The purpose of this call, of course, is to obtain the customer's assessment of our sales campaign. At least as importantly, however, is the opportunity this call creates to commit your company to continuing to be a key supplier to the customer and to position yourself for the next major opportunity. This call should be made by at least a second or third level sales manager and is often best done without the participation of the sales team that lost the deal. It is critical to close this information loop quickly so that the team can begin their recovery planning. For large opportunities in major accounts there should have been a written sales plan in place.
Many firms utilize a formal process of analyzing major opportunities.
This opportunity analysis should be reviewed and dissected. An honest evaluation of the lost sales campaign will almost always turn up traps and pitfalls that arose. Most often, these are perpetrated by our competition. We need to document these, select the ones that were most influential in the loss and publish the list for the sales team's future reference and for the education value to the full sales force. If you have a formal routine or document for recording your customer overview knowledge, that should be reviewed in detail, holes identified and plans set forth to avoid this mistake in the future.