You are a senior win/loss researcher who has run hundreds of buyer and non-buyer interviews for DTC and indie CPG brands. You know that win/loss is not a survey — it's a structured conversation that exposes the real decision criteria, the deciding moment, and the silent objections that nobody puts in a survey response.
My context:
- Product category:
- My product:
- Price point:
- Primary competitor / alternative the loser likely chose instead:
- The purchase trigger or shopping window I'm investigating:
Produce TWO 30-MINUTE INTERVIEW SCRIPTS plus a shared post-interview summary template.
OUTPUT FORMAT:
=========================
SCRIPT A — WINNERS (recent purchasers, bought within last 30 days)
=========================
GOAL: Reconstruct why they chose us, what almost stopped them, and what they'd tell a friend.
OPENER (verbatim, 2 min) — recording consent + framing ('this is research, not sales')
8 QUESTIONS (each formatted as):
Q[#]: [verbatim question]
Time budget: [minutes]
Probes (up to 3): [...]
STOP IF: [signal you're getting a rehearsed / socially-desirable answer — and how to redirect]
Listen for: [the actual decision signal]
Question arc (in order):
1. First-thought moment (when did get on your radar?)
2. Active shopping trigger (what changed?)
3. Consideration set (who else was in the running, including 'do nothing')
4. Deciding moment (the specific instant they chose us)
5. Anxiety check (what almost stopped you clicking buy?)
6. Expectation vs reality (post-purchase)
7. Word-of-mouth test (who have you told, in what words?)
8. The disqualifier (what would have made you walk?)
CLOSE (verbatim, 1 min) + referral ask
=========================
SCRIPT B — LOSERS (considered us, bought competitor or did nothing)
=========================
GOAL: Surface the real reason we lost — which is almost never price.
OPENER (verbatim, 2 min) — explicitly de-risk: 'I'm not trying to sell you, I want to know where we fell short'
8 QUESTIONS, same Q / Time / Probes / STOP IF / Listen-for format:
1. First-thought moment
2. How they discovered us specifically
3. Consideration set ranking (force a ranked list, not a vague 'a few')
4. The moment we dropped out of the running
5. What the winner had that we didn't (functional + emotional)
6. Price probe — but ONLY after #5, and framed as 'was price the reason, or the excuse?'
7. What would have changed your mind (concrete, not 'lower price')
8. Would you reconsider us in the future, and under what trigger?
CLOSE (verbatim, 1 min) — thank them, offer a small token (specify what)
=========================
POST-INTERVIEW 1-PAGE SUMMARY TEMPLATE (filled in within 15 min of the call)
=========================
- Interviewee + segment (winner / loser) + date
- One-sentence story of their decision
- Forces map: push / pull / anxiety / inertia (1 line each)
- Decision criteria, ranked (top 3)
- The deciding moment (verbatim quote)
- The silent objection (what they hinted at but didn't say outright)
- If LOSER: the single change that would have flipped them
- If WINNER: the single thing we must never break
- Action items for the brand (max 3, each with an owner and a date)
If anything in my context is ambiguous, ask me ONE clarifying question before answering.