The One Question for Every Opportunity

If you want to rescue a stalled deal, ask this one question. It’s simple but it can change the entire conversation. Find out what it is and why it works.

Don't forget to check out last week's top tip: Are You Stuck?!

For more strategies like this, check out my sales tip video library on YouTube...

If you prefer to read - here is the transcript:

Here is a great question that can help you save any opportunity you have in a pipeline with an existing customer, or with a new customer. And the question is simply this: who can kill this deal? You can ask it to yourself, or you can have someone else ask it of you. But it's a great question to ask because it's going to force you to think about either somebody that you're engaged with that you might not have a great relationship with. Or maybe it will be someone who you aren't engaged with that you have to think about engaging with so that you're not blindsided by them putting the kibosh on your opportunity. Who can say no? Who can kill this deal?

If you do have a relationship with that person, then I would challenge you to ensure that you also built relationships around that person so that if they hem and haw, if they look to the sides and ask for advice, if they go to anyone who's a trusted source inside their company, they all say, well, of course we should do business this way. So you want to build up defenses around that person. You should also make sure that your buyer, or that person who can say no, understands and can articulate the value, and that you just haven't spewed value at them without them agreeing that that value is important to them. You should also make sure, of course, that you build relationships with people that you might not have relationships with who could kill the deal.

And this is where it gets tricky as a salesperson. I would challenge you to ask someone else in your organization, maybe someone with more experience than you or your manager, Who do you think could kill this deal? And if they come up with a name or a title of someone you don't know, don't get defensive, don't fight it and say yes but... Yes, but my person outranks them. Yes, but they've never been involved before. Yes, but... Just say thanks and work to develop a relationship with them.

What's the worst that can happen? They can't kill a deal but you built another relationship? The best that can happen is that you've saved your opportunity by finding the person and building a relationship with them who might have been able to say no.