A recent conversation with a client revealed their win rate at 8%. While that number may seem low at first glance, it’s worth digging deeper.
Let’s say you create 100 opportunities.
Usually, 40% to 50% of your opportunities will end up as “closed lost” due to no decision. If the percentage is higher than 50%, it’s time to reassess your lead qualification and conversion process for sales-qualified leads. I covered this topic in detail in a blog post a few months ago.
Of the remaining 50 opportunities, some will be won without competition. This could be due to your product already being used in another division, a successful POC/POV (Proof of Concept/Proof of Value) conversion, or a sponsor with previous experience with your product. Let’s say that’s about 10%.
Next, how many of the remaining 40 opportunities are “closed won” against competition? This is your competitive win rate. In the example above, it comes to 20%—they won 8 opportunities, but it was out of 40 head-to-head competitive deals, not 100 as assumed earlier.
Now that you have actionable data, it’s time to diagnose and address the issues:
To tackle the 50%+ “closed lost – no decision” rate, you must understand why half your opportunities end with no decision.
— Is your team clearly communicating your solution value to move the customer from their current legacy system/manual process?
— Even if the customer likes your solution, are they too worried about the professional risk of committing to it?
To address why you’re losing 32 out of 40 competitive opportunities, consider this: That’s a lot of wasted resources—there’s no reward for coming in second. Analyzing the root causes is key. Ask yourself:
— Is there friction in your sales process, such as reps taking too long to offer quotes, discounting needing too many approvals, or a complex sales process?
— Are your value proposition and differentiators clear, and do they align with the customer’s pain points?
— Are you qualifying deals early and well enough to avoid wasting time on bad fits?
— Are you missing key product features customers need?
— Is your pricing too high or inflexible?
— Are you targeting the right ICP (Ideal Customer Profile), or are you selling too low?
— Is your sales team fully equipped with your key value proposition?
— Is your sales team properly equipped with your key value prop, etc.?
Every incremental improvement from this analysis will boost your win rate.
All Things SaaS 
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