--- title: Stop Mourning the Loss of a Client | The Sales Blog description: You are going to lose clients. Sometimes it’s going to be your fault. You’re going to fail to deliver. You’re going to get complacent and your competitors are going to catch you sleeping. Your going to lose the key operational person that owns the relationship. Sometimes you’ll lose clients through no fault of your own. You’ll […] image: https://www.thesalesblog.com/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/Screen-Shot-2013-01-17-at-7_43_42-PM.png --- ### [Now booking SKO meetings for 2026/27! 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Sometimes it’s going to be your fault. You’re going to fail to [deliver](http://thesalesblog.com/blog/2012/01/09/how-to-talk-with-your-team-about-execution/). You’re going to get [complacent](http://thesalesblog.com/blog/2012/01/08/fear-complacency-your-clients-do/) and your competitors are going to catch you sleeping. Your going to lose the key operational person that owns the relationship. Sometimes you’ll lose clients through no fault of your own. You’ll lose [adversarial](http://thesalesblog.com/blog/2010/12/22/the-business-relationships-maturity-continuum/), nightmare clients. You’ll lose clients that move to another country. Some clients will shutter their doors. Some won’t do what they need to do to help you to help them. The “how” and “why” of losing them only matters as it pertains to you learning from the experience. Mourning the loss of clients doesn’t do anything to help you recover from the loss. #### Pick Up the Pieces and Move On When you lose a client, you need to do some introspection. If it was your fault and you failed to deliver, get together with your team and determine what you have to change to prevent losing another client—and to ensure you succeed for your new clients. If you were complacent, decide how you are going to be [proactive](http://thesalesblog.com/blog/2012/12/14/being-responsive-versus-being-reactive/) with the rest of the clients you serve now. If you lost a key relationship holder on your side, think about how to build more—and deeper—relationships. If it wasn’t your fault, it still might be your fault. If you lost a client because they were adversarial, did you really discover that after the fact, or could you have seen it earlier? If you lost them because you couldn’t get your clients to help you make the changes they needed to make, how will you do better next time? Fight to the finish to keep your clients. But when it’s over, figure out what you might change in the future. Pick up the pieces and move on. You aren’t going to improve your results by rehashing and reliving the loss. You aren’t going to win new business by [blaming](http://thesalesblog.com/blog/2011/06/03/white-hats-and-black-hats/) others, or by recounting the “coulda, shoulda, wouldas.” The faster you get back to selling, the faster you recover from the loss of a client. Unless it was a big client. One of the reasons you can never take your foot off the [accelerator](http://thesalesblog.com/blog/2013/01/15/dont-take-your-foot-off-the-accelerator/) is because you are going to lose clients. I’ve seen some sales organizations go backwards because they lost a key account and didn’t have enough in the pipeline to replace it. Bigger clients usually mean a longer sales cycle. When you lose a key account, it’s too late to start working on replacing them. You better already have something in the pipeline. No amount of mourning is going to make you feel better or replace your lost client. Only selling can do that. #### Questions What do you do when you lose a key account? How do you recover from the loss? Think back to the last key account you lost. Why did you lose them and what did you learn? Would your sales number survive the loss of a major client? ###### Tags: [Sales](https://www.thesalesblog.com/blog/tag/sales) [2013](https://www.thesalesblog.com/blog/tag/2013) Post by [Anthony Iannarino](https://www.thesalesblog.com/blog/author/anthony-iannarino) on January 17, 2013 Written and edited by human brains and human hands. ![Anthony Iannarino](https://www.thesalesblog.com/hubfs/ai-blog-profile-crop.jpg) Anthony Iannarino is an American writer. He has published daily at [thesalesblog.com](https://www.thesalesblog.com) for more than 14 years, amassing over 5,300 articles and making this platform a destination for salespeople and sales leaders. Anthony is also the author of four best-selling books documenting modern sales methodologies and a fifth book for sales leaders seeking revenue growth. His latest book for an even wider audience is titled, The Negativity Fast: Proven Techniques to Increase Positivity, Reduce Fear, and Boost Success. Anthony speaks to sales organizations worldwide, delivering cutting-edge sales strategies and tactics that work in this ever-evolving B2B landscape. He also provides workshops and seminars. Connect with Anthony on LinkedIn, X or Youtube. You can email Anthony at [iannarino@gmail.com](mailto:iannarino@gmail.com) [Follow me on my website](https://www.thesalesblog.com/anthony-iannarino) [Follow me on Facebook ](https://www.facebook.com/thesalesblog) [Follow me on LinkedIn ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/iannarino/) [Follow me on Twitter ](http://www.twitter.com/iannarino) [![AISA-square-ad-SKOs-26-27](https://www.thesalesblog.com/hs-fs/hubfs/AISA-square-ad-SKOs-26-27.jpg?width=400&height=400&name=AISA-square-ad-SKOs-26-27.jpg)](https://www.thesalesblog.com/authority) [![ai-cold-calling-video-sidebar-offer-1](https://www.thesalesblog.com/hs-fs/hubfs/ai-cold-calling-video-sidebar-offer-1.jpg?width=318&height=179&name=ai-cold-calling-video-sidebar-offer-1.jpg)](https://www.thesalesblog.com/free-cold-calling-video) ![salescall-planner-ebook-v3-1-cover (1)](https://www.thesalesblog.com/hs-fs/hubfs/salescall-planner-ebook-v3-1-cover%20(1).jpg?width=768&height=994&name=salescall-planner-ebook-v3-1-cover%20(1).jpg) ### Free Sales eBook: Sales Call Planner Planning your sales call improves the likelihood of making a successful call, and it demonstrates to your dream client your professionalism. 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What we’re doing right now **is working**, even in this challenging economy. **Would you like some help?** [![Solve for Sales](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/2922376/d3a4938b-2008-4a27-8b44-7b2223f6d035.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/2922376/d3a4938b-2008-4a27-8b44-7b2223f6d035) ### Join my Weekly Newsletter for Sales Tips Join 100,000+ sales professionals in my weekly newsletter and get my *Guide to Becoming a Sales Hustler* eBook for FREE! --- ```json { "@context" : "http://schema.org/", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Anthony Iannarino" }, "dateModified" : "2021-09-17T2:34:42 PM", "datePublished" : "2013-01-17 20:10:12", "description" : "You are going to lose clients. Sometimes it’s going to be your fault. You’re going to fail to deliver. You’re going to get complacent and your competitors are going to catch you sleeping. Your going to lose the key operational person that owns the relationship. 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