How to Get Deals Unstuck - Discovery to Larger Meeting
Jake Dunlap
“Getting the next meeting on the books is going to cure at least 40% of your prospects from going dark.”
I’m going to get very tactical on this one.
First, I’ll identify the main points where deals get stuck and then tell you the steps to maneuver around them or avoid them altogether.
Few things feel as great as setting that first meeting with a prospect as a sales rep. You may even think you have a great first conversation, and the follow-up meeting is in the bag, except… your prospect disappears.
They go dark. They ghost you.
Here are the strategies I’ve tried and used countless times to ensure post-discovery follow-up stays on track, and I secure the next meeting and the next.
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- Set the next meeting while you’re on the call
- How to handle, “I don’t have everyone’s calendar”
- Scripting the discovery meeting
- The recap and driving momentum
- Suggest who needs to be involved
- Tactics to get un-ghosted
Recap: How to Get Deals Unstuck: The Post-Discovery Follow-Up
The important bits:
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- 1:10 – Always book the next meeting while you’re still on the call, and assume everyone will go dark if you don’t.
- 2:36 – If someone promises to get back to you because they don’t have their colleague’s calendar, at least get a placeholder on the books.
- 4:40 – During discovery, you need to ask who will be involved throughout the process.
- 6:06 – Eliminate words like “I’d love to” or “It would be great if….” at the end of your discovery calls.
- 8:46 – It is your job to quarterback the coordination between people. It’s not your champion’s job.
- 10:33 – You have to make the next steps sound normal. Suggest who needs to be involved.
- 14:42 – If you’ve been ghosted, use the scarcity approach. Don’t act desperate.
- 16:54 – Use video email or LinkedIn message if someone’s ghosted you. And you can use the last technique and this one combined.
- 21:10 – The best sellers have big “no” piles and decent size “yes” piles, and their “maybe” piles are very small.
- 21:25 – Reach out to someone else who was involved in previous meetings and send them something relevant to push the conversation forward.
Set the Next Meeting While On the Call
Book the next meeting while you’re still on the call, or assume people will go dark.
If my reps didn’t book the next meeting on the call, I would make them call that person back and tell them, “Hey, I just realized my calendar is filling up really quickly next week. Let’s open our calendars now and get the next meeting on the books.”
This is an anecdotal fact, we haven’t done any studies on it, but getting the next meeting on the books while on the call is going to cure at least 40% of your prospects from going dark post-discovery, from what I’ve seen.
Reps often end a call with something like, “Well, great. We’ll follow up with you next week.” Stop doing that. Instead, say, “Let’s open our calendars. I know mine’s pretty full on Friday and Monday. How does next Tuesday look between this window?”
“I Don’t Have Everyone’s Calendar”
Your next post-discovery hurdle is another common objection. The one where your prospect says, “I’d love to set our next meeting, but I don’t have everyone’s calendar in front of me. So, let me get back to you.”
Chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp.
If someone promises to get back to you again, you can expect them to go dark. Here’s what you should say in response:
“Great, let me know what your calendar looks like next Tuesday morning. I know you probably don’t have Linda’s calendar in front of you, so let’s pick a spot as a placeholder, and then you can confirm with her.”
Scripting the Discovery Meeting
Another challenge to getting that next call on the books is not knowing who needs to be involved in the post-discovery process.
The way to handle that is to first ask a set of questions during the call, like:
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- Tell me a little bit about your responsibilities around this specific item.
- What does your team look like?
The reason deals get stuck is that you don’t know who should get looped in. This is why you need to get the names of the decision-makers early on. If you do, you can suggest and advise including them on the next call instead of asking.
Say something to the effect of, “It sounds like we maybe should loop Linda into our calls down the road.”
Here’s what happens during the sales call:
Sales resistance starts early on. First, your prospect thinks, “We’re just chatting.” Then when you get to the end of the call, they think, “Uh oh, here they come. Here comes the ask.” But if you set the tone early, like offering to include Linda down the road, you’re getting buy-in early in the call, and you’re decreasing the sales resistance at the end.
Here’s another tip for nailing the discovery process. Stop using words like “I’d love to” or “It would be great if…”
Just act like the next step, X, is normal and go from there. For example, “Typically, where we’re at now, we have to loop in the VP of Store Operations.”
The Recap & Driving Momentum
You have to realize that it is your job to quarterback the coordination between people to get the next meeting and the next. It’s not your champion’s job and it’s not the job of whomever you had the first meeting with.
The person you meet with on the first call is most likely not even the right person. It’s somebody you reached out to cold or someone who came inbound but was told to reach out to you by someone else. So you have to make sure you confirm roles.
