Client referral stalled for 3 months, a simple intro email fixed it

I was waiting on a logistics firm in Dallas to sign off on a contract extension, and their procurement guy kept dodging my calls. Turns out his boss never saw my original proposal because it got buried in a shared inbox. Anyone else find that a direct email to the decision maker, not the gatekeeper, is the only way to move these B2B reviews forward?

2 comments

2 Comments

pat_murray161mo ago

Three months is a long time, but that's on you for not checking the shared inbox rules first. A lot of these companies have a process for a reason. Procurement folks are the ones who get yelled at if a contract gets signed without legal or finance seeing it. Going over their head might work once, but that gatekeeper will remember you next time. I've seen deals fall apart because the real decision maker got a direct email and felt blindsided, not impressed. If the proposal was lost, that sucks, but making an end run around the system just sets up friction for the next renewal.

jade_lane1928d ago

Pat has a point, and I've been on the receiving end of that friction too. A logistics manager I worked with once told me flat out that his procurement team would blackball any vendor who skipped their process, even if the fix was obvious. That said, your intro email probably saved you from another three months of silence, and sometimes that's worth the risk. @pat_murray16, the rule of thumb I've heard is to loop in the gatekeeper as a cc on that direct email, so they're not blindsided. Did your renewal actually go through without drama, or are you waiting for the other shoe to drop?