When it became clear that Acme's decision was final, OTG just disappeared. It didn't contact anyone at Acme for months, even though Acme still had hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of OTG products in their network and continued to buy OTG PBXs, phones, software and service contracts.

The project progressed over the next several months as details were finalized. The proposal was made, budgets were approved, and orders were placed. Just days before equipment from R&S was to arrive at Acme's offices, OTG contacted Acme out of the blue, wanting to have a meeting under the guise of healing past issues and building a new relationship. Acme people were told that an uber-vice president from OTG wanted to meet with them personally.

It turns out that the executive was really just attempting to swoop in at the last minute and steal the deal from R&S. Her primary tactic was to pile on the FUD. In a roundabout way, she even questioned the competence of Acme's staff and leadership, going so far as to say that the project was definitely going to fail and that Acme should give her a call when it does. As you might imagine, Acme was not receptive to this approach.

More FUD

A few days later, a vice president at Acme received a follow-up e-mail from the uber-vice president at OTG. In that e-mail, the woman from OTG once again unloaded mounds of FUD upon the Acme VP. She even hinted that OTG was going to become significantly less friendly toward Acme in the future.