Require and capture win/loss reason on Closed Lost

Outcome. No deal reaches Closed Lost without a standardized loss reason on file, so loss analysis is based on real data instead of guesswork.

flowchart TD
    A[Deal stage = Closed Lost, reason unknown] --> B[Notify owner]
    B --> C[Create task: log loss reason]
    C --> D[Delay 1 business day]
    D --> E{Reason still unknown?}
    E -->|yes| F[Notify manager + escalation task]
    E -->|no| G{Reason = Competitor?}
    F --> G
    G -->|yes| H[Create task: log competitor name]
    G -->|no| I[Exit]

When to use it / when not to

• Use it as soon as leadership asks "why are we losing deals" and the honest answer is "we don't know, the field is empty on 80% of them."
• Use it alongside the native required-property-per-stage feature for a stronger, non-bypassable control (see Known pitfalls).
• Do not use it if you have not yet agreed on a finite, mutually exclusive list of loss reasons with sales leadership. Building the workflow before the taxonomy exists means rebuilding it later.
• Do not extend this same workflow to also capture Closed Won reasons. Keep that as a separate, parallel workflow (see Variants) so the branch logic and reporting stay clean.