Excellent points. I agree with you on the last sentence as well. There are times, however, when buyers–especially powerful ones like this–will test you or try to intimidate you.

I can get it cheaper elsewhere.
I think your margins are too high.
I don’t have the budget.
It’s not worth it to me at 100%, but it is at 40%.
Because I said so.

You can have a discussion about the first four. You can walk away for the last one. You don’t want him as a client.

Chances are, though, you couldn’t have won this sale anyway. The buyer clearly had another option in his or her back pocket, or didn’t want it in the first place. If he really needed what you’re selling, he’d have treated you better than this.

Ah, if I could do that meeting again, with what I know now…

Definitely a tough one, don’t know that you guys did anything wrong.

One thing that I always attempt to do in a situation like this is to do as much “research” inside the company as possible before a meeting with a new executive.

It’s tough in a situation like you had with no relationship with Leo. But here are a few thoughts:

Perhaps seek out all of your strongest supporters within Bostik to see who knew or had any relationship with Leo and what background you could gather on his personality, how he approaches vendors, his current disposition towards Datalogix and IBM, etc.

Also possibly see if someone within Bostik might have developed a relationship with one of Leo’s direct reports and could sponsor you to that person. They might have been able to coach you on how to approach the meeting with Leo.

No magic answers, but just thoughts on what could help in this kind of situation.

David

Nice to hear from you…

Jim didn’t select the time, Leo did. We would have been delighted to take him out to lunch. That wasn’t an option.

For those readers who would like to see some additional comments on this post, you should go to The Customer Collective, where this post was republished.

I haven’t worked with Europeans much in my career, and when I have, it’s been on US turf. However, I wonder if you didn’t miss an opportunity to build the relationship with Leo a little more by not taking him to lunch just prior to your meeting. A simple thing, but sometimes guys like Leo just want to feel important, and a lunch at your company’s expense might have been just what he was expecting.