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This happened to me about a month ago, I was actually pretty pissed at the time but I've come to realize this is too funny not to share.
I booked an intro call with this exec. He's kind of a thought leader on LinkedIn with a few thousand followers, nothing crazy, but he makes posts almost every day. I read through his posts and used that info to do personalized outreach and got the meeting. He was nice enough on the call, he seemed to have a bit of an ego, but I played into it. Overall I felt the call went pretty well.
Three days later, he hadn't responded to my follow-up email. So I looked at his LinkedIn to see if there was anything I could use to reengage with him. This freaking guy made a post that started with "I took a intro call with a sales rep this week, here's what he did wrong..." I read the post and it was about the call I had with him! One of the things I apparently did "wrong" was mention that we could offer him a discount (after he explicitly asked about it on the call), which according to this guy, I shouldn't be doing on the first call.
Needless to say, there was no deal that ever materialized. I came pretty close to writing this guy an email telling him off and refuting all his points, but after I calmed down I decided to just let it go.
Anonymous Location Withheld
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This was years ago when we had phones bolted into our cars, but this could happen today too if you're not careful. I was traveling with my sales manager out on the west coast and he had made an appointment with a big OEM that we were looking to close on. He knew the main purchasing agent Ms.........We had about a 3 hour drive to get to their office and he was one of those that wanted to call when we were close to arriving to alert her we were on the way. So he gives her a call and puts her on speaker. When she answered he went through his spiel explaining we were about an hour out. She replies that she is really too busy to see us today and could we make another appointment at a later date. He of course replies in a very polite way that that's no problem at all and that we'd call at a later date and proceed to hang up. At that point my boss starts calling her every name in the book (I'm sure you can imagine). We then hear on the speaker phone, "you forgot to hang up I just heard everything you just said about me." Oh my god...........what do we say now. To this day, many many years later, I always make sure my phone is hung up. You'll never believe, we called her up 6 months later for an appt and she accepted. We did not call her ahead of time this time.
Anonymous Atlanta
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I've been in sales for over a decade. One of my first sales experiences was working at a gym when I was in my early 20s. I was a gym rat back then so it was a pretty great fit for me. I always use this story as an example for why you should never make assumptions in sales.
This scrawny looking kid came in one day and said he wanted a membership. He was with his mom, and it seemed like he was right around driving age. I gave them the standard tour. The kid was asking questions, and he seemed excited to start lifting. I got them back to the counter and gave them the different membership tier options with pricing. Since he was with his mother, I decided to pitch them the family membership (I'd get a bigger commission) and said, "We also offer family plans that have a pretty big discount if there's other people in your family who want to use the gym."
I kind of looked at the mother while I said that, since I figured she'd be the decision maker. Her facial expression immediately changed and I knew I messed up. She got offended and said "Does it look like I need to go to the gym?" She was certainly not in perfect shape, but she wasn't overweight either. I apologized profusely and tried to save myself, but she was already out the door. I lost the deal, but the lesson was worth it. I never make assumptions any more.
Anonymous Wisconsin
