When sales is your business’s lifeblood, nothing is more important than winning that opportunity, but let’s face it, you can’t win ‘em all. You’ve got an amazing team, and when a month goes by where the win rate is less than you projected, it is important to understand what happened so that you can improve your processes going forward and ensure you’re not spinning your wheels on deals that’ll never close. You discuss why deals fall through, but if you don’t capture that anywhere, it’s going to disappear into the ether.
The solution here is quick, easy, and will give you a lot of insight going forward. Create a new picklist field called “Reason Lost” on Opportunities and/or Leads. Talk to your team, gather the most common reasons, and add them to the list. Now create a few Reports and Dashboards to give you a breakdown of the new data. After a few months, you should have a good idea what makes deals fall through. If it’s budget, you’ll know to ask the right questions up front. If it’s geographical, you can target clients in more ideal regions.
This fix is quick, but it can save you a lot of time and help your team focus on the opportunities that are most likely to succeed. Give your database a little TLC and you’ll be the office hero.
-Jared and the Salesforce Guys
CEO of CloudMyBiz Salesforce CRM consulting services with a deep knowledge in the lending industry. Taking keen interest in the project management side of operations, playing a vital role in the 31% YOY company growth. Strategic leader, mastering the ability to problem solve at every level of the business, providing effective solutions for clients.