You can say, “Okay, so it sounds like this is your role. Typically, for the next step, we see this person get involved here. Are their email addresses X, Y, and Z? Okay, I’ll include them on the next invite.”
Or, “Hey, great. I’ll send you an invite and add them, or I can send you the email, and you can add them.”
Don’t leave the meeting up to chance. Maybe the prospect will book it, but maybe they won’t.
Suggest Who Needs to Be Involved
Your next step is to suggest who needs to be involved. This is where many reps really struggle. But if you have sold a product, you should know which roles must be involved.
Let’s say you sell a sales engagement platform. You already know that sales, operations, leadership, and probably some top sales development reps will need to chime in on the final decision. Maybe someone from the CRM team also needs to be involved. This will probably be the same cast of characters over and over and over and over again.
For example, say you’re talking to Revenue Operations and want to loop in the sales development team.
What not to do?
Do not say, “I’d love to set up a time with the sales development team.” Instead, say:
“Typically, our next step is to invite the sales development team. At the end of the day, they’re going to have to be able to use this tool, so we should loop them in for a demo and get their feedback. See if this is a product they see adding more value than what they’re doing now. Assuming it is something they see the value in, then we can talk about what a proof of concept or a pilot might look like.”
Make it sound like you’ve been there and done it – which you have. You already know who needs to be involved.
Go look at all the previous deals you have Closed/Won and the ones you’ve lost, and you will see where this needs to happen.
Tactics to Get Un-Ghosted
All too frequently, reps will get ghosted later in the deal. This may be where a lot of you are right now. You give them the proposal, and then you hear nothing. Deep down you might be thinking, “These people, what’s happening?”
The reality is that people are busy. So stop worrying about it. Instead, here are a few techniques to handle people who haven’t gotten back to you at any stage.
Scarcity
Scarcity can also be called the “I’ve been busy” technique. This is one technique I’ve used a lot, and it works for me.
Let’s say I’ve reached out to someone, and they haven’t responded after a week. First, I apologize, and then I start with, “Hey John, apologies for not reaching out Monday. I’ve been swamped with XYZ things. But it seems like there were some opportunities, and I want to ensure we keep the momentum going. How does Friday look?” Then suggest two 15-minute time slots.
What this does is relieves the guilt from them. They know they haven’t followed up, so when you apologize and say you’ve been busy, the prospect feels less awkward about finally getting back to you.
Video Email Messaging
Another technique that works is video emails or videos through a LinkedIn message. If somebody’s ghosted you, send them a personalized video.
“Hey John, what’s going on? I just wanted to send you a quick video follow-up. Apologies, I was out late last week.”
By the way, don’t apologize like a wimp. Say it with confidence. Don’t say, “Hey, I’m so, so sorry.” That doesn’t work. Instead, say, “Hey, apologies, I’ve been out the last couple of days, but I want to make sure we keep the momentum going,”
Then include next steps. “Do me a favor, shoot me a quick update, and we can set up a quick 15-minute call. I’m looking forward to it. Let me know where you’re at, and we’ll catch up in a couple of days. Thanks.”
The video makes it personal. If you get stuck late in the deal and you couple an apology with a video, they’re going to respond.
This technique has worked over and over again.
Don’t Say, “I Assume You’re Not Interested”
Here’s a tip for what not to do.
Would you ever leave a personal message on someone’s voicemail or send via text, “Well, I haven’t heard from you in a week, so maybe you got eaten by an alligator? I guess you’re not that interested anymore.”
You wouldn’t do it in your personal life, don’t do it in your professional.
Just think about the cringe your prospect probably felt. Prospects are already potentially telling you they’re not interested by not following up with you, so you’re basically just calling it out, and there is no benefit.
Reach Out to Someone Else
Your next tactic is to reach out to someone else. I know many of you are thinking, “But what if they get upset?” They already haven’t responded in three weeks, so who cares?
But you also don’t want to throw them under the bus. Don’t email their colleague and ask them if they know what’s up with Jill not getting back to you.
Instead, email one or two other people who were previously involved in conversations with some very specific value adds.
Here’s what that looks like.
“Hey Cheryl, I hope you’re doing great. I really enjoyed our conversation last Tuesday. Here’s some additional insight that I thought might be helpful.” Send them an article or something that’s relevant to their job title. “I hope this helps, and I’m looking forward to continuing the conversation.”
What ends up happening? The people on the email ping Jill and they say, “Hey Jill, what’s going on with this?” You didn’t throw Jill under the bus; she gets back to you because you were just trying to add value.
That’s it.
And that’s my last tip on getting un-ghosted!