In Part I of "How To Conduct Win-Loss Analysis To Achieve Strategic Growth", I discussed the pre-interview and interview phases of Win-Loss Analysis. The post-interview phase is the most important element of the Win-Loss Analysis process. During this phase, you will gain insights on how to actually improve your processes, and as a result, better [...]
I have been involved with Win-Loss Analysis from the product and sales sides since the mid–1990’s and have written about the subject since 2009. To this day, I do not understand why more companies aren’t conducting win-loss interviews, analyzing results and implementing lessons learned. When I speak with companies, many think they know the answers [...]
There are many opinions about content gating these days. There have been LinkedIn Group discussions about it as well as blog posts debating or trying to visualize it. I recently asked marketers on a LinkedIn Group discussion about content gating. I posed three questions - (1) Are you gating content? (2) What content types do you [...]
Last week I read a Wall Street Journal post by Jessica Livingston entitled "Why Startups Need to Focus on Sales, Not Marketing". While reading the post, I kept on remembering a line from one of my favorite films, Taps, where the lead character's father says to him, "Let me tell 'em it was growing pains [...]
One thing I like about engaging with my social networks is being able to ask questions and get people’s thoughts on issues, problems, and trends. Recently, I asked on Twitter, “Do marketing and sales still have trouble working together?” The answer was particularly telling: “No. They just do it badly.” In many organizations, the challenge [...]
I remember when Bill Lee's post in Harvard Business Review came out in August 2012. There was outrage in the marketing community. Well, how could there not be outrage? The title of his post was "Marketing Is Dead". He was right - traditional marketing is dead. This is where I diverge. Mr. Lee notes "Traditional [...]
In a sales person's mind, ABC stands for "Always Be Closing". We all remember Alec Baldwin's famous words in Glengarry Glen Ross... [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVQPY4LlbJ4&w=420&h=315] We say ABC stands for Always. Be. Curious. Staying curious keeps us present to life, keeps our creative juices flowing, opens us to new opportunities. And, as Steve Jobs notes, his stumbling [...]
A few years ago, I wrote an article about Win-Loss Analysis for Product Managers. This is an update of that article. Marketers need to show their internal and external customers the value they bring to the table. Internal customers you say? The first group is Sales. Marketing can go a long way to close the [...]
