Ask What You Lost Before You Change the Price

A lost sale can teach you something useful when you ask about the buyer’s decision without turning the answer into another sales pitch.

A prospect chooses someone else. Before rewriting the offer or lowering the price, find out what they decided to buy and why.

Price may have mattered. So might timing, trust, internal approval or a different understanding of the work. A short answer gives you something to explore; it does not establish the cause.

Ask without reopening the pitch

If the person is willing to talk, ask what mattered most in the decision and which alternative they chose. That alternative may have been doing the work internally or postponing it.

Make it easy to decline. If you say you want feedback, listen without defending each part of your offer. The person needs room to give an answer you may not agree with.

The SBA’s market-research guidance distinguishes broad market information from direct conversations about your own customers. A conversation after a lost sale can help you understand that particular buyer’s choice.

Keep their explanation separate from yours

Record what the prospect was trying to accomplish, what they selected and what they said influenced the choice. Keep their words separate from your interpretation.

Compare later conversations for patterns. Repeated confusion about what the service includes may call for a clearer explanation. Repeated requests for different work may call for a decision about which customers you want to serve.

Decide what, if anything, to change

If the issue is unclear communication, lowering the price will not explain the service. If the buyer needs work you do not provide, a discount will not close that gap either.

Sometimes the feedback will support keeping the offer as it is. You can understand why someone chose differently without trying to become the right choice for everyone.

What have you found useful to ask after a lost sale? We would like to hear which questions helped you understand the decision without turning the conversation into another sales pitch.

More from this week

This piece stands on its own. Here are this week's 5 pieces:

• Monday: Extra Work Can Become an Unplanned Discount
• Tuesday: Leave a Job With Relationships You Can Keep
• Wednesday: Your Website Should Promise What Your Team Can Deliver
• Thursday: Before You Accept, Ask How Success Will Be Judged
• Friday: Ask What You Lost Before You Change the Price (this post)

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