Win Loss Analysis Tip #107: How Many Interviews is Enough?

I’ve talked earlier about my preference for the ‘drip’ method for doing win/loss research. It’s a great way to keep your finger on the pulse of your market.

At some point during the interview process, you need to decide when to stop and do reporting/analysis to share results internally with various groups who could benefit from the insights you have been gathering.

That timing should be based not only on when someone may need the data, but also based on having enough interviews done that you can look at trends and get some reliable information.

You won’t be striving for statistically valid results since these are interviews using qualitative data gathering methods vs. a survey which provides quantifiable data. But even so, you want to make sure you have enough data to inspire confidence in anyone you share it with.

To decide ‘how much is enough’, you need to first think about how you want to segment the data. Wins vs. losses is a logical segmentation but then beyond that, are there other segments such as company size or geography or industry that are important in your business and the way you market

By the way, this whole discussion about segments should happen at the very beginning of the process, to make sure that you are clearly focused on getting representation from all important segments and that you have that data available in your contact database when reaching out to customers and prospects to participate.

Once you decide on the segments that are important, I suggest using this rule of thumb: 15-20 completed interviews in any homogeneous segment.

This means that your targeted # of interviews before doing a report-out would be a minimum of 60 total interviews, distributed like this if you are segmenting by 2 different company sizes:

Obviously, the numbers go up quickly if you are doing further segmentation. Here is another possible scenario which would require a LOT of interviews (a minimum of 120):

The trade-offs of segmentation and time/money are important to consider when developing your segmentation strategy. The numbers above are intended to establish the bar for the minimum number of interviews you should complete from any given segment in order to feel as if you have a good feel for how they feel about you, your products/services, your competitors and their needs/wants.

And the more that you can target your solutions to specific segments, the more likely you will be seen as a company/solution that understands and addresses their needs, which can be a competitive differentiator!