Losing Orders

Even when you have a good business relationship with a customer, you can still lose an order on occasion. Is it bad? Maybe. Is it frustrating? Yes. Can you get over it? That is the question.

Losing an order from a good customer on occasion is not necessarily a bad thing but it can turn out to be a bad thing. If he is spreading the business around to someone that he doesn't buy from much, he is keeping their relationship open. You may even do the same thing with your own vendors. However, you do want to find out the reasons you lost the order. Is it just to keep that relationship open or is it because you are failing in some way?

The loss is also frustrating because if you work on commission then you just lost X dollars. It gets under your skin because you feel like they owe you for doing such a good job for them previously. Actually they owed you nothing after you shipped them the material, invoiced them and they paid the bill. You start from scratch next time. The business relationship hangs on their own perception of you as a sales professional. Do not look at the loss as a failing of something you did, unless you have done something earlier for them to perceive failure. Dust yourself off and do better next time. Think of the times that they buy without questioning the price. Think of the other items you have sold them that may be smaller, but much more of it that they buy day to day. Chances are if they are a good customer, then you are making up the loss by having earned their loyalty.

Getting over it is a you problem. If it is a shortcoming that has happened, then you correct the issue. If it is just your feelings that are hurt, then you have an issue that you need to get over. In sales you are rejected everyday for something. If not, then you are not seeing enough people.

The only time I really had my feelings hurt in sales was when I was fairly new at it and I changed jobs to another company in the same industry. I had a large good company that I thought was buying because of me, not in spite of me. Bright and early on the Monday of my new job I went by the job site and told him that I had changed companies and was wanting to sell him the same products that I had been selling him. He told me that just because I changed companies that he didn't change companies. I thought of all the Saturdays and Sundays that I had delivered stuff to his job site. When I say all, I mean every Saturday that the job went on and some Sundays and Holidays. I was frustrated. So, I went to the next guy and he said he would continue to buy from me. There I felt better. When Saturday rolled around I called the customer that rejected me and asked if he needed anything to be delivered. He wanted to call me back. Ten minutes later I had a little order to take to him. This went on with no orders during the week and little orders on the weekend for about 5 or 6 weeks. One day he called and told me that I would be getting his business from now on because I took care of his material needs on the weekend and my former company didn't.

Keep trying, it works.