Lonsbury Lost Sales Analysis™Why aren’t we closing more sales?
Why qualified sales opportunities are not becoming customers — and what management can do about it.
Your team is working hard. Estimates are going out, proposals are being written, and follow-up calls are being made. Yet your win rate isn’t where it should be, and nobody can say with confidence why.
It’s tempting to reach for the obvious answers: lower prices, push follow-up harder, buy more leads. But each one costs money, and if it targets the wrong cause, it won’t move the number.
Lost Sales Analysis looks at what actually happened in your recent opportunities, from the point an opportunity is qualified through its final outcome. You’ll see where sales are slipping away, which losses you can realistically influence, and which changes are most worth making.
Do any of these sound familiar?
- “We’re getting plenty of leads. We’re just not closing enough of them.”
- “Everyone says we lost on price. I’m not sure that’s true.”
- “Proposals go out, and then we never hear back.”
- “We’ve tried more follow-up. It didn’t change much.”
- “Our close rate used to be better. Something changed.”
- “I don’t want to start discounting if that isn’t the real problem.”
A lost sale often begins long before the close
The final decision gets the blame, but the outcome is often shaped much earlier: how quickly you responded, what you learned on the first visit, how the solution was presented, and whether there was a clear next step. An unanswered proposal doesn’t automatically mean follow-up failed. A price objection doesn’t automatically mean you charged too much.
Lost Sales Analysis compares the opportunities you won with the ones you lost to find the patterns that actually separate them, so you change what matters and leave alone what doesn’t.
Know where your sales are slipping away
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Where sales are being lost
The points in your sales process where qualified opportunities stall or slip away, based on your actual records.
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Which losses you can influence
What your team can change, separated from outcomes shaped by budgets, procurement rules, or other outside factors.
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What’s at stake
The economic exposure tied to each pattern the evidence supports, so you know which problems deserve attention first.
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What to do next
Prioritized actions: what to preserve, change, test, or measure, tied to your findings rather than generic advice.
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A conversation, not just a report
A management presentation focused on the conclusions and the decisions in front of you.
We start with the records you already have
Your CRM, estimates, proposals, and outcome records hold most of what’s needed, typically covering 20 to 50 recent qualified opportunities. You’ll complete an information workbook, and your team won’t be asked to invent loss reasons or reconstruct activity that was never recorded.
Expect about three to five hours of your team’s time across the engagement.
You deserve an honest, independent answer
Our recommendations follow your evidence, not our next sale. Lonsbury doesn’t sell email lists, sales training, or lead generation, so we have no reason to recommend more of any of them. If the evidence shows that the problem lies somewhere other than your sales process, we’ll tell you.
That independence is backed by experience. John Lonsbury has spent more than 15 years in home services, both inside an operating company and as a consultant to pest control, HVAC, and plumbing companies across the country. He knows how a home service sale unfolds, from the first call to the signed agreement.
Is this right for your company?
Companies with a meaningful number of qualified opportunities where the sales process can genuinely influence the decision: negotiated commercial work, and residential replacement, roofing, windows and doors, remodeling, termite, or exclusion work that involves a real evaluation. Hard-bid procurement with little room to influence the outcome is usually not a good fit.
A fixed fee, and an answer in weeks, not months
Each engagement has a defined scope and a fixed fee, agreed in writing before work begins. The proposal specifies deliverables, schedule and cost; any changes require your approval. The analysis typically takes approximately three weeks once your agreed records are ready.
Our Decision-Ready Guarantee
If the finished analysis doesn’t give you an evidence-supported conclusion about your sales process, explain its economic significance, and identify what to preserve, change, test, or measure, we’ll correct or complete it within the agreed scope at no charge. If we still can’t deliver a decision-ready analysis, you may receive a refund of fees paid, subject to the engagement terms.
The guarantee covers the quality and usefulness of the analysis. It doesn’t guarantee sales results or recovered revenue.
Let’s talk about what’s happening in your sales process
Tell us what you’re seeing. In a short conversation, we’ll talk it through, look at what records you have, and tell you honestly whether this analysis can help.