9 Tips On How To Best Prepare For An Exit Interview When A Client Leaves

Have you ever been dumped, heart broken, left on the proverbial side of the road? I have. And then I got into sales. Misery loves company.

In the best of times, sales is not easy. In the worst of times, sales is torture. It’s easy to learn from successes, but, the question becomes, can you learn from your mistakes?  Without really thinking we instinctively answer, “Yes, I can and do learn from my mistakes.” But do we really? 

I keep dating the same loser guy. He has a different name, a different look, and a different house, but it’s still the same guy. I have not learned from my mistakes. Thomas Edison did, but that was with a light bulb. And it still took him 9,999 tries to perfect it. There are not enough guys and not enough hours in the day and Thomas Edison is taken. So I hereby declare that I have stopped dating. I have learned from my mistakes will never have a serious relationship again. Problem solved. 

But, once again, I digress. My article is about sales, specifically how to deal with being dumped by a business. Hermits make lousy salespeople. I humbly offer some possible alternative solutions.

Recently, I lost a very large client. “Lost” is the gentler, kinder way of saying that I was dumped, walked on, trashed, defenestrated. The company in question was sold to a Venture Capital firm. The VC firm replaced every supplier on the list. Yep. You guessed it. My company was on the chopping block. Cue butcher knife.

I was upset, frustrated and heartbroken. I had failed. I did not understand why the new owner would get rid of us without giving me a chance to show our value. Afterall, our print portal freed up hundreds of hours each month for their corporate marketing team, streamlined their invoicing, and managed specific store data so each location got the correct quantity and size of materials for every national rollout. Were they blind? “Fine. They don’t want me, then I don’t want them.”

6 months later I was in a meeting with Ryan. Not just any Ryan. This Ryan is a dream– smart, funny, responsive, strategic, understands cost vs. price and values relationships. His company was about to be sold. He was moving on. He had been working with us for two years. I wanted to learn from our successes.

Me: “Why did you move your business to our company?”

Ryan: “Because you offered a more streamlined ordering system at a fair price, and because of your personal attention to detail. You seem to genuinely care about our business.”  

Me: “What is one thing that your previous vendor did well that my company could learn from?”

Ryan: “The best thing they did was to hold an exit interview. They wanted to know what they did wrong and how they could improve. That’s really impressive. Very few companies do this. Even with all their faults and the major issues that happened with the account, they had the courage to get brutal feedback about what they needed to improve upon. To show how serious this feedback was and how important it was for them to improve, the CEO led the call. He was organized, to the point, kind and asked very good questions to determine the root cause of the problems.”

Boom! I was hit with a ton of bricks. I have never done an exit interview. When I lost the client above, I didn’t take the time to interview them. Why didn’t I think of this? What a great way to get honest and candid feedback. I could get the valuable feedback that might improve our technology, offering, systems and support.

I’m currently in the process of having a client transition away from us. They are in the food service space and need food fulfillment that we don’t offer (food fulfillment has very specific federally regulated requirements). I have prepared an exit interview. Here are some tips:

●    Schedule a 30 minute meeting in-person (if in-person is not doable, Skype)

●    Ask specific open-ended questions (see below)

●    Use specific examples of projects or situations that you feel could have been better executed

●    Ask about new or different technologies that might benefit your industry. 

●    Ask what conferences and events you might attend to become more knowledgeable in their industry

●    Get three specific value add reasons why the client selected the new supplier

●    Take notes: record all of his/her answers so everyone on your team will have access

●    Implement: review the responses with your team; determine what changes make sense and implement them

●    Send a handwritten thank you note and personal gift to your former client thanking them for his/her feedback

You never know if your former client will need your business solutions in the future or when someone on his/her team will move to another company that needs you. Stay in touch and continue to add value!

An exit interview is a helpful tool that will help you “learn from your mistakes” when a company decides to part ways. 

I would highly recommend NO exit interview when you are dumped in some sad, desperate personal relationship. Celibacy has its benefits.

In case you were wondering, Ryan is married and has a child. Perhaps he knows an eligible bachelor? 

- Sarah Scudder, Chief Growth Officer, The Sourcing Group

Published in Print Solution's March 2017 Magazine. Sarah Scudder writes the monthly Linking Verve column for PS Magazine.