When Being Fired by a Client Is a Good Thing
Key Takeaways
- Delivering 85 leads without any closed deals exposed the gap between lead generation and actual business results
- Getting fired by a client prompted Quintain to develop sales consulting as a core service offering
- Most sales consulting engagements require longer-term commitments - you cannot fix sales in three months
Kathleen Booth, co-founder and CEO of Quintain Marketing, joins the show to share how getting fired by a client turned into one of the most transformative moments in her agency’s history.
The Wake-Up Call
Quintain delivered 85 quality leads to a client over six months, but the client closed none of them. When the client terminated the relationship, Kathleen’s initial reaction was to blame the sales team’s execution. But a deeper reflection revealed that her responsibility extended beyond lead generation to ensuring actual business outcomes. That realization prompted Quintain to develop sales consulting as a core service offering.
Building a Sales Consulting Practice
The agency hired John Shay, who brought sales expertise from running a HubSpot partner agency. The discovery process was completely overhauled for sales consulting clients, emphasizing explicit ROI conversations and closure rate improvements. Quintain uses the Objective Management Group’s assessment to identify high-potential salespeople, then provides 6-12 months of weekly one-on-one coaching before scaling training to entire teams.
Kathleen emphasizes that most sales consulting engagements need to be longer term - you cannot really do much in three months.
Award-Winning Work
Quintain won HubSpot’s Client Campaign of the Year Award for an eye care practice’s LASIK marketing campaign. The campaign featured a local meteorologist influencer with 250,000 Facebook followers and generated 14-20 LASIK bookings in under six months. The success demonstrated that creative thinking and unconventional channels can produce outstanding results.