Had a prospect that would have been my biggest client ever — national retail chain, 200+ locations. Made it through three rounds of meetings with their VP of Facilities. He loved the concept, loved my case studies, loved the zero-risk model. Then he went quiet for a month. When he finally called back, he said corporate decided to bring utility bill management in-house and hired a full-time energy manager instead. I lost a potential $500K engagement to a $90K salary hire. Still stings.
The one that got away
Ouch. That happens more than we'd like. Large companies sometimes conclude they can do it cheaper internally. What they don't realize is that a full-time energy manager focused on day-to-day operations will never audit bills as thoroughly as a specialist who does nothing but audit. Give it 18 months — there's a good chance they'll realize the energy manager is too busy managing to audit, and they'll come back to you.
Phil's right — this isn't over. Stay in touch with that VP on LinkedIn. Send him a useful article every few months. When the internal approach underperforms, you want to be the first person he thinks of. I've closed three major engagements with companies that initially went in-house, realized it wasn't working, and came back to an outside auditor 1-2 years later.
That's a good long-term perspective. Going to keep the relationship warm and see what happens. Thanks for the encouragement.