I just lost a potential customer that I spent years trying to get.

…and I broke up with THEM.

Early on, my team and I identified a ‘Dream 100’ list. A list of 100 customers that if we got 5% of them would change the trajectory of our business.

We divided up the list among the team, but sometimes I like to take top accounts on personally.

This was one of them.

It was a giant. A monster. A game-changer.

I also had personal ties to them.

This organization had literally changed my life, and I knew we could drive huge value for them.

I did my homework, played the long game, and used all of my best techniques.

I did my homework, used focused account-based techniques, pitched their entire executive team at their offices with heads nodding around the table, and I had them at the finish line.

I did all the things that I teach people how to do through my courses at Hustle & Grit.

We had set a deadline to make a decision, and I had been ghosted.

Twice.

Finally, last week, I sent a break-up e-mail.

After getting this far, I sensed we actually weren’t a top priority for them, and in our line of business at Intellitix, if you’re not coming in at a 10/10 in terms of commitment, it’s not going to work out.

And so, I send a break-up e-mail telling them candidly that we need partners who are all in, and I felt they had too many competing priorities at the moment and so we should revisit at a later time.

90% of the time, if the prospect is serious, they’ll come back to you right away telling you otherwise:

“Wait, no I’m sorry, let’s do this”.

“Let’s re-schedule, how’s tomorrow at 2pm?”

But when they don’t come back to you, they were not ready to work with you and it’s best you part ways.

I share this because I’m proud of it.

This wasn’t some nobody event, this was a dream customer that would lead to huge business for us and we could grow with over time. But if they’re not invested in the process, and this isn’t a priority at the moment, then it’s never going to work! I’d be setting my team up for failure.

The follow-on impact is massive: delayed contract signing, delayed payments, a customer that won’t respond to our Customer Success team, on-site delays, execution challenges, and the list goes on.

It took me a decade of sales experience to be able to drum up the courage to send an e-mail like this, but I wish I’d done it sooner.

‍