How do you evaluate competitive intelligence firms to conduct some win/loss analysis?

We used Clozd, and so far they are fantastic. Every interview transcript is immediately available, and they offer a dashboard for us to start visualizing the trends/patterns that emerge from the customer interviews. 

We work with Ryan and team at Double Check http://www.doublecheckresearch.com and have really seen a lot of value in the partnership. I really like that they are able to accomodate both a qualitative and quantitative approach. We operate in a very dynamic enviroment undergoing tremendous shifts at the moment, Double Check has been great and adapting to our needs and shwoing flexibility in the ways we can work together.

I'm currently using Primary Intelligence, they're fantastic! They not only provide consulting services, they have an excellent web tool (Truvoice) to manage your program. 

Highly recommend Brady (https://sharebird.com/profile/bradyjensen) from Aggregate Insights, worked with him before. Very structured process and pretty good at getting a layer or two beneath those standard canned answers to find takeaways that are actionable.

Probably easiest to direct message him through Sharebird if interested.

I’ve worked with Diane at dimensional research at a couple different companies - http://dimensionalresearch.com/. Very thorough and collaborative

We've had good results with https://www.primary-intel.com/ -- I love their interview capability, their reports and they have great account management service. They really take the time and effort to get at the roots of both wins and losses. It's also important to debrief with all sales teams in order to get the value of the intel.

Full disclosure, I work for DoubleCheck Research http://www.doublecheckresearch.com a full service win/loss firm in Boston just focused on B2B tech. When looking for a win/loss firm, you may want to take into consideration a few things:

• Focus—Is the firm truly focused and specialized in win/loss analysis or is win/loss analysis just one of many things they do. 
• Track record of success—Who does the win/loss firm have as referenceable clients.
• Analysts—Who is conducting the interviews, what is their background and comfort-level with technology.
• Methodology—From start to finish, what is the process that they follow to build a program that aligns with your needs and vision. How do they come-up to speed on you and your market. What is the process they follow to conduct their research.
• Conversion rates—What are their conversion rates (lead to interview).
• Technology to support the program—What tools do they use to support your program. Best in class survey and reporting tools? Home grown analytics platforms?
• Deliverables—What does the win/loss report deliverable look like? How easy is it to understand? How easy would it be for others to understand?
• Analysis—What type of executive summary deliverable do they offer?
• Other services—What other services do they provide?

I hope that this is helpful!

Most vendors do a good job of win/loss, especially when compared only to what your team is able to do in-house. Garter's research about how flawed win/loss answers are when they come from inside the company is 100% right. However, what I've learned from standing up win/loss at a few different companies is that you want to make sure you trust the elicitation skills of the person actually conducting the interviews. Folks who gather other types of market intelligence and are used to gleaning insights from willing and sometimes unwitting primary sources will often bring home the most insightful data because they are well versed at how to make the most intrusive question seem benign. If they can't get you what you can't get buyers to honestly divulge yourself, then why engage an outside vendor?

The first time you do win/loss you should (hopefully) have all sorts of new insights that you can act upon as a PMM and PM team. The next time you do a round you are going to hear 80% of the same information, and maybe 20% will have changed. Don't be discouraged! That 20% in many cases is more important than all the first round information combined because it's telling you where the ball is going, not where it's been. That's the strategic gold that gets you invited to present consistently to the executive team as a strategic partner and ultimately consulted for strategic decision support on M&A and other strategic decisions of huge consequence to your company.  

Good luck! 

I used these guys and they were fantastic: https://www.infinitiresearch.com/about-us

Without turning this into a "pitch," I do some of this work, too. Essentially all of my engagements are rooted in some degree of internal and external primary research, though the focus is usually a bit broader than win-loss alone (and usually goes into recommendations on how to leverage the info). Always happy to discuss.