Five Mistakes to Avoid When Customer Contacts Change

There are times we feel we are completely secure in our accounts, even new ones. Last fall one of my account managers secured a new account with lots of potential. He invited me to a meeting with the marketing and event team. And it was one of those times where everything just clicked. We all got along and by the end of the meeting they were telling us they wanted us to meet their other two divisions.

Home Run!

In the meeting we also discussed setting up an online store for their internal purchases and integrating all the divisions. They loved the idea and the sample store we had set up for the meeting.

They had told us their new fiscal year started October 1 and we should plan to get things rolling after that.

In early October the account manager reached out to find that his primary contact was out on a medical leave. The project was dead in the water until her return.

Mistake #1 – Making Assumptions

The account manager assumed all was great and projects would move forward after October 1. Unfortunately, he didn’t touch base again with his contact for over a month. Nor did he reach out to any of the other five people we had met that day. He hadn’t taken the time to learn the rolls of each individual at the meeting.

When the customer returned from medical leave in November she indicated that during her absence there had been a major reorganization. Of the people we had met previously only two were left. Her and one other.

The account manager struggled to get her attention until she informed him that she had resigned. She promised him she would introduce him to the new team prior to her departure and that everything would get back on track.

Mistake #2 - Not Staying Connected to as Many People as Possible

The account manager’s primary mistake was not staying in touch with all the people that he met that day and forging independent relationships with each of them. Maybe then he would have been informed of the reorganization taking place in her absence.

However, she was true to her word and scheduled a phone introduction with two members of the new team. Unfortunately, the account manager missed it because of a doctor’s appointment (he was having surgery the next week). Granted he didn’t think it was going to take so long, but his mistake was making it so close to his doctor’s appointment and not including me or another of our team on the call just in case. An avoidable mistake.

I learned long ago never to schedule meetings too close together. The customer could keep you waiting longer than expected, or the meeting runs long, or they want to introduce you to others in the department. And then what? You are late for your next appointment.

After missing the call, she promises she will get a meeting with the full team scheduled.

Mistake #3 – Not Asking the Right Questions

And she was true to her word. The meeting was set. But our mistake was taking for granted the purpose of the meeting. My account manager told me that we were going to meet the new team and begin the process of developing their online store for all three divisions. I didn’t probe further, I didn’t ask specific questions. Unfortunately, neither did he.

I didn’t realize he never really had a detailed discussion with his contact before she left the company. Nor did he have conversations with anyone else.

Mistake #4 – Expecting Someone Else to do Our Job

Yes, you guessed it. Four of our team walk into the conference room and their CMO asks, “why are we here and who called this meeting”.

As you can imagine, my heart sinks. We had walked into a meeting expecting them to know who we were and what we did. We had expected the prior customer to have sold them on us. Now, I realize we may be starting from scratch. We hadn’t come prepared for a whole new “pitch”.

Of course, we start with a brief overview of our capabilities and the benefits of working with us and then move into the discussion of the online store development. Because I am still under the assumption that’s why we are there.

The account manager barely says a word. Turns out he never spoke with any of the new team members. He only knew the one left-over member from the old team and he hadn’t touched base with him since our meeting months before. He thought that his customer was going to do his job.

Mistake #5 – Moving Forward with Planned Presentation

We should have just punted. We should have started from scratch with our pitch of who we were and wow them with our experience and capabilities.

Instead, we moved into our planned presentation. It is sad to admit that we were presenting an online store solution when they weren’t even sure we were the solution for anything.

So, in hindsight, we made mistakes from the very beginning. We set ourselves up for this disastrous meeting. Will we save this account? Only time will tell.