This past week I met, as I do regularly, with a top salesperson whom I’ve worked with for years. He’s one of the best in his industry, a rainmaker year after year and an inspiration to others. In fact, as we talked about several of his promising Best Bets™ opportunities for this year, he inspired our POTW topic for this week and next.

During our conversation, he told me about a certain client that was proving to be particularly challenging. I know the company, and I know the executive he was working with. I also know that this salesperson has done a lot of work with this high-profile client over the years and that he knows the executive well—very well.

In fact, this salesperson has been one of the executive’s trusted advisors for a while. (We coach people to always position themselves as an advisor to the client—not as someone who pushes products.) He’d done his homework in his role as a dedicated advisor. He’d assessed the client’s current situation and then he made an informed, well-thought-out recommendation to the executive.

Then came the big challenge and the source of his current problem and anxiety: The executive was not returning his calls. The salesperson had even overnighted a packet of information that was time-sensitive enough to warrant some action. It didn’t work.

So what did this lack of a return call mean?
Who knows?

We could make a lot of assumptions at this point about what is and what isn’t going on. We could contemplate theories all day long. The executive could have lost interest. Maybe the situation at the company changed all of a sudden. The executive might have decided to go with someone else. Perhaps there is a more personal reason, like a birth or a death in the family, and the client is distracted. Or maybe the client just hasn’t gotten around to this bit of business, and he doesn’t feel the need to keep the salesperson posted.

But why waste time and beat yourself up over something you clearly can’t control? There are more effective ways to handle this than wondering “what if? … ” Being an effective advisor for your client means you have a relationship going. A pause in your conversation most likely is simply that—a pause. And that’s a temporary thing.