Modern Selling: Five Things to do after Losing a Sale

This article originally appeared in the November 2020 issue of Security Business magazine. When sharing, don’t forget to mention @SecBusinessMag on Twitter and Security Business magazine on LinkedIn.

During my sophomore year of high school, our varsity baseball team was one of the highest-ranked teams in Florida. With only a few games left in the regular season, we got pretty cocky, and it showed – so much so, that we got pummeled by a team that was infamous for finishing in last place in the district every year. By the fifth inning of that game, everyone knew it was over, and there was no way we could win the game. As a back-up catcher, I was secretly excited because I thought I would get a few innings of playing time. Big wins or big losses were usually when the second-stringers were given a chance to play.

Not this time. As we suffered through this humiliation, our coach left in all the starters. I was angry. I wanted to play and thought it was stupid to keep the starters in for a few meaningless innings. Why not give us benchwarmers some reward for our hard work? After the game, our coach gave me and the rest of the team the answer:

“You guys know why you stayed in the game the whole time? Because you deserve that embarrassment and you needed to feel it,” he said. “I hope you feel it. You got cocky and look what happened. You can’t act like this in the playoffs, so you better find that hunger again.”

We were going to lose, so our coach turned it into an opportunity to teach us a lesson that would help us win our future games. Obviously, this lesson stuck with me, and I have applied it to sales at least a million times. I have also watched other salespeople desperately try to win opportunities that have been lost today and sacrifice many future sales because of their behavior.

There are right ways to lose and wrong ways to lose. Here are five things to remember when you lose a sale:

1. Take the long-game approach. If you lose a sale, then you have a perfect opportunity to show your professionalism and class. Winning is easy; true character is revealed by losing the right way. Take advantage of this opportunity and continue to be the responsive and polite salesperson you were when you were competing for the project. Show that your efforts are not focused on one-time sales opportunities, but long-term relationships.

2. Ask for permission to continue to call on them and compete on future work. After receiving permission, be sure to ask how to do so without being a pest.

3. Send a hand-written thank you note to every person involved in the decision. First, it is the right thing to do. Secondly, there will likely be issues with the ongoing work of your competition – there usually are issues with any job – and it would be great to be top-of-mind when those issue arise.

4. If you lose on price, never say “you get what you pay for.” When a salesperson makes this statement, the customer hears you cannot do this. All you do when you make this statement is challenge your customer to make the less-expensive system work. Even if it fails, they will not admit it and they definitely will not ask you for help.

5. Stop by in three or four months for any reason other than “just checking on the new system.” Drop off a case study, introduce your new MSSP, or simply bring cookies, but do not ask about the project you just lost – let them bring it up. Your goal is to begin a courting relationship for the next project, and also give them the opportunity to silently regret their decision of selecting someone else!

Chris Peterson is the founder and president of Vector Firm (www.vectorfirm.com), a sales consulting and training company built specifically for the security industry. To request more info about the company, visit www.securityinfowatch.com/12361573.