We have a major online company using my company's services. Their contract with my company expired a couple of months ago and we had a revenue dent for 2 months as a result. My team and I have $30k of annual revenue tied to this account so a loss would sting for me and for my sales rep - possibly ruin his year. We knew the customer had been working on moving data centers and had been too overwhelmed to answer our inquiries regarding the contract renewal for quite awhile. However, it got to the point last week we were sure they were a cancellation risk.
It was the end of our quarter last Friday and we had not spoken with the customer in roughly 60 days. Our Sales Engineer had, in desperation the night before, emailed an old IT Ops email distribution list and the manager-level contact at least, finally, acknowledged the note. We had been running their services in good faith since contract expiration because we wanted the customer to be protected while we chased them down for the renewal- but there is a point in time when you are chasing a silent customer that you have to shut off service. We were heading there fast.
I should mention I have been operating at work with a deeper and more constant revelation of co-laboring with the Lord recently recognizing that it is He who does the work and I am helping Him with His work. As a result I have been trying to pay attention to what the Lord may be doing so I can operate my business with His help. This end of the quarter time I was confident of His help but never imagined what would happen.
I remember being busy and distracted all day with various items - and the clock was running out fast for end of quarter. I honestly didn't have time to even work on such an unlikely deal. The problem was, even if I got ahold of the customer and they said they wanted to renew with us - they didn't have paperwork in front of them to sign. There was no telling how many levels of management would be required to sign. Often a deal of this size can take a couple of weeks or more to get signed.
By now it was mid-day and someone outside my department presented me the crazy idea of asking the customer to send us an email stating that they wanted to renew.(what??) In my whole career this has never been something I have seen (everything is tightly controlled with legal contracts that have to be mutually signed) but in order to rule out the idea I decided to ask our Legal about it. They responded that the customer's contract allows for something unusual - a renewal upon written notice. They said an email would not normally be a favored method of receiving "written notice" but that if our Revenue department approved - I could try it. Time was almost out at this point with less than 3 hours left in the day- and in the quarter. I called and emailed our Revenue Director- waited- no response- I happened to have his cell phone and called it... I GOT him! He said if Legal agreed it would be binding - he would approve the email approach. Legal confirmed it would be and advised me some language that should be in the email.
At this point it was 1 hour before the end of the quarter and although its "impossible" to close a large-$30k, late renewal, in 1 hour with a customer we haven't spoke to in 60 days, with AN EMAIL ....I was starting to see the Lord might have opened the door for a miracle and I wanted to take this forward and give it a chance. With a hunch in the back of my mind that an hour to go might actually highlight a miracle- and God's power - I wrote up an urgent and short email message about the late renewal and a potential service pause to our management contact at the customer- asking him to call me ASAP.
He called me in less than 5 minutes asking about the email renewal option. I explained the situation and he said he was willing to try it but that his VP had to approve it- and he was out sick (of course he was out sick!). Still, he said he would call the VP's cell phone and try. He got ahold of the VP, who approved it, and we got the email renewal reply in minutes! The deal went through and the way we had protected the customer patiently for 60 days when they could not respond actually gained for us enhanced customer trust.
What happened with this deal sent a total shock through the office - it was known to be impossible. They had watched it all unfold. I had experienced another business miracle. I had prayed about this account the day before but to be honest what happened was so unlikely I almost had to be dragged into the miracle. It was truly God that did the work- with me just walking in his work. If it had not been the Lord who had been on our side - multiple stages of this would have shut us down.
I want to thank the Lord for this business miracle and strongly encourage my friends and readers to follow Christ both in their personal lives and in the workplace. This is just one, carefully documented example of a deal God helped me with. I have deals like this which He helps me with every quarter. What if you attempted the impossible because you walked with Jesus Christ and trusted God's help?
Let's GO God!
Location:Plano, TX
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