Win loss analysis is the process of retrospectively looking at deals and gathering intel on why they were closed won or lost, based on internal and customer surveys and interviews.

Most non-enterprise teams don’t have a structured program in place, so we’re giving out a free Google Sheet template to get you started.

This template serves as a basic starting point to track interviews and win/loss reasons and we recommend using it as a starting point to build your own program.

1. Create your win/loss reasons

On the first sheet you should see an area with a blue background. Add your organizations custom reasons in each category. For example, you may have custom product reasons like “Partnerships” or “Compliance”. There are a few examples for you to start with and detailed instructions are in the Google Sheet.

2. Create your win/loss reasons

Once your reasons are in those cells, they should show up as options when entering the results of interviews and surveys. Use the second sheet to track deals, internal/external interviews, and win/loss reasons.

3. View the results

Back on the first sheet you should now see some data summaries, as well as a few graphs to show win/loss by reason and by category. On the very right there’s also an external/internal story comparison, which shows the difference between what internal vs external stakeholders are saying.

Benefits of win loss analysis

Win-loss analysis is essential for modern sales teams. By digging into the details of past deals, you can spot patterns and trends that might not be obvious at first glance. Maybe you'll discover that your pricing is spot-on for small businesses but needs tweaking for bigger clients. Or you might discover that your product demo is knocking it out of the park, but your follow-up game could be improved. These kind of insights let you adapt your sales strategy, train your team better, and give product development some solid feedback.

Win loss with Hindsight

If you outgrow tracking your win-loss with a spreadsheet, you can try a dedicated tool like Hindsight. Hindsight helps teams automate both internal and external feedback collection, automatically extracts reasons from transcripts and surveys, and presents the data in live dashboards, win wire updates, newsletters, and other enablement materials. Apart from improving win rates, this kind of enablement can benefit team culture by showing recognition for those who closed important deals.

Click here to get the template above!