How His Mistake Almost Cost $1.5 Billion in Lost Revenue | Mark Schaefer, Schaefer Marketing Solutions

The Professional Confessional

Social media branding consultant Mark Schaefer explains how his sales team almost lost $1.5 billion in revenue from a profitable (if problematic) client -- and how he managed to recover the account.

• Mark's biggest mistake was not hanging up fast enough. No, really, it was a teammate's indiscretion in choosing a bad time and place to vent about a problematic, if profitable, client -- risking the loss of 10% of the company's total revenue and Mark's own job.
  
• To fix his mistake, Mark took the old fashioned approach: Flying out in person, hiring a live courier to hand deliver a handwritten apology, offering to discuss the situation face to face. Ultimately, his ownership of the mistake and his prompt personal actions saved the account. Years later, Mark insists that this mistake could be even more deadly for the employer brand today who forgets that we're always on. So, you must be to swallow your pride to survive the inconvenience of a client you don't always click with -- because anything you say or do will be held against you in the court of public opinion.
  
• Today, Mark Schaffer is the executive director of Schafer Marketing Solutions, specializing in marketing strategy and social media. You can browse his decades of knowledge in half a dozen or more remarkable books on business -- I'm currently staring at my rediscovered copy of "Known" as I record this outro -- or his blog at BusinessesGrow.com.

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That's all for this Professional Confessional. I'm Ashley Stryker. Thanks again for tuning in, and I hope you'll join us next time. Talk soon!

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1. How His Mistake Almost Cost $1.5 Billion in Lost Revenue | Mark Schaefer, Schaefer Marketing Solutions (00:00:00)

2. "Before I got into marketing, I was in sales for a big Fortune 100 company." (00:00:39)

3. "I got an email from the vice president. You probably know where this is going." (00:02:36)

4. "You really have to always be on." (00:04:46)

5. "Is part of the solution to diversify beyond one major account so that no account is ever so vital to a company?" (00:06:34)

6. "So, the mistake Mark had to fix was..." (00:09:11)