This is an example
Ironbark Kitchens, Coastline Cabinetry and the buyer are all made up. Ghosts hasn't run this interview. We wrote it to show what a business would receive once a real buyer has told their side.
Example report · one lost deal
Prepared for Ironbark Kitchens
Who they are
Anonymous to you
We hold their email. You never see it.
Inbox
Confirmed
A real person replied.
Purchase
Verified
Their invoice from the business they chose was checked, then deleted.
This account
Confirmed by the buyer
With one correction, shown below.
What your CRM says
Closed lost. Reason: price.
What the buyer said
The quote took sixteen days. Price came up, and they said it didn't decide it.
They came to you on a neighbour's recommendation, and your design visit was the best of the three they had. Your quote arrived eleven days after the one they chose, as a single total. While they waited, the other business sent an itemised quote with three options and offered a firm install date. By the time yours landed, they'd stopped waiting.
Every business the buyer mentioned, how far it got, and how they first heard of it.
| Business | How far it got | How they heard of it | Named |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coastline Cabinetry | Chosen | Project photos on Instagram, then Google reviews | Said unprompted |
| Ironbark Kitchens (you) | Finalist | A neighbour who'd used you | Said unprompted |
| Their builder, as part of a wider reno | Considered | Already knew them | Said unprompted |
| A flat-pack kitchen from a big-box store | Considered, ruled out early | Walked through a showroom | Said unprompted |
| A kitchen showroom brand on the radio | Knew of them, never in the running | Advertising | Asked about |
“Said unprompted” means the buyer named it before we suggested anything. That counts for more.
Reconstructed with the buyer, events first. Their words are in quotes.
Week 1
The oven died. They decided to do the whole kitchen rather than replace one appliance.
Week 2
Three businesses came out to measure and talk it through. Yours was the visit they remembered.
“She asked how we actually cook. Nobody else asked that.”
Week 3
Coastline's quote arrived five days after their visit. Itemised, with three benchtop options and prices against each.
Week 4
They emailed you a question about benchtop thickness. The reply came a week later.
“I wasn't annoyed. I just started wondering what it'd be like once they were in the house.”
Week 5The moment it turned
Coastline rang, walked them through the quote line by line, and offered an install slot before Christmas.
Week 5
Your quote arrived, sixteen days after the visit, as one total on a PDF. They'd already said yes to Coastline.
After
They didn't reply to your follow-up.
“It felt awkward. They'd been lovely. I didn't want to explain that it was the wait.”
The moment it turned
“By the time Ironbark's quote came, we'd stopped waiting to hear from them.”
The phone call. A named install date and a quote they could read line by line made the decision feel safe. The buyer said if your quote had arrived in the first week, they'd probably have gone with you.
Before anything reaches you, the buyer reads what we heard and fixes what we got wrong.
We first wrote
Ironbark was too slow and too expensive.
The buyer changed it to
Ironbark was slow. The price was close enough not to matter.
One buyer's account, reported as they told it. It isn't a verdict on your business, and one debrief isn't a pattern.
How long do your quotes take after a visit? Here, the business that won was eleven days faster.
Would an itemised quote, or a short call to walk through it, change how it lands?
A message while the quote is being prepared might have kept you in it.
Your design visit and your referrals got you to the final two. Worth protecting.
One debrief shows you what happened once. Twenty show you whether it keeps happening: whether you keep losing at the same point, to the same business, for the same reason. Counts appear only once enough buyers sit behind them that no one can be picked out.