This will help us in both improving our service to the current client to ensure we gain their repeat business, and in turn predict what the next customer will expect to hear at the negiotiation table as we try to win their business.

It’s a lot easier to gain a customer the first time around, but second time around is not a decision based on emotion, its a decision based on experience.

Use one customers shortfalls to beef up the next customers proposal. If you have no shortfalls in your product / service then asking this question will likely get you a great testimonial to use to win the next sale.

What is the reason my customer decided to buy from me and what did I do to influence that decision?

Finding out the customer reason will help me to see what areas in my sales approach brought success, and how I can continue to leverage these approaches in other sales situations.

Of course, each sale is different, but it is important for me to accentuate what I already do well in, and sharpen it. Perhaps the reasons may not be due to anything special I do from a personal style perspective and it has very much to do with the program, or the marketing position of my company. By analyzing each success, I will be able to pinpoint what works and how to better position my solution to other, similar customers.

Also, if I combine this analysis with a loss sales analysis, I will then be able to refine both the corporate and personal features of my sales approach, positioning, branding and presentations to better refine, target and approach each new opportunity in order to increase the likelihood of the next customer making their decision to do business with me and my company.

REFLECTION

What did I do during the sale that initiated a positive reaction and what did I do that initiated a negative reaction?

An reflection analysis of each and every transaction allows me to see the cause and effect of all my sale techniques. This allows me to adjust any negative responses I receive and reinforce all the positive reactions.

Doing this allows me to consistently modify and improve on my “won sales”.

I’ve done won sales analysis for museums, though I haven’t called it that. The BIG question we asked was, “Where do we find more people exactly, demographically like those we are successfully selling to?” Who are they, where do they live, where do they work? This is the key strategic question. Once this question is in place then all sorts of subsidiary questions pop up like, “Exactly who makes the buying decision and when and what factors influence the decision?”

I built a talented team to act on the answers and we got a positively spectacular growth trend going. Then we asked, “How can we build our brand and make it even easier for people to get over the decision threshold and make the buy decision?” The growth accelerated beyond our expectations.

Of course every business is different and these questions will result in different answers and different tactics. Within the BIG question finding more and more business specific questions is vital. Also vital is creative response to answers. I’ve seen organizations with great data but no creative energy in the response – and of course no results to show!

As you bore down from the big question I think of it like peeling an onion, each set of questions revealing a new layer with more opportunities for market and product development – and more questions.

This is where I feel as an organization that prides itself on service we can bring our experience, skill and creativity to the client that sets us apart from our competition.

Not only deepens reason on present business, but brings out factors of why they chose you in the frist place as well as details of process of not only choice but execution/use/enjoyment of service/product.