The Sales Postmortem

In the spa industry, not every “almost” becomes a sale.

You thought you had the customer. The conversations were strong. The rapport was there. And then, … silence. Or worse, they bought from someone else.

Instead of shrugging and moving on, more retailers are examining those losses. A sales postmortem isn’t about blame; it’s about learning why a deal didn’t close — and what can be improved next time.

Tracking the loss

Juan Pablo Alzate, hot tub consultant at DFW Hot Tubs in Texas, takes a hands-on approach to lost sales.

As the company’s only consultant, Alzate built a CRM in Excel to monitor prospects and outcomes. 

“It is very important to not just track them but also put in the notes about why they said no,” he says.

He marks whether a lead is sold, still communicating or declined and documents what they bought or why they walked away.

Until a hot tub is delivered to their home, he still sees an opportunity.

“I want to salvage it as much as I can,” he says. “I’ll ask, ‘What kind of spa did you end up going with? What kind of deal are they offering you?’ and I’ll see if I can beat that deal.”

If there was a strong connection, he may even follow up after a competitor’s spa is installed. Sometimes they’re thrilled with their purchase, but sometimes they aren’t — and they’ll ask him for advice.

“If you’re walking into a hot tub store, you’re most likely interested in some capacity,” he says. “I have to take advantage of that and explore [the interest].”

Alzate doesn’t analyze those losses in isolation.

“I gather once a month with management,” he says. “We talk about the [lost-sale rate] and what is really affecting it, and we adjust to what is going on.”

Based on his experience and analysis, Alzate says price is only one piece of the equation.

“You’re competing with their desire, their money and how soon they want it,” he says. “You can’t always have all three of those aspects right there.”

At Spas and More! in Missouri, Angi Hess looks at lost sales from a marketing perspective as well.

After a purchase — or a decision not to buy — customers complete forms noting how they heard about the company. Over time, those responses influence where marketing dollars go.

If platforms consistently generate high-quality buyers, the team increases investment there. If others generate traffic but few sales, they adjust the approach.

Asking why

For Cole Taylor, vice president at Southern Leisure Spas & Wellness in Texas, not all lost sales are worth dissecting. 

Sometimes customers decide to build a pool instead, travel or delay a purchase. 

“I don’t really let those bother me, and I don’t typically ask too many questions,” he says.

But when a customer chooses another hot tub retailer, that’s worth examining.

“Typically, it’s always price,” Taylor says.

Still, he digs deeper. Did they prefer a feature? Was it messaging? Was it urgency?

“Sometimes we didn’t communicate clearly enough that we had an option for them that fit what they were looking for, and we focused on the wrong thing,” Taylor says. “Or sometimes we figure out that we have a gap in our offering.”

If enough customers cite the same feature or price range, that signals something larger.

“If you start seeing 20 or 30 customers a year saying, ‘Yeah, they had this, I liked it better than what you have,’ you start [considering if you] need something [similar],” Taylor says.

He’s also adjusted closing behavior. After noticing competitors were more aggressive in asking for the sale, his team shifted from assuming customers would return to creating more urgency before they walked out the door.

Hess takes a slightly different approach.

“One of the things we focus on here in the showrooms is making friends, telling stories, building a relationship, finding out what fits them best [without being] aggressive or offensive and making the person comfortable with their purchase,” she says.

For Hess, reflection doesn’t necessarily mean pushing harder. Instead, it’s about evaluating whether customers felt understood before they left.

Structured follow-up 

At Pool to Spa Services in Washington state, Jacob Specht approaches lost sales through long-term follow-up rather than direct interrogation.

“It can be tricky to track when a lead is truly ‘lost’ to a competitor,” Specht says. “Most of the time, they just disappear and we stop hearing from them.”

Instead of pushing for immediate feedback, his team places prospects into a structured three-step email sequence before transitioning them into broader promotional messaging. The goal is to stay present without creating pressure.

“We take a very no-pressure approach to sales,” Specht says. “Instead of competing on price, we sell the value that purchasing a spa from us comes with.”

For Specht, analyzing losses isn’t always about asking customers why they walked away — it’s about refining messaging and reinforcing value over time.

Internal reflection and coaching

At The Hot Tub Store in California, lost sales trigger deeper internal conversations. 

“They are never truly lost in our eyes,” says Sky Matula, president and CEO. “Those people are always invited to come to us for water care products if they bought another hot tub, and they are still in our CRM for marketing of other large-ticket items.”

Sales reps work on leads for 30 days before marking them as lost, but they remain in the marketing system unless they opt out. 

When a competitor wins the deal, Matula tries to learn what influenced the decision.

“Anytime we get the opportunity to [see] gaps [where] we could provide a better experience, it’s a good thing,” Matula says. “None of us is perfect, and it’s rarely because of the way an individual [employee] acted. If a reason for not buying had to do with an individual’s actions, there would definitely be coaching involved.”

Anytime we get the opportunity to [see] gaps [where] we could provide a better experience, it’s a good thing.”

Sky Matula, The Hot Tub Store

His team holds a daily 15-minute sales huddle to discuss lost sales and identify opportunities for improvement.

“We track closing ratios,” Matula says. “If a seller is losing deals, we provide team and one-on-one coaching. We examine sent emails, text threads and recorded phone conversations to see what could be improved. We constantly coach on how to help people choose to buy from us. It’s extremely important to ask for the sale.”

For Matula, this analysis is about growth and resilience, not criticism.

“We coach on ‘The Four Agreements’: don’t assume, be impeccable with your words, do your personal best and don’t take it personally,” Matula says. “We can’t help everyone. Our goal is to help improve people’s lives with our products. If they choose not to do that for themselves, it’s a bummer, and we’ll do our best to help the next person.”

When losing is the right outcome

In some cases, losing the deal may actually protect the business.

“Sometimes we actually don’t want certain people as customers,” Matula says. “If someone is being difficult before they buy, it’s an indication that the customer experience and relationship with our company is not going to be a good one. We’d prefer they buy from someone else.”

Other times, the issue isn’t the customer — it’s timing. Some customers simply aren’t ready, financially or emotionally, to invest in a wellness product. The key, retailers say, is distinguishing between controllable losses — poor communication, missed urgency or unclear messaging — and uncontrollable ones, such as budget shifts or lifestyle changes.

“You have to have thick skin sometimes for these types of things,” Alzate says.

For Hess, reframing a lost sale often means shifting from closing to nurturing.

“If it’s somebody who’s gathering information, they may have a question,” she says. “[It’s about] making them feel comfortable enough to come back to you to answer a question … and contact you again.”

Not every “no” is permanent; sometimes it’s simply “not yet.”