Thanks to all the people who contributed stories about calling their
customer's baby (pet project, decision) ugly.
In every case, their
hurtful comments were meant to be helpful. But because they didn't have
all the information or understand the politics involved, they stuck
their foot in their mouth big time and in most cases, lost the business.
The winner of the "Ugly Baby" Contest is .... drum roll .... Russ Emrick. You'll see why when you read his story below. Russ will be my guest on the upcoming teleseminar, Attract More Business By Getting "Slightly" Famous.
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Russ Emrick's Ugliest Baby Story
I sell medical software to hospitals. A few years ago a competitor
won a project for $6 million dollars, leaving me with a $300,000 rump
sale. After 6 months the hospital realized my competitor could not do
some very necessary things, functions my solution does. (Yes, I had
told them. Yes, my competitor mislead, ok spun their story).
The hospital called us both in to solve this. After a long meeting
we struck up an agreement: I would turn on this functionality for free,
believing I would get expansion business in the future.
That wasn't
good enough for the other vendor. He said to the customer, "You need to
know that if there is any work or interfacing required on our part
there will be a charge."
The man's arrogance made me lose all sense.
Instead of letting the hospital respond to what was clearly their
problem, I jumped in.
"Let me get this straight," I said, "the hospital has already paid
you $6 million dollars for a solution that doesn't work. I've flown
completely across the county at my expense and offered to fix the
problem for free but you still feel the need to reach into the
customer's pocket for more money? Money to solve a problem of your
making! That is unbelievable."
Of course he backed down and I thought I scored, thinking the
hospital would appreciate my coming to their defense and saving them
money. However, later in the inter sanctum of management my champion
told me the bad news.
"Russ," Jim said, "the President personally made
the decision to go with that vendor. Everyone at that meeting agreed or
has a major investment in that decision, least of which is that none of
us can afford to look like idiots having spent $6 million dollars on a
solution that doesn't work.
"We have to live with that vendor and people
for a long time. We didn't appreciate you having a confrontation with
our vendor or you creating an adversarial relationship with them. Your
comments have ended your relationship with the hospital."
Unknown to me, Jim (my champion) had gotten a call from the President and
Department Director. My competitor had his champions as well. Jim was
told that I was never to darken their doorstep again.
I never got to
speak with Jim again and never was allowed back into the account. Less
than two years later both my competitor and I were out. Even worse,
they continue to bad mouth me and my company despite the good work and
literally millions of dollars we saved them while our software was
installed.
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For a few more ugly baby stories ....
Winning sales in a cutthroat business environment is tough. It's especially hard when prospects have narrowed their options down to 2-3 finalists who all seem reasonably able to meet their needs. You've likely invested hours of time and company resources, if you've made it this far. Coming in second is not an attractive option. 