I am in sales. I sell people. Well, in the recruiting field to hiring managers.
I was about to get a contract with a $30b company but misread the contract. I thought they were asking us for all of our cost information. I called the front line person (in the Procurement group) to explain that we don't do business like that but she said that since I don't meet the business requirements, I can't be a vendor. I asked for a few more days. She said I can talk to her boss if I had questions on the contract terms. Instead of getting in touch with him, I was trying to get in touch with the hiring manager so he could possibly call a higher level manager in the Procurement group for me. He didn't return my emails or voicemail.
So 5 fucking days later, the hiring manager emails me and says that he already hired some people. I wanted to cry.
I ended up calling the front line lady's manager. He said it was a miscommunication and the contract doesn't require us to provide the information I thought. I wanted to cry even more. I promptly had my partner sign the contract and sent in all of the information. Had I thought a bit more and/or had a little more knowledge in negotiation or persistence, I could have got this deal.
I'm now hoping to get into being the preferred guy at this company that the hiring managers deal with in my field. I've been doing this (my first sales job) for 4 months and this would have been my first big deal. Lesson learned.
I was about to get a contract with a $30b company but misread the contract. I thought they were asking us for all of our cost information. I called the front line person (in the Procurement group) to explain that we don't do business like that but she said that since I don't meet the business requirements, I can't be a vendor. I asked for a few more days. She said I can talk to her boss if I had questions on the contract terms. Instead of getting in touch with him, I was trying to get in touch with the hiring manager so he could possibly call a higher level manager in the Procurement group for me. He didn't return my emails or voicemail.
So 5 fucking days later, the hiring manager emails me and says that he already hired some people. I wanted to cry.
I ended up calling the front line lady's manager. He said it was a miscommunication and the contract doesn't require us to provide the information I thought. I wanted to cry even more. I promptly had my partner sign the contract and sent in all of the information. Had I thought a bit more and/or had a little more knowledge in negotiation or persistence, I could have got this deal.
I'm now hoping to get into being the preferred guy at this company that the hiring managers deal with in my field. I've been doing this (my first sales job) for 4 months and this would have been my first big deal. Lesson learned.