We’ve all been there. All the right signs are there. You’ve even become friends with the buyer. While the deal gets delayed, you’re assured that they still want a solution. How many of these deals really ever close? The reality is, because your friend doesn’t want to be the bearer of bad news, they avoid it. As a sales manager, it’s easier to look at these more objectively than your reps. Identify those qualifiers, both quantitative and qualitative, and track them religiously. You’ll save yourself and your rep a lot of stress and focus on the deals that are real.
Anatomy of the stalled deal
So what are the things you can look at to eliminate these bad apples in your forecast? In addition to the duration of the deal cycle, here are a few. How many days since the proposal/quote has been delivered? While stalled, what new information is the rep obtaining in each meeting? Are they still asking for info or concessions? As the rep starts answering these questions, it should be pretty clear that they need to start finding more horses to hitch a ride with. However, if you track these things in your CRM, these deals should start sticking out like sore thumbs!
