Looking at a knowledge base of deals assembled from a variety of companies and industries and totaling more than 10,000 opportunities, the numbers are striking. Winning deals on average took only 75 days to close, while losing deals took 175 days to close out ― 100 days longer.
We've looked at the idea of "chasing losses" in another post. Rather than quickly cutting losses, we tend to chase them, hoping things will turn around and validate our initial beliefs. In the above study, salespeople and sales managers "chased their losses" twice as long as they pursued wins.
Liebow continues:
This culture of bravado makes cleaning a sales pipe nearly impossible. Yet what can only be described as losing fodder must be cleaned out of the pipe if an organization ever hopes to leverage its investment in the sales process. Thus, the trick to winning is to find a way to allow for a clear quantitative assessment of the pipe and clean it so that your best people across your organization are available to spend precious resources, time, and cycles on the deals with the highest likelihood of winning.
Salespeople, like all of us, need to face problems squarely in order to be successful. Figure out your losing opportunities, and stop working on them. Now.
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