The Win/Loss Interview Script

A two-page fillable PDF for finding out why you actually lost, from the buyer, through somebody with nothing riding on the answer.

Ask a sales team why a deal was lost and the answer is price. It is plausible, because price is always a factor in something. It is unfalsifiable inside the company, because nobody is going to phone the buyer and check. And it exonerates everyone in the room, because price is set upstairs. So the loss gets filed under price and the company discounts next time, which is how it teaches itself to solve a problem it does not have.

This is the instrument that gets the real reason.

WHAT'S INSIDE

The recruiting note — the short message that actually gets a losing buyer to take the meeting.

The question order — process before verdict, with the traps marked. People describe a process honestly long after they have stopped being candid about verdicts.

The warning-signal audit — what you were told during the process, and what you changed as a result. This is the question almost nobody asks and it is the one that pays.

The findings sheet — one page, with a process-change block carrying owner and date fields, so the output is a change rather than a lesson.

Instrument No. 08 of The Assignment, published Monday 16 November 2026. A new task every Monday.