes or updates required?

3. What You’ve Learned about Where to Go Next
   Figure out how you found this buyer in the first place and take note so you can find others with similar needs. The key is to learn from what worked so you can replicate the experience. Of course, you should learn from what didn’t work too.

   Perhaps you presented a solution that didn’t fit. Capture why it didn’t so you can avoid that approach next time around. And were there any other dead ends?

   Knowing how to smooth the sales journey next time can save you time and show future buyers that you truly understand what they need.

The Bottom Line
Winning new business is not easy in the world of complex B2B sales.  If you want to build a healthy and thriving sales culture, you should have a standard review of each sale — those you win and those you lose.  Learn from sales wins.

If you want to learn more about how to win business with ideal target clients, download 4 Steps to Identify and Target Your Best Clients to Accelerate Growth