Stalled deal or just slow? Five signs to check

A deal has stalled when the buyer has stopped moving it forward. Time in a stage is a poor guide. A large enterprise deal can sit in one stage for weeks while the buyer works through approvals, and a smaller deal can look busy in the CRM and already be dead.

Check these five signs before you chase, discount or close a deal out.

1. The next step keeps moving. A meeting that gets rescheduled once is normal. One that moves every week is a signal.

2. The buyer hasn't agreed a next step. Ask what the buyer committed to do, and by when. If the only next step is a follow-up email from your side, the deal isn't moving.

3. Your main contact has gone quiet. Slower replies, delegated meetings or a contact who stops bringing colleagues in all suggest their priorities have changed.

4. Nobody knows the rest of the decision process. If procurement, legal or the final approver still hasn't been identified late in the cycle, the deal will stall there even if it looks healthy today.

5. The close date has been pushed more than once. Each push can have a good reason. A pattern usually means the date was never the buyer's.

What to do about each

For the first three signs, go back to the buyer with a specific question about their decision instead of another check-in. For the fourth, map the decision process with your contact before you send anything else. For the fifth, reset the date with the buyer or take the deal out of the forecast.

Some deals should simply be closed out. That makes the pipeline more honest, though it adds no revenue, so report it as clean-up rather than progress.

Judge age against similar deals

A single rule, such as flagging every deal over 60 days, catches healthy enterprise deals and misses fast ones that died early. Compare each deal with others of the same type, segment and stage. Sales Velocity Analysis™ looks at where in the pipeline time and value are being lost, and clear exit criteria make all five signs easier to spot. For the bigger picture, see how to increase sales velocity.