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I went to a friend’s wedding about a month ago. After the ceremony I found my name card at the reception table and sat down with my wife. I knew one other couple at the table, but there were 3 others I didn’t know.
One of the guys looked familiar but I couldn’t put my finger on why. We were just having a friendly chat and I asked him if we had met before, I figured we must have met at a party at some point. He said probably not. He was from out of town and was a cousin of the bride. Then it hit me. I’d been assigned to sit beside a prospect I’d cold emailed, demoed, and then promptly ghosted me for six straight weeks.
I asked him where he worked, to confirm. It was him. I brought it up sheepishly that we had a call about a year ago together. He was immediately embarrassed as it must have come back to him. He apologized about ghosting me, and made up a BS excuse about being busy and forgetting. I said it was fine and not to worry about it.
We ended up both getting pretty drunk and chatting throughout the night. Later while we were standing by the bar he put his arm around me and told me to email him on Monday and we could pick the conversation up again.
I emailed him Monday. No response, but I could tell he opened the email. I emailed him again 2 weeks later, just a friendly check-in. Opened. No response. Fast friends at a wedding huh?
Anonymous Location Withheld
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I sell workflow software into mid-market finance teams. Not the most glamorous vertical, but dependable. This prospect was a regional loan servicing firm, and getting them into a live demo had taken three months of nudges and reschedules.
I was midway through a video pitch when the buyer held up a hand and said, “One sec… looks like you just sent me something?” I was confused, so it stopped me in my tracks. I watched his face in silence as he read it. Apparently I had completely forgotten to turn off a scheduled email to him after he had replied and booked the meeting with me. So during the meeting it fired off and asked him if he wanted to “set up time to chat sometime this week.”
He read it and smirked back at me. I gave a lazy apology, like it was no big deal that the email got sent off, and surprisingly he was super calm about it.
I ended up still landing the deal and have been working with the guy for almost a year now. I don't manually schedule email follow ups anymore just in case.
Anonymous Location Withheld
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It was my first week at a new company, I was doing life insurance sales. I was still in the phase where everyone pretends to be helpful. One of the more tenured reps pulled me aside and said he wanted to do me a favor. He had a lead I should call. He told me to mention that “John” recommended I reach out. The prospect would definitely know who John was. It would feel warm. Easy win.
I trusted him because I was new and wanted to seem coachable. As I was making the call, I realized that half the sales floor was watching, which seemed suspicious. I did the intro exactly as instructed and dropped John’s name early. There was a pause on the other end of the line. Then the prospect asked, very calmly, which John I meant.
I didn’t know his last name. I hadn’t even asked. I just froze and said “uhhh” while my brain tried to invent a last name in real time. Behind me, the team lost it. They were all laughing their heads off. The prospect hung up. The laughter got louder after I hung up and people started coming up to my chair and patting me on the back. I learned two things that day: never trust a first-week favor, and always get a last name.
Anonymous Location Withheld
