I had been talking with this company for over a year and finally was able to complete the full proposal meeting last month. They are qualified for our platform, can afford it, and we always seemed to have good/productive conversations. They refused to meet over zoom and would always have me fly to the Bay Area to meet in person.
After the proposal meeting, the CEO - COO - HR all agreed this was a "no-brainer". I left the meeting confident that the deal was done. I sent a follow-up email about a week later, and they had another objection for me, which I handled. I got an email today saying they were going to stick with the same person/organization that had not helped them much in the past and gave me no clear reason why they are not going to make the switch. If I had to guess, it would be to maintain a business relationship they had previously had for years.
I want to understand why they didn't choose to buy without coming off as an asshole and ruining my chances of ever working with them in the future.
What's the best way to reply to this prospect without burning the bridge?
19 comments