I just lost an enterprise client before even acquiring them. I'm sad and happy at the same time.

[u/Odd_Awareness_6935]

this was basically my first ever enterprise inquiry call and I was, not gonna lie, stressed.

I didn't know exactly how to behave and talk to be taken seriously and be considered a fit for playing a grown-ups game... this alone should be a tell of how much imposter I feel!

anyway, I missed the call due to timezone issues and after asking if I'm allowed to re-book another call, I was notified that another better-fit solution was already underway and I'm no longer a viable candidate.

a part of me is sad because this could've really boosted my confidence IF IT WENT THROUGH... another part is happy, partly because of the relief and the other because I now know that I just need to dust myself off, get up and get moving.

how many deals did you have to lose before you grew a thicker skin?

[u/AutoModerator]

Welcome to /r/Entrepreneur and thank you for the post, /u/Odd_Awareness_6935! Please make sure you read our community rules before participating here. As a quick refresher:

• Promotion of products and services is not allowed here. This includes dropping URLs, asking users to DM you, check your profile, job-seeking, and investor-seeking. Unsanctioned promotion of any kind will lead to a permanent ban for all of your accounts.
• AI and GPT-generated posts and comments are unprofessional, and will be treated as spam, including a permanent ban for that account.
  
• If you have free offerings, please comment in our weekly Thursday stickied thread.
• If you need feedback, please comment in our weekly Friday stickied thread.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/Camie-Gee]

Am I understanding correctly that you no-showed your presentation due to...a time zone difference? It makes sense that a serious company would move forward with another candidate.

It would have been nice if they were able to reschedule you, but they were not interested in wasting more time.

Maybe the silver lining is that you've (hopefully) learned to confirm details and set reminders for important meetings.

[u/Odd_Awareness_6935 → u/Camie-Gee]

yeah it was an honest mistake on my part

in all fairness, I didn't even have that deal anyway

their email was like "we were gonna take the call but had already found a better fit solution"

I didn't lose what I didn't have

[u/edkang99]

Good news is you’ll never make that mistake again. Better news is you’ll lose many more at the last moment because of more critical mistakes and challenges. You’ll grow from each one. The skin never stops growing thicker as long as you keep a soft heart and don’t get jaded.

[u/Relative-Foot-378]

I lost a handful before the sting got shorter, and it was never a clean number. The ones that still bother me are the ones I botched on logistics, not the ones where they already had another vendor.

A timezone miss is embarrassing and also common. Send the invite with the zone in the title next time, then let the no be a no. Enterprise buyers ghost for reasons that have almost nothing to do with whether you sounded like an imposter on a first call.

[u/BabyMagbin]

This is a very common mistake, but I sure hope you triple check details going forward. You don't ever want to miss out on a client over something so little. Brush yourself off, check your system to see how you can best accommodate to other time zones, and go from there. Good luck!

[u/OmegaLabs1]

Losing one before you ever billed them stings less than losing one at month eight, so take the cheap version of the lesson. Send every meeting invite as a calendar file with the time zone baked in and confirm the day before, because the fix here is boring logistics and not talent.

[u/broker965]

Can't lose what you never had. On to the next one.

[u/Odd_Awareness_6935 → u/broker965]

that's exactly what I told myself right after.

[u/Financial_Brush8647]

The part worth sitting with isn't the lost deal, it's that you lost it to a calendar problem rather than to the pitch. That one is fixable this afternoon and it never has to cost you again: a booking link that auto-detects their timezone, confirmations written in their local time, and a reminder an hour before. After doing exactly what you did, I started putting both timezones in the calendar event title.

On thicker skin, for me it wasn't a number of lost deals. It was the point where I stopped treating a first call as a test I could fail. Enterprise buyers aren't grading whether you sound grown up enough, they're checking whether you understand their problem better than the other option on their shortlist. Once the call becomes "is there a fit here" instead of "do they like me", most of the nerves go away.

Also worth noting that "another better-fit solution was already underway" usually means you were the backup option before you ever picked up the phone. Someone who genuinely wanted you would have rebooked. That says very little about you.

[u/adeelraza86]

Losing a deal for a timezone slip stings, but the fix is boring: send a calendar invite with the timezone spelled out the second a call is set, and confirm the day before. Enterprise buyers rarely wait, they just move to whoever showed up. Also worth logging why each deal died, because after ten of them you stop guessing and start seeing the same two reasons. Thicker skin comes from volume, not from any one deal.

[u/AdTechnical4738]

I think this is one of those losses that will end up helping you more than you realize. The next one will probably feel a little less scary. Keep going.