Importance of rejecting a customer quickly

Am here to share an professional experience of mine, where I had happily rejected a customer within 10-15 mins into a call this week. Might be wondering what’s wrong with this guy.

I always believe, as a Sales Professional, we all should know where to divert your energy. You need to be really focused to know the customer mindset and decide quickly whether it’s worth enough to continue relationship with them.

I happened to meet this customer almost a month ago in a very unprofessional, untidy environment. They had given us 2 problem statements to attack. One of them is reasonable enough and another one is absolutely not. Had given them a word that we will get back soon.

As promised, we could zero down to a price for the 1st business case. The second is an IoT solution where we need to climb a mini Mt Everest. Some of those needs demanded by the customer has nothing to do with IT. But not impossible. But is it worth for mine and team’s time spent?

It took me few seconds to cut off the customer happily. Another 2 mins we are out of the call and I have called my boss and said we are not taking this customer forward. And he has supported my thoughts 100%. Nice to have such a boss. And mind it, it was second reject of a customer in less than 2 weeks time.

Am not sure how many among you can really digest this thought. But it’s very important for us to know with whom we need to built relationship with. Let it be business or personal. If it doesn’t fall under your thought process or frequency ( or wavelength), cut them off and move on.

Take it from me, you will save a lot of your positive energy in this important exercise. Keep looking only for positives around you. You have a lot and am personally experiencing it on daily basis.

Jason Clark

An experienced director and marketing strategist for Fortune 100, mid-size and entrepreneurial organizations, I have run global marketing teams for cloud automation, industry based ERP, CRM management and technology companies.Software product marketing and product management leader with experience in marketing management, channel, and direct sales with an emphasis in Cloud, catalog and content management, ERP, MES, and Quality Management systems.