I lost a big sale, was it a blessing in disguise?

As many of you know, I lead sales for an awesome EdTech company for my day job. There are many times where things bubble up at work and seem to be the perfect example for an upcoming blog post.

My hope is that by sharing my stories of finding meaning in the weird and challenging and examples of shifting my mindset can help you feel inspirited to do the same.

So here we go… 

Have you ever heard the phrase “this is happening for me, not to me.” I interpret that to mean that even in the suckiest of times, there is a lesson to be learned and applied to my life to help me grow and be more authentic. I had this happen to me in a serious way recently. 

I had been working a really big sales deal for over two years. I had visited the organization multiple times and had countless zoom meetings with all sorts of key stakeholders. I put my best foot forward and had a very supportive team who bent over backwards to help us show up well. 

I was at my grandma’s birthday party and got the email that we needed to submit our best and final and congratulations. I thought that meant we won. Turns out, it didn’t. We didn’t get the deal, we came in second. The other company sharpened their pencil beyond what we would feel comfortable doing and promised things that we were not willing to promise. 

I was devastated. I was gutted. I genuinely felt like we were going to win. I felt confident. So this one hurt more and stung deeper than any professional loss I can remember as of late. 

My team members were kind and supportive, my boss was incredible. He reminded me that when one door closes it makes room for another one to open. These gestures of kindness were what helped me to get out of my head and into my heart. 

After a few days of feeling all of the yuck, I knew it was time to shake it off and gain some valuable insight. I came to the realization that the only thing I can control is my effort and my attitude. I know we did our very best, we left it all on the field so to speak. 

About a month later I was able to talk to my main contact at the organization. He said that he thought they were going to pick us up until the very end, and the other company offered a feature we didn’t have and we didn’t think was a good idea for where they were trying to go. He then proceeded to say, “Kara, sometimes you just need to tell people what they want to hear.”

He essentially told me that if we had lied and said we had this feature they would have picked us. Turns out, the other company did just that and are feverishing working to have their software developers build that feature. 

I felt a huge sense of relief and gratitude for not winning that deal. It would not have been the kind of account that would have aligned with who we are as a company or who I am as a person. No amount of money will make me compromise my values. I knew in that very moment that it didn’t go my way for that reason. I thanked the Universe for having my back and moved on to the next opportunity. 

When you are struggling to find the meaning in a failure or challenge, try letting it go. Try moving forward. Sometimes that meaning comes full circle and at a later time it all makes perfect sense. 

I am rooting for you all this week! 

Love and light my friends! 

Kara