Recently, I’ve been involved in a number of discussions about “Win Rates.” There’s a huge amount of misunderstanding on all aspects of Win Rates. Lots of misunderstanding about how you measure these. There have also been lots of discussions about “high win rates.”
The majority of my clients, after we have identified and work the issues have very high win rates. Many in the 70 to high 80% range. Most, well over 50%.
People are astounded, they think these clients might be doing something with the numbers, gaming them in some way to inflate their win rates. For many, these types of win rates are so far out of their experience base (say in SaaS), they can’t imagine these to be possible, there must be a trick or manipulation.
Few are asking how do they achieve these win rates?
So let’s talk about that.
Is it something unique about their products, the absence of competition, clever marketing/outreach programs, leveraging thought leadership, something in their sales process, their pricing? Are they using tools and technologies in unique ways, is it their technology stack? Is there something unique about their sales teams? Many of these do contribute to their success, but too often there is no differentiation or it is impossible to sustain differentiation though just these.
Stated differently, all of these are important, but none is really distinquishing, particularly over time.
So how do these high performing organizations achieve and maintain these high win rates?
In all my work with them, the single consistent thing that stands out is:
“They make themselves important to their customers.”
When I talk about this, many react, “It must be something unique about their product offerings and what they sell….”
But many of the clients I reference sell basic commodities, materials that go into other products, basic electronic components, even soap and soap dispensers in bathrooms. Some have very sophisticated, complex solutions, having a massive impact on the customer enterprise. And there are lots, scattered in between that spectrum.
While the products and solutions we sell may increase our impact and importance to our customers, it’s not just about the product.
These clients consistently make themselves important to their customers.
Let me take one example. A high performing team for a technology supplier (software, systems solutions). When I first started working with them, they had high win rates, consistently in the 50-60% range. Their average deal size was $10K. Their sellers were consumed with managing a high volume of transactional business. But they thought they were missing something. They knew their solutions could have a big impact on departments within their customers. They moved the transaction business from the field sellers, having another organization manage that business. The sellers started looking at areas where they could have a greater impact.
Within 9 months, their average deal value was $190K. They found opportunities that had always existed, but they were blind to them because of the transactional business. These higher value opportunities were more important to their customers. And we noticed something else, after another 6 months, their win rates increased into the 60% + range.
As we learned more about it, the customers were saying, “What you are doing is important to us!” It wasn’t just their products, but it was how their sellers were engaging customers in their problem solving process.
That was about 4 years ago. Today, their average deal value is $1.5M, their win rate is 82%. What’s caused this? They have moved into a position of being strategically important to their customers.
It’s not their products, while good, there are great competitors. But what the customers tell them is, “We want you involved in helping us solve these problems. We can’t achieve what we want to achieve without organizations like you helping us do this.”
As I look at all these other clients, there is little commonality in their products/solutions. They have varying processes, methodologies, tools. They have very good people, seek to retain and develop them. They do everything they can to maximize how these contribute to improving performance.
But the most important differentiator is, they actively seek to become important to the customer.
In some cases, they are important at a strategic enterprise level. In some cases they are important in a certain business function. In some cases they are important to a department. In some they are important to a team or group of individuals.
But whoever their customer is, they seek to make themselves important to the customer.
And that importance is displayed in a variety of ways, not just the solution and after sale support. It’s how they engage the customer in their change, buying, problem solving processes. It’s how they help the customer learn and navigate these processes. It’s actively engaging them and demonstrating they care in each interaction.
It’s simply the way they work with and create value with their customers through the process and through their ongoing collaboration with these customers.
All the stuff we normally talk about is important in improving performance and win rates. But those will only get you so far. The way to reach and maintain very high win rates is simply by being important to your customers.
Afterword: This question, Are You Important To Your Customers is not limited to our selling relationships. The same concept applies within our organizations. As managers, if we want to help our people grow and achieve, we have to ask ourselves how we can become important to them (A cautionary note, it’s not about the power, position, influence that makes us important, it’s about how we help them learn and grow. As individuals, we have to think how we become important to our team mates, colleagues, and our organization.
Afterword: Here is the AI discussion of this post. I’ve become hypersensitive to the hallucinations this tool creates. In the discussion, they attribute a huge number of things to me and my article that are false. I never mentioned or even implied the ideas.
However, many of these hallucinations they create are interesting and very relevant. As a result, I think the discussion is important, as long as you are aware of this problem. Enjoy!
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