Take a Sales Loss Gracefully

You’ve worked tirelessly for weeks or months on end regarding an opportunity—an opportunity that could make or break your bookings number for the month, quarter, or year. Then, when everything is all said and done, they decide to hold off, or worse, to go with another vendor. Unfortunately, if you are in anyway connected to sales, it is something you’ll hear all too often. Even when you put your best foot forward and execute the proposal absolutely flawlessly, there are going to be times when you get a no, no matter the situation.  However, all is not lost… how you react during this time will have direct ramifications for future business down the road.

When it comes to a deciding factor for whether someone moves forward with you or not, we find that there are many elements that play into the decision, and it may be impossible to understand the true meaning behind a decision. With that said, all too often when one has invested so much time and effort into an opportunity, they take things personally.  As a result, they tend to lash out towards the prospect for taking up so much time and for being the bearer of bad news. We’ve witnessed anything from the simple and sarcastic good-luck-with-that-statement to things that we wished to never witness again. Small Businesses seem to take the noes the hardest. And unlike larger enterprises, small businesses tend to have more on the line when opportunities decide not to move forward.

Whatever the reason, when you get the bad news from a prospect, take the loss gracefully. Not only does it show that you have some class, but there is a strong potential that the same prospect will come back in the future. Again, when a prospect comes to a decision, we may never know why. However, when they have a good experience with you, regardless of the outcome, they may end up coming back. More times than none, we find prospects who have told us no, overtime, end up doing business with us. The reasons range from various causes like their selected firm for the project dropping the ball, them changing their minds, or a new project surfacing that they feel is a better fit. Again, it’s not always a guarantee a prospect will come back, but leaving a negative will guarantee they never will!

Ensure that you take every loss with grace, and you’ll be surprised how many come back..