He’s Just Not That Into You

Watch this trailer for full effect.

My wife made me sit through this movie last weekend. It was cute. The characters were funny and engaging and the storyline was amazingly unpredictable, but somewhere between my Juju Beans and second diet coke I started to get the feeling that I had seen the movie before. That’s when it hit me. I had. As a matter of fact, I had lived it.

In sales we are always chasing that one big customer. You know the one: the one who buys tons of stuff and transforms mediocre sales reps into superstars. Sometimes we actually get to meet them. We go in, pitch our stuff, and leave confidant we have a shot at the business. We go back to our managers with wild tales of buying signs and imminent POs. We wait for their call.

Silence…..

He doesn’t call. We call him, he doesn’t call back. We email and hear nothing. We try to friend him on Facebook. We even sit outside of his office looking for the competition. That’s when we realize he’s just not that into us.

Suck it up, it happens, but if it happens too often you might be doing something wrong. The sooner you acknowledge the problem, the sooner you can fix it. Ask more questions. Let him do the talking. Do more in meetings to educate and see what happens. He still might not call, but at least you will know that up front. Don’t waste time sitting around waiting for his call.