Six Things you Can Learn from Conducting Win Loss Interviews

Posted on December 15, 2011 by ellendnaylor

I am always surprised that more companies don’t have a formal win loss program.
To conduct win/loss, interview your customers or lost customers shortly after the sales event to find out why they chose to do business with you or decided on a competitor. The data gathered combines knowledge from sales, customers, competitors, and your marketplace. Those companies that do win loss claim do improve their win rate by 15-30%. That’s a nice return on investment.

Filed under: competition, Competitive Intelligence, competitor, product development, research, Sales Intelligence, win loss analysis | 2 Comments »

Reviewing “Win/Loss Reviews”

Posted on October 11, 2011 by ellendnaylor

Win Loss Reviews is real-time intelligence collection from selected sales events. Author, Rick Marcet describes how he established a scalable win loss process using technology that hangs off Microsoft’s sales force management system. I particularly appreciate the psychological aspects Mr. Marcet weaves throughout this book to engage Sales as so many in marketing and competitive intelligence fail to motivate Sales to share! This book is a must read for anyone in sales management, marketing especially customer insight, and competitive intelligence.

Filed under: Competitive Intelligence, win loss analysis, Sales Intelligence, product development, real-time intelligence, sales force management | Leave a Comment »

How to Encourage Cooperative Communication from Sales

Posted on March 26, 2011 by ellendnaylor

Many competitive intelligence, marketing, research and product developers complain about poor communication from their sales force, who has a direct conduit to your customers—one of the best sources of knowledge about what your company is doing right and wrong as well as ideas for new products, services and tweaks to your existing products that can be revenue generating!

So how do you encourage cooperative communication from Sales?

Filed under: communication, Competitive Intelligence, win loss analysis, Sales Intelligence, cooperative, AIIP, research, Elicitation, product development, competition | Leave a Comment »

Ethics and Competitive Intelligence

Posted on October 20, 2010 by ellendnaylor

In competitive intelligence we have more issues than most when building and maintaining trust with our customers. Many think our work is only COMPETITOR intelligence which doesn’t help the cause. The other more obvious issue is many consulting firms are experts in a certain industry. What are your best practices and ethics around a company asking you to research their competitor, who might be your customer?

Filed under: Competitive Intelligence, competitor, connection, opportunity analysis, product development, research | 1 Comment »

Use Rivalry to Spur Innovation & Competitive Intelligence Sharing

Posted on May 27, 2010 by ellendnaylor

While GE uses rivalry to stimulate innovation, I believe it can also be used to support other functions such as competitive intelligence in the case of war gaming, in particular. Another group that responds well to healthy rivalry, if you publicize their contribution, is Sales. People are naturally competitive and want to be the best, so healthy rivalry that advances your company’s goals for innovation, improved competitiveness and winning more deals—is a good thing!

Filed under: competition detective, Competitive Intelligence, competitiveness, competitor, cooperative, Cooperative Intelligence, product development, research, Sales Intelligence | 2 Comments »

Connect Cooperatively to Internal & External Experts

Posted on April 20, 2010 by ellendnaylor

Use a cooperative connection approach with internal and external experts regardless of how you reach them. A good way to think about who to connect with internally is: who is dealing with my competitors, customers, the investor community, suppliers, distributors, regulators or attends trade shows? Externally, you need to consider who tracks the marketplace you compete in, in all its aspects: technology, innovation, the environment, economic conditions, politics/lobbyists, regulatory, social issues and the competition.

Filed under: communication, Competitive Intelligence, connection, cooperative, LinkedIn, product development, research, social networks, trade show, Twitter | Tagged: | Leave a Comment »

Capture Win Loss Analysis Cooperatively

Posted on April 15, 2010 by ellendnaylor

Last week, I shared a summary of “5 Tactics to Research Your Marketplace using Competitive Intelligence Skills” originally published by Adam Sutton of MarketingSherpa. As promised, I am focusing on the first one, Conduct win loss analysis. Win loss interviews and the ensuing analysis are one of my favorite cooperative intelligence tools, since it’s a win/win. Your company receives valuable information from your customers and prospects, and you make them feel important since you care enough to query them and give them an opportunity to provide honest, candid feedback on what they like and don’t like about you, and what they like about the competition, for example.

Filed under: Competitive Intelligence, connection, cooperation, cooperative, Cooperative Intelligence, product development, Sales Intelligence, win loss analysis | Tagged: | Leave a Comment »

5 Tactics to Research Your Marketplace using Competitive Intelligence Skills

Posted on April 6, 2010 by ellendnaylor

I was interviewed by Adam Sutton of MarketingSherpa, and in the spirit of cooperative intelligence I am sharing some highlights from each of the 5 tactics to research your marketplace using competitive intelligence skills. 1. Conduct win loss analysis; 2. Talk to internal and external experts; 3. Use trade shows as fact-finding missions 4. Build an information database 5. Remain ethical and avoid deception. I will provide more detail about each of these 5 tactics in future April blogs.

Filed under: communication, Competitive Intelligence, connection, cooperative, Cooperative Intelligence, product development, research, SCIP, trade show, win loss analysis | 5 Comments »

Reviewing Early Chapters of “Competitive Intelligence Advantage”

Posted on March 18, 2010 by ellendnaylor

I am reading Seena Sharp’s book Competitive Intelligence Advantage. In the spirit of cooperative intelligence, I am sharing what I liked about the introduction and the first two chapters in this blog. Stay tuned: I will continue my review as I read further!

Filed under: Competitive Intelligence, connection, cooperative, Cooperative Intelligence, product development, research, Sales Intelligence | 2 Comments »

Assess Your Effectiveness at Trade Shows

Posted on March 5, 2010 by ellendnaylor

In honor of my competitive intelligence colleague, Jonathan Calof, 2010 SCIP Fellow winner, I am writing this post on his subject of expertise, trade shows! Trade shows are one of the best venues for cooperative intelligence practices since if you display cooperative connection and communication skills, the floodgates of knowledge will be yours!

Filed under: communication, Competitive Intelligence, connection, cooperative, Cooperative Intelligence, product development, SCIP, social networks, trade show | Leave a Comment »

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