Planning and deploying a Win-Loss program is a team effort that requires dedicated resources to execute with excellence. Early on you want to clarify your internal Win-Loss Program roles. Although a single person can perform all of the roles in your program, assigning a team to at least part-time duties can encourage role expertise in your Win-Loss program. Either way, you will want to obtain cross-functional executive buy-in for your program before you begin. Institutional knowledge held across the organization can go a long way to informing your program.
Win-Loss Program Roles and Their Responsibilities
Early on in your program planning you will want to assign at least one resource to the following roles. You will want to be clear about this from the beginning so that people better understand their roles and responsibilities. It will also help keep accountability tight down the road.
- Stakeholders: Stakeholders are interested parties within your organization that hold responsibility for customer retention and acquisition, usually senior managers. This will include people from product management, sales, marketing or support. Insights from the program will inform their team processes and goals, so involving them will ensure commitment to the program and incorporation of the results. Stakeholders can participate themselves, delegate to their team, or both.
- Program Owner: The Program Owner acts as your Win-Loss program’s sponsor. They own the program internally and will cheerlead the team and help drive engagement as the program matures. It is best if the program owner is also a key stakeholder with enough invested in the results of your program to act on them. The Program owner should meet regularly with the Researcher to discuss results and, as necessary, plan adjustments to the program schedule.
- Researcher: The Researcher is the primary executor of the program and, along with the Program Owner, is accountable for deliverables. The primary responsibilities for this role include interview scripting, target aggregation, making the calls, performing the analysis and presenting the results. Often this role reports directly to the Program Owner, but they may also be the same person. This role may also work in partnership with 3rd party Win-Loss specialists such as The Win-Loss Agency, or the role may be entirely performed by the 3rd party. The researcher role should always work closely with the Program owner to ensure alignment in all activities.
