How to Recover When You Say Something Horribly Wrong

I once said something excruciatingly wrong during a sales presentation. It was so embarrassing I have never admitted it to anyone.

It was just a slip of the tongue, but it was a bad one. I meant to say one thing; I said something else. It just happened. And it was so wrong.

Then I stood there in awkward silence, not knowing what to do next.

Finally, I broke the silence and asked, “Did I really just say what I think I just said?”

The customer responded, “Yes, yes you certainly did.”

What do you do when it all goes wrong? Something breaks during your demonstration. You refer to your potential new client’s girlfriend as his daughter. You notice your zipper is down. The possibilities for things to go wrong are simply endless.

Here are three suggestions for how to recover from a situation gone all wrong:

1) Forgive Yourself

Just get over it. Talk to any veteran sales person and they will have similar stories and war wounds. If we all had a dime for every stupidly wrong thing we have ever said during a sales conversation, we would all be on our private beaches in Maui right about now.

You will say something silly and wrong sometime during your professional life. It is inevitable. You will probably lose sleep over it, but you will be the only person doing so. Just get over it.

2) Poke Fun at Yourself

Let the customer know that you take your job seriously, but you take yourself less so. Make a joke to ease the situation. “I’m sorry – I have teenagers.” Or, “If I had another brain, it would be lonely.” Or, “They didn’t teach me that in sales training class.”

3) Apologize

If it was a doozy, an apology might be in order. “I’m sorry; I truly didn’t mean to say that.” Or, “Please forgive me – that was not supposed to happen.” Customers are more gracious than we sometimes give them credit for. In fact, such mistakes make you more human.

It’s going to happen. Things just go wrong. Deal with it. Get over it. Move on. There is still time to change their world.