With everything stored in your CRM database, you have the ability to have better visibility into the "touch points" of your sales process. Most good CRM applications are designed to capture win-loss data in cases where the prospect is willing to give you a reason as to why you did not win the sale. This extremely valuable information can then be combined with built-in win-loss reports to help you determine which stage you lost a deal and why.

Are you losing sales in the last stage of the sales process?

Are you losing to a competitor or experiencing "no decisions"?

Can your sales team benefit from better marketing materials and prospect deliverables?

Are there 1 or 2 sales people under-performing while everyone else is doing fine?

Do you need to brush up on industry trends and adjust your target market or demographic?

You discover, quite quickly, that analyzing lost sales is one of the best ways to improve your sales process. Now that you know what is happening and why, you are in a better position to implement new policies, procedures and tactics. You can then use your CRM software to track and measure whether the changes are improving your rate of success and, more importantly, your bottom line.

Tracking what is NOT working is sometimes more important than tracking what IS working. The sooner you start analyzing deal flow and lost opportunities, the sooner you can improve.