It Starts With Clients

Week 6 Free Up a Stuck Sale

I don't understand it,” said my exasperated client. “We've done everything right. We have a good relationship with the senior decision-maker. Our solution addresses their need better than anything on the market. But they can't make a decision. It's been dragging on now for months.”

Sound familiar? When I ask a large room of my clients, “Are any of you dealing with a sale that's stuck?” almost every hand shoots up.

In this case, the head of strategy for the company was the key decision-maker. She had repeatedly assured my client that it was just a matter of time before they signed the contract. But dates came and went, and there was no sale. I pushed my client to invite her out to lunch and dig deeper. He did, and lo and behold, it turned out that several other senior leaders were holding back their support. In this particular case, the blockage was a lack of stakeholder alignment. My client, to his credit, had already inquired about this. But the strategy head had not been forthcoming about the actual situation. It often takes persistence to find out what's really going on.

I suggested he propose an alignment exercise that would involve his client and the other functional and business unit heads. He met individually with each of them, to better understand their needs and concerns and to answer questions about the proposal. Then, using a facilitation ...