Look for the SILVER LINING......

Sometimes after all the hard work, the proposal, the presentation, the follow up calls, we hear the final customer decision -- "No." It is at that point that we usually ask ourselves, "What went wrong?"

Maybe instead of asking that question, we need to ask ourselves, "What went RIGHT?" After all, even though the client or customer already had a vendor for the product or service we offer, they were impressed with our offering to take a meeting, look at a presentation, request a proposal. And after that, we did the proper amount of follow-up via phone and email so that the client did not feel harangued by our desire to push the process along. And when the client told us NO - we used that moment to ask for a referral - and THEY GAVE IT TO US (one of the best times to ask is if we are turned down) and there is our SILVER LINING. And when the referral was happy to become our client or customer, we went back to the giver of the referral and drop them a card, send over a small token of appreciation - and that kept us in their mind for the future. That is RELATIONSHIP MARKETING.....

I have had many of these SILVER LININGS in my career - and what I have learned is that NO sometimes can be seen as a YES and a MAYBE for future business and growth - and those are some of the times for learning and growth!