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Our CRM says we lose on price. I do not believe it. How do I find the real reason, and what does it say about who we should be selling to?

Price is what a buyer says when they do not want to explain the real reason, and reps write it down because it is not their fault. The fix is unglamorous: talk to fifteen or twenty buyers a quarter, wins and losses and the ones who went dark, and have someone who was not on the deal run the conversation so people can be honest. Ask what else they looked at, who else was involved in the decision, and what happened in the two weeks before they decided. Do this for a quarter and you will usually find the losses cluster in one kind of account, which is the most useful ICP data you will ever get, because it tells you who to stop selling to.

Go deeper

3 resources, 1 India-specific, 3 link-checked.

📄 Article
✓ Link checked Free Beginner

The interviewing craft, not the theory: how to open so people feel safe being blunt, how to use five whys past the polite answer, and why you let the buyer talk ninety percent of the time.

How to Conduct Win-Loss Interviews: Step-By-Step Guide

From Klue 14 min read

  • Follow the 90/10 rule in a win-loss interview: the buyer should be speaking 90 percent of the time.
  • Plan for 30 minutes but block an hour, and prepare 20 to 30 questions knowing you will use 10 to 15.
  • Uses a D.E.P.T.H. structure (details, engaged, personal, trust, high impact) plus five-whys laddering to get past the first answer.
  • 41 percent of win-loss programs are now owned by product marketing (2025 Win-Loss Trend Report).
Open klue.com
📄 Article
✓ Link checked Free Intermediate

Answers the operational questions that stop most teams from starting: how many interviews before the patterns are real, who should run them, and why the rep who worked the deal must never run it.

How to Run Win/Loss Interviews That Surface Real Competitive Intel

From Debriefing 15 min read

  • 15 to 20 interviews per quarter is the minimum for most B2B companies to see a meaningful pattern.
  • Target a sample of 40 percent wins, 40 percent losses, 20 percent no-decisions.
  • Interview deals closed in the last 30 days; buyer memory degrades fast after 60.
  • Spend 60 percent of the call on follow-up questions, and expect a 25 to 40 percent response rate when recruiting.
Open debriefing.io
🎧 Podcast
✓ Link checked India Free Intermediate

Kapil built one of India's few listed SaaS companies, so when he takes apart the myths (Indians will not pay for software, they demand endless customisation, they want enterprise support at SMB prices) he is arguing from a P&L. Essential if you are deciding whether India is a real market for you.

7 Myths About Selling B2B SaaS In India ft Unicommerce Founder Kapil Makhija

On The Neon Show by Siddhartha Ahluwalia with Kapil Makhija 80 min listen

Watch on YouTube neon.fund

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The same ground, at another level

How who you sell to reads from a different seat.

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The same ground, over in Understand your customers, our Starting Up track.

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