Should I survey won deals too, or just losses?

Both. Wins tell you which of your strengths actually closed the deal, which is easy to guess wrong. Comparing what tipped a win against what tipped a loss is where win loss analysis earns its keep.

Will buyers on lost deals even respond?

Some will, especially if the survey is short, anonymous, and framed as helping you improve rather than reopening the sale. Skipping is always allowed, and the buyers with strong opinions are exactly the ones who write.

How is this better than having sales report the reason?

Sales reports the reason that is easiest to say internally. This template interviews the buyer, and the AI probes the shortlist, the committee, and the tipping factor, so you get the decision as the customer actually made it.

Can I keep responses anonymous?

Yes, that is the default, and it matters here. Anonymity gets you the candid version of why you lost. If you need to tie a response to a deal, encode a reference in the link and hold the mapping yourself.

Templates / Win loss survey

Customers · Adaptive interview template

Win loss survey template

Win loss analysis usually runs on the account executive's version of events, which is the version most flattering to the account executive. The rep who lost the deal reports "price" because it is nobody's fault; the rep who won it reports "relationship" because it is entirely theirs. Neither is likely to be what the buyer actually thought.

This template goes to the buyer directly and interviews them about the decision. One anchor establishes whether they chose you or someone else and what mattered most; the AI then probes the mechanics of the decision: who else was in the room, what the shortlist looked like, and the single factor that tipped it. A lost deal gets asked what the winner did better; a won deal gets asked what almost sent it the other way.

When to use it

Sent to the buyer within two weeks of a deal closing, won or lost
After a competitive evaluation where you know you were shortlisted
Quarterly across all closed opportunities to spot patterns by segment
When your win rate shifts and sales and product disagree on why

Running it well

Ask the buyer, not the rep. The whole value of win loss is escaping the internal story, so route the link to the customer, not the account team.
Send it fast, while the evaluation is fresh, but not so fast that a lost deal reads it as sour grapes. Within two weeks is a reasonable window.
Do not let sales see individual transcripts tied to their deals. Anonymous, aggregated themes get you honest answers and defuse defensiveness.
Tag the share link by outcome, for example ?ref=won versus ?ref=lost, so you can compare the two decision stories side by side.

The questions, and why they're shaped this way

These are the anchor questions. You can edit, reorder, or add to them; the AI interviewer handles the depth between them.

Multiple choice

Which best describes the outcome for you?

We chose youWe chose another vendorWe built it ourselves or used an existing toolWe decided to do nothing for now

Separating a competitive loss from a no-decision and a build-in-house matters more than any single reason. Each outcome routes the interview toward a completely different set of questions.

Open text

What was the single most important factor in the decision?

Buyers weigh many things but one usually tips it. Forcing the single factor, then letting the follow-ups expand it, cuts through the polite list of everything that mattered a little.

Open text

Who else was involved in making this decision?

Deals are lost to a stakeholder who never took a call. Naming the other people in the decision reveals the buying committee your rep may never have seen.

What the interviewer asks next

Follow-ups aren't scripted. The AI reads each answer and probes what a researcher would. Depending on what a respondent says, it might ask:

"You said you chose another vendor. What did they do better that we could not match?"

"You mentioned price was the deciding factor. Was it the total number, the structure, or how it compared to the value?"

"You said the decision stalled and you did nothing. What would have needed to change to make it a yes?"

Live demo

Play the win loss survey interview

This is the real interviewer, not a recording. Answer as yourself and watch the follow-ups adapt to what you write.

Prefer a full window? Open the demo.

Common questions

Should I survey won deals too, or just losses?: Both. Wins tell you which of your strengths actually closed the deal, which is easy to guess wrong. Comparing what tipped a win against what tipped a loss is where win loss analysis earns its keep.
Will buyers on lost deals even respond?: Some will, especially if the survey is short, anonymous, and framed as helping you improve rather than reopening the sale. Skipping is always allowed, and the buyers with strong opinions are exactly the ones who write.
How is this better than having sales report the reason?: Sales reports the reason that is easiest to say internally. This template interviews the buyer, and the AI probes the shortlist, the committee, and the tipping factor, so you get the decision as the customer actually made it.
Can I keep responses anonymous?: Yes, that is the default, and it matters here. Anonymity gets you the candid version of why you lost. If you need to tie a response to a deal, encode a reference in the link and hold the mapping yourself.

Related templates

Customers

Churn survey template

An exit interview that gets past the polite answer to the real trigger.

Customers

Pricing survey template

Learn what people would actually do about a price change, and why.

Research

Concept test template

Find out whether an idea lands before you build it, and hear the objections verbatim.

Research

Market research survey template

Interview-quality depth at survey scale, in the respondent's own words.

Run the win loss survey with your own audience

Join the waitlist