As an SDR, if one of my accounts was labeled 'closed lost I would reach out to my POC and ask them about the sales process (after checking with my AE, of course).
- What could we have done differently to earn their business?
- Is there a feature we were lacking that they needed?
- Is it just a timing thing?
It helped me uncover a lot of competitive info, anecdotal data, industry trends, etc.
But a lot of reps I talk with claim that it's "a job for marketing" or "my manager/AE handles that."
I think it's a missed opportunity, they don't think it's something worth doing.
Do you/your SDRs run their own autopsy reports? Is management encouraging reps to do so? What do they look like?
I'd love to make this common practice!
In a previous business, we used to put these in a ‘second look’ bucket. As I got some time to do a deeper dive into topics like you mentioned. We didn’t have hard metrics on success, but I would say probably 1 out of every 15 gave us a chance to earn their business back. I feel it is a great practice if you have time to dedicate to it or this would be a great task for someone who you are bringing up under your wing.
Hope this helps AJ!
It’s a great idea @ajalonzo
It really depends on the size of the account and the reason for closed lost
We started to implement a Closed Lost Debreif on specific cases – the VP of Sales and myself SDR Director looked at the entire process – listened to SDR calls and qualification, all calls and emails between AE and Customer
Then held a roundtable discussion – not to point fingers but learn from the mistakes
in some cases I will even call the customer as a “member of the deal review committee” seeking feedback