The More, the Merrier: Stakeholder-centric Win Loss Analysis (Part One)

by Ken Allred, November 23, 2010

Like most people, every so often I get in one of those moods to just sit back and reminisce. I was thinking today about how the end product of the research we do here at Primary Intelligence (our deliverables) have changed and evolved over the years, and what drove those changes. At first, we started off producing very traditional reports that contained extensive charts and tables with pages and pages of explanatory text, additional analysis, and recommendations, delivered as a PDF or MS Word document to the point of contact for our client. These reports were informative, comprehensive, professional in design and execution . . . and usually underutilized.

In fact, we often found—to our horror—that the reports we sent to our clients would never get past our point of contact.  At best, the point of contact would take the data and analysis we provided, reconstruct it, and then disseminate small parts of it to those who they thought might find it useful. At worst, the information wouldn’t be distributed at all, as if the point of contact wasn’t interested in using the intelligence, but instead just wanted to collect intelligence, like it was a  stamp or a butterfly.  In some extreme cases, the individuals at the company who could most use the information (executives, sales managers, marketing managers, product management, sales representatives, etc.) didn’t even know we were doing win loss analysis for them.

These revelations were a definite wake-up call and emphasized the vital importance of including all relevant stakeholders in a win loss analysis program as early as you can in the program.  Even in the best of cases, where our point of contact would pass information along to others in the organization, those stakeholders were only the recipients of information—they weren’t involved in the process of uncovering the best win loss intelligence, or market evidence to meet their needs.

We quickly realized that it wasn’t just our deliverable that was the problem; it was how we were envisioning our client. We were looking at the client as a single entity (with the point of contact as its representative), rather than as a collection of diverse stakeholders, all with their own concerns, needs, priorities, and agendas. To reverse an old saying, we were too busy looking at the forest and not taking time to look at the trees.

To make sure this scenario never happens again, we have worked diligently to refine our methodologies, our client communication, our internal and external tools, and all of our deliverables to reflect a “stakeholder-centric” perspective. In this approach, all relevant individuals in the organization—whether you call them stakeholders, personas, influencers, or agents—are included, not only in determining program objectives but also as active participants in the ongoing development and execution of the program. While it does sometimes resemble a juggling act, this approach allows for a more dynamic win loss program that can adapt to changing organizational needs along multiple dimensions, as well as promote better dissemination of information and adoption of changes based on the findings.

Since this is an involved process, I will be devoting my next few blog posts to go into more detail about how to implement a stakeholder-centric approach to your win loss program and why this approach could be beneficial for you. Some of the points I hope to cover include:

1. The benefits of a stakeholder-centric approach
2. Identifying appropriate stakeholders in your organization
3. Approaching stakeholders in your organization
4. How to include stakeholders in the win loss process
5. Developing deliverables for a diverse stakeholder audience
6. Addressing potential concerns from potential stakeholders

About the Author: Ken Allred, Founder and CEO of Primary Intelligence, is a thought leader in SaaS-based sales intelligence, analytics and sales enablement solutions. He is committed to the optimization of sales, marketing and product management teams through the implementation of advanced Sales 2.0 intelligence solutions.