Turn Rejection Into a Future Close
by Allan Colman
What happens when your firm has found a target through business development and marketing tactics, done their due diligence with research to ascertain potential client needs, then finally presents a killer presentation to only be rejected in the end? Losing never feels good. But don’t count yourself out just yet. Follow this process, and you might turn that loss into an engagement...eventually.
Reflect
Ask the client what the element were that won it for the competition and what were the strengths and areas of improvement your presentation needed.
Now it’s time to take a tough, retrospective look at the marketing, business development strategy and sales and closing techniques used to pitch that piece of business. If you made it to the Red Zone, then the marketing and business development tactics you used were sufficient to get your firm considered. Where did your sales and closing skills miss the mark? Did the client feel you had a full understanding of their needs? Conduct a post mortem from events that occurred at the presentation and then try to pinpoint the areas needing improvement.
Regroup
Find out which firm won the business, then find out everything about them. From the client’s perspective, what was your firm lacking that they believed the other guys might deliver? Also remember that if you made it to the finals, they know and appreciate you and have an investment in your firm as well. Stay in touch and you stand an excellent chance of being retained in the future.
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Allan Colman is the principal of the
Closers Group, a sales and business
generation consulting firm serving the
legal profession. He can be reached at
acolman@closersgroup.com.
