- 01Loss patterns · L-06
You win the deal. Then you lose the renewal.
The first engagement went well. On time, on budget, no drama. At renewal the buyer switches to a US vendor at 2 to 3x the price. What happened is that internally, the win got re-narrated as "we got lucky." Luck is not renewable.
6 min - 02Loss patterns · L-05
The champion leaves. The deal evaporates.
One person on the buyer's side got it. They ran interference internally and defended the offshore call in rooms you never saw. Then they take a new job. Their replacement inherits a half-signed SOW with an offshore vendor they have never met, and the safe move is to pause.
6 min - 03Loss patterns · L-04
A visibly weaker shop wins on "easier to work with."
You see the winner's portfolio. Their case studies are thinner. Their stack is older. Their pricing was higher. They won because the buyer priced in the cost of every hallway conversation they would have had to defend picking you, and the number came out negative.
7 min - 04Loss patterns · L-01
The second call goes well. Then silence.
The most common way offshore deals die has nothing to do with your work. Discovery lands, pricing is in range, the technical lead nods through the architecture walk-through, and the thread dies a week later. Here is what actually happened in the room you were not in.
6 min - 05Loss patterns · L-02
Procurement invents a rule you can't clear on paper.
You are through technical. Legal is drafting. Then procurement circulates a new requirement. A US entity, a domestic MSA, SOC 2, a $2M E&O policy. It looks like a shakedown. It is actually a risk officer building the memo they would have to write if this failed.
6 min - 06Loss patterns · L-03
Reference calls that were never really reference calls.
Your references took the calls. They said the right things. The deal still did not move. Reference checks late in a cycle are rarely diligence. They are a decision looking for permission. If the signal was not there before the shortlist, no reference call will save you.
5 min