<aside> 📋 Frequency: Trigger-Based | Time: 30 min | Trigger: After every proposal outcome — win or loss

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Most consultants debrief losses and celebrate wins — and learn from neither. A win you don't understand is just luck with good timing. A loss without a debrief is expensive tuition you never registered for. This SOP runs after every proposal outcome and converts the result into actionable intelligence about your positioning, pricing, and close process.

Prerequisites

• A confirmed proposal outcome — signed SOW (win) or declined/ghosted past the follow-up window (loss)
• The submitted proposal with scope, fee, and engagement structure
• Notes from the diagnostic call and any follow-up correspondence
• Your win/loss log — a running record of all prior proposal outcomes, tagged by decision factor

Procedure

1. Record the outcome in your win/loss log before the debrief: prospect name, engagement type, fee proposed, decision, and any stated reason. Do this first — the log is the data source, not the output.
2. Run the Competitive Positioning Brief skill with the proposal details, outcome, client context, and any feedback received as input. Review the output for positioning gaps, pricing signals, and close-process observations.
3. For losses: identify whether the decision was on price, fit, timing, or positioning. If the reason is unclear, send a single, direct follow-up question to the prospect — most will answer. The stated reason and the real reason are often different; the positioning brief helps you distinguish them.
4. For wins: identify what tipped the decision. Wins driven by price alone are fragile and don't repeat reliably. Wins driven by specific positioning or trust are repeatable — document the exact framing or proof point that landed.
5. Review your last five debrief records for recurring patterns. One data point is noise. Three is a signal. If the same decision factor appears repeatedly, flag it for proposal or process adjustment — not after a single outcome, but when a pattern confirms it.

Expected Outcome

You'll have the outcome logged in your win/loss record with the decision factor tagged, a completed competitive positioning brief on file, and any recurring pattern flagged for proposal or process adjustment.

<aside> ⚠️ Common mistakes:

— Only debriefing losses. Wins contain as much signal as losses — sometimes more. A close rate you can't explain is a close rate you can't reproduce.

— Accepting the stated reason at face value. "We went with someone less expensive" often means "we didn't see enough differentiation to justify your fee." Price is the reason prospects give when they don't want to say the real reason. Dig one level deeper.

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