RevGen86

Enterprise AE

I need all you fellow sales savages to weigh in on this!

How do you close a client who's unwilling to commit to a timeline?

Full story: I've been working with this client for about 12 months now. Throughout the year, things have gone in waves.

They've been super engaged, dark for a couple of months, super engaged, not so engaged, and then engaged once again.

We've gone through the entire vetting process on our side, they've chosen us as their vendor and are in the final steps on their side of things but are unwilling to commit to any type of timeline.

The topic of timeline and commitments have been a sore subject for them since the start and now there seems to be little urgency in getting things finalized.

So basically it's we continue to offer the discount past its expiration date (once they are ready to sign) or essentially they walk.

This is a huge deal, about $24k MRR (2-year contract), and would love some insights. I feel like we've tried everything under the sun.

Please let me know your thoughts.

👑 Sales Strategy

9

8 comments

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CoorsKing

WR Officer

4

Retired King of the Coors Knights

Hmmm, artificially creating a compelling event is one of the hardest things to do. If things continue to drag on, I start gating resources on my end. Don't continue to discount either. If they miss the expiration date, use that to get another "give" from them to justify adding it back in. If it keeps pushing and you keep extending, you start to lose some credibility since they know they can drag you along.

Once they decide they are ready to officially start the procurement process you can come back and negotiate if they want.

I would suggest making a mutual action plan as well, write out all steps left in the evaluation and have both parties sign off.

Justatitle

Big Shot

3

Account Executive

Doesn’t seem like they have a boot in the ass to move things along. And an artificial timeline doesn’t seem to be doing the trick either. If it were me I’d try forced empathy on them. Tell them the pressure this deal is bringing to you and the internal battles your willing to wage to bring them in but you need to know they’re willing to go to war for you as well. Hope this helps

CuriousFox

WR Officer

1

🦊

Go around them to a C-level for a decision. If still nothing shut em down.

GDO

Politicker

0

BDM

Work back when he needs it and build in a timeline yourself. Just come up with stuff.

I usually do this. If it needs to be done by x, our team needs x amount of time thus we need to have the contract in by…

RevGen86

Good Citizen

0

Enterprise AE

That's the thing, they don't have a "we need it by" date.

34fifty

Valued Contributor

0

Team Lead

The advantage they hold over you is they know that you would not risk losing a 24k MRR deal and hence you'd play along. Shake things up a bit.

GlassSlinger

Opinionated

0

Carrier & Wholesale Development

Do you have someone at that company that is your ally? Can you take them to a event/concert/golf? I would take that time and just ask where they are... you can tell them you have senior leadership asking you about this deal and you need to forecast it.

If you don't want to discuss forecasting/closing, I would just straight up ask them.

ilovemondays

Executive

0

Senior Account Executive

Take away the product from them.

If you have a great sales process, you don't need any one prospect, your pipeline doesn't budge 'cause of that.

Never, no matter the circumstance, go back on your word - if you offer the discount past the expiry date your whole relationship will be on the wrong terms, you're fucking your Operation down the line.

Kill the discount, re-close all the critical events and doors in order to workout that mutual action plan CoorsKing explained in the comments and if they ask for a discount, get a new give from them, a very big one, otherwise you're not getting a fair deal.

If they don't agree with the horizon of events in your reclosing, then its clear you're nice-to-have for them, either something's changed or you misqualified them from the start - take the product away, tell them you'll be available when the time is right.

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