10 Ways to Tell Your Deal Won’t Close

I’ve been selling and coaching others on how to sell at a platinum level for several decades now. And one of the gifts of time is that you learn to quickly recognize behaviors in this profession that have entirely predictable consequences. In the area of deal-closing, this “I-know-how-the-movie-is-going-to-end” skill involves more than just intuition. It’s the product of having made my own mistakes, and of having seen others do the same.

The result is one of the most powerful value-adds that my sales coaching here at Engage gives you and your sales team: proven shortcuts that teach you the mistakes of others, rather than you having to make those same mistakes on your own.

There are pitfalls in every proposal in sales. I’ve lost deals for all kinds of reasons. But each time those reasons were symptoms of deeper issues. That’s the core lesson I teach to sales leaders and their teams of sellers. You must stop making excuses for deals that don’t close. Instead, recognize symptoms as leading indicators of something else that’s gone wrong that needs to be looked at and fixed.

Know these 10 deal-killing symptoms inside out.

1. Your closing date has changed more than four times.

Years ago, a sales manager I worked with talked about how their CRM’s dashboard included a wall of shame. “That’s what we call deals that have crossed the 4x threshold,” she explained. “Those deals have zero chance of closing. What a shame!” I checked their numbers and compared them to other clients. Without exception, that 4x deal-closing weathervane predicted the winds of failure! Here’s why: it’s a symptom of sellers not asking for the business, a lack of urgency by the buyer…or even both.

2. The number of days a deal has been in the CRM is double your average days to close.

This is another example of how practicing good CRM hygiene reveals powerful leading indicators. Let’s say that your sales team closes deals on average within 90 days. If your CRM shows a deal that still hasn’t closed after 180 days, it’s at risk…and you’re wasting time (and pipeline metrics) chasing a deal that’s not going to close. As one client of mine points out: “it takes twice as long to lose a deal as it does to win a deal!” What a waste of resources. Dig for the real issue. Identify the symptom, and you’re one big step closer to finding the solution.  Commit to a “go/no-go” decision waypoint on when you’ll mark a deal as lost. If it’s dead, you must quickly remove it from your pipeline. Otherwise, you’d be persisting in showing a healthier pipeline than you actually have.

3. Thirty days without meaningful contact from the prospect.

Time kills deals. Period. And nobody likes to admit that they’ve been ghosted. Sellers are no exception. It’s painfully common for me to hear even experienced sellers say: “I’ve not yet heard back from that prospect.” As though their deal is somehow immune from the adage, out of sight, out of mind. The longer that silence persists, the more likely that deal isn’t going to close. Find out why…now! Never be sure that things are okay with any deal that hasn’t closed yet. As Intel’s former CEO Andy Grove once said: “Only the paranoid survive.”

4. You get invited to do an RFP from someone you’ve never heard from before.

That invitation might as well be called “please come waste your time here.” It’s a symptom of a buyer who has priorities at odds with the value you bring to a solution. Maybe the RFP is the result of pressure from the Finance Department to choose only the lowest-price bid. Or a desire to merely shop the market for rates. Either way, it’s a gesture that respects neither you nor your time. In rare exceptions (i.e., where the opportunity is still worth the effort), indicate that in place of responding to the RFP, you’ve prepared an unsolicited proposal in which you reset the framing to focus on the unique value you bring to the table. Your time is better spent not bidding. Instead, leverage the new connection to build a relationship over the next 12 months: one in which you position your sales team as the valuable resource they can’t do without.

5. When the buyer has an incumbent in mind.

Don’t be anyone’s column fodder! That’s what happens when a buyer creates criteria designed to make one pick (i.e., the incumbent) in the column of candidates stand out from the rest. That activity is never made transparent to you. Rather, it’s a symptom of an imperative that’s come from some other source within the buyer’s organization. It’s a lousy, thumb-on-the-scale move. Unless you’re able to reframe their search and get the conversation changed to one that’s about the value-based solution you offer, walk away.

6. Your sellers are too focused on a primary contact.

This is especially risky when a larger-sized deal is at stake…as a client of mine found out the hard way. Their sales team was so blinded by the excitement of an incoming $800k deal that they didn’t think to expand their contacts beyond their one prospective buyer. The deal never closed because they failed to recognize an important symptom. The buyer in this deal was part of a deeply bureaucratic organization: one that never closed a deal without first receiving multiple OKs in the chain of command. Be prepared to ask tough questions of your team about why they’ve not secured multiple contact points. If you sense complacency or avoidance behavior, get to the root of why that’s governing the way they’re managing the deal. Remember: you can’t create a full value proposition on the back of a single stakeholder. Ever.

7. There’s been no financial conversation other than about price.

Deals that focus exclusively on price have nowhere else to go when money comes up for discussion. That’s a dangerous spot to be in, because it limits the paths for a deal being successful. If they object to the price, it’s too late to open a fallback conversation about value-for-dollar... Learn to speak the language of money. Here at Engage, we have a client that built a qualification checklist into their CRM, featuring red/yellow/green lights to indicate the depth of conversations the sales teams is having with a prospect about financial matters beyond just price.

8. Not knowing who the decision makers are.

This is a classic mistake. The fact that it gets repeated is a regular reminder that a sales team’s work is never done in understanding fully who does what in a prospect’s organization. Yes, having too many people involved in a deal can muddy the waters, but that’s no excuse. Broaden your network. Set a limit of finding at least four decision makers linked directly or indirectly to your deal. Curate introductions with each one.

9. Fear of implementation sinks in.

A promising deal at hand for you can sometimes be seen as a risky stake for a buyer. They can find themselves troubled by nagging questions, such as: “what if things don’t work out…what if this creates more work for me than I expected…and what if the cure here (i.e., your solution) is worse than the disease?” Doubts fuel inertia. When your potential new customer doesn’t have a history of seeking out new solutions, they may be prone to put off implementing your deal. This is where you and your team must allay fears. Show them that you’re experienced at handling implementation and that you’ll be there to help at every step.

10. There’s no sense of urgency.

A buyer who doesn’t see the urgency in closing a deal is a buyer who cannot be sold fully on the value in your proposal. A lack of urgency can be symptomatic of organizational inertia. A well-put-together deal makes the buyer want to act now, because it successfully touches on all of their pain points. Be thorough with your team in understanding what motivated your prospect to seek out or consider your solution in the first place.