JD Power Research Supervisor interview questions

Current employee referred me to the recruiter for the position I interviewed for. Recruiter called to schedule the interview with the research manager and director. Went into interview first with recruiter then the hiring manager, did not end up meeting with the director. Interview seemed to go very well, they were impressed by my background but I heard early the following day that they went with an internal candidate who had already formed a relationship with the client team. I was told the starting salary for this position was about $54k/year.