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Mistakes Happen – Now What

Wednesday, May 13th, 2009 - 7:47 pm - Sales

This week we had a communication breakdown between a client and our developers. Once I got involved and asked the client what they really though, the developers realized that they hadn’t communicated as effectively as thought. These things are going to happen no matter how good your team is, the trick now is how do you handle it.

The first thing you need to realize is that the blame game isn’t going to get anyone anywhere. What’s done is done and rather than figuring out whose fault it is, find out what you can do to fix it. The client doesn’t really care what happened, they want it solved without putting them out of their way. I went in and assessed the situation fairly quickly, and realized what we were going to have to do to make the client happy and then told them we’d do exactly that. I then got out of the way and trusted my team to get back to doing what they do best and get the project back on track.

Focusing on a solution made it possible to get the client back into the normal working mode and let them forget about the problem – in their mind it is solved. The image of resolution is the most important thing at this point. That allows the client and team to work together as though things are “normal”. Handling the problem should be done as far from the client’s vision as possible – its your problem to solve.

As the Salesman here this is still your job to handle. It doesn’t matter where the ball got dropped, you need to smooth things over and solve the problem. This is an opportunity to yell and scream at your team and burn some bridges – I suggest going a different route. You need your team a lot more than they need you, so now is a great time to save their bacon and build a little karma your way.

Don’t get mad or upset (publicly). Put your Salesman shoes on and your big boy pants and get to work – this is where a Real Salesman has a chance to shine and earn his client’s and his team’s faith.


  • http://twitter.com/resound David Cosand

    great post. we need to focus on solutions and stop wasting time on archaeological digs to find out where to point our fingers…. however, it seems that mistakes made due to communication issues from client to team are easier to smooth over than blatant black and white errors that happen in production – especially if they happen repeatedly to the same client. when is it OK for the salesman to get upset (publicly)?

    • http://chrisconrey.com conrey

      In my opinion, it is nearly never ok for the salesman to get upset in front of the client. I don’t see there to be anything to gain from blaming your team or blaming an outside force. As the salesman you are the expert, the pointman, and the general. You’re responsible for everything that goes on as far as the client is concerned, so don’t get mad – get to work.