How to Still be a Winner After Losing a Potential Client.

What do you do when you lose a potential client? A few weeks ago this happened to me. I was disappointed but it’s not the first time and it won’t be the last time that I hear the words, “I’m sorry but…”.  However,  over the years I’ve learned to see this as an opportunity and not as a loss. Let me explain.

I thanked my client for her interest in my services and proposed several inexpensive ideas that could still allow her to capture something of her father’s life.  I pointed her to a previous blog article of mine, How to Write Your Life Story in Twenty Statements. I suggested this could be a jumping off point for her father to reflect on his journey and document his thoughts with a digital voice recorder.

I also proposed that  perhaps a grandchild armed with some questions and a recorder could interview the grandfather and capture something of his story.

I felt better being able to offer some alternatives and she felt good about her experience with me. And that’s crucial. While I won’t be working with her on this project, who knows what the future holds? Perhaps one day she might want me to document her life story. Or she may pass my name on to a friend or colleague who’s looking for a personal historian. It’s planting seeds that can grow into future work.

So what might you be able to offer potential clients who turn you down? Here are some suggestions for saying, “Thank you for contacting me.”

If you put your mind to it, it’s not hard to come up with some simple, inexpensive ways to say, “I appreciate your contacting me. I’m sorry we can’t work together, but your desire to record your loved one’s personal history is important. And I want to honor your commitment.”

Photo by Jean-François Bauche

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email.

What do you think?

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s