Short coaching guidance for salespeople on handling deals in the buyer's decision phase. Recommends calling your internal champion (best point of contact) to ask a clarifying, alignment-focused question — specifically: "What series of steps do we need to take from here before that contract gets signed?" — and gives suggested language to justify the out-of-the-blue question.
Chapters
If you have a deal right now in this stage, they're negotiating on price, they're asking for a contract, they're asking for a reference, something that tells you that they are now in the decision phase of their buyer's journey. And you don't know the answer to this question, then. Now your exercise is to give your champion or your best point of contact a call and ask that question. Say, hey, do you have five minutes to talk? They say, yes. You say, well, I realized I forgot to ask you a key question that would help me stay fiercely aligned with you as we move through this process together. And so a few days ago, you asked for the contract, and, you know, I sent it your way. And the question I forgot to ask you is, what series of steps do we need to take from here before that contract gets signed? So you can see that I'm using some language that justifies why I'm asking this question out of the blue. And in this case, it's, I want to stay fiercely aligned with you. Go call your champion. Give that a try.