When a prospective client wants to sleep on it, let them. You can agree when you'll speak again without pushing for a decision today. That's part of the seller's job: understand the problem, explain how you can help and make sure you both know what happens next.
“Time to think shouldn't mean having to figure out the next step alone.”
From the archive
You can ask good questions, understand a prospective client's problem and explain a service that would help, then leave them wondering what they're supposed to do next. It often happens when the conversation reaches the decision. Asking directly feels uncomfortable, so you offer to send some information and tell them to get in touch. You may mean to give them space. But they've just explained something difficult to a person who seemed to understand it. Now they're left to work out how to continue the conversation themselves.
I want a sales method to help us through this part too. Explaining the service is only part of the work. We need to establish whether we're going ahead and, if we aren't deciding today, what happens next. I don't want the person asking for help to have to arrange that because I felt awkward bringing it up.
I teach sellers to take responsibility for three outcomes: accept the order and payment, agree a concrete next step, or decide not to take the work and say so. You should both be able to describe how the conversation ended. Hoping the person will get back to you leaves that unfinished.
The prospective client can say no, of course. They can decline the work or another conversation. Respect that answer and close the matter. A follow-up is useful when both of you want it.
I discussed this with a client on 2 September. She works with individuals going through major changes in their lives. She's excellent at it, and her background makes her particularly well suited to the work. She's started her own business, but she hasn't been responsible for these sales meetings before.
She felt that because the work was so personal, her clients were different. I understand the concern. If someone is telling you about a major change in their life, you don't want to respond with a rehearsed pitch. You want to understand what they're going through and whether you can help.
That's exactly what the method is for. Build a relationship, ask questions and find out what this person wants. Their circumstances will affect what you ask and how you ask it. The answers will be their own. You still need to understand why they're considering help and what they hope will change before you recommend working together.
A business purchase can be personal too. For a founder, an unreliable pipeline might mean worrying about payroll or carrying the company's uncertainty home. Those are possible concerns, not motives I can assume. I need to ask and let the person tell me what the problem means to them.
Before you start asking questions, explain your intention. You want to understand their situation and what they're looking for, then work out whether you can help. If you can, you'll explain how working together would look. If you can't, you'll say so. The person knows what to expect from the conversation.
Once you've said that, you need to follow through. It can be tempting to hear a familiar problem and jump straight to the presentation you've given before. Stay with the questions long enough to find out whether your first impression is right. The person should be able to see how their answers affect your recommendation.
Use words you'd actually say. Agree how much time you have and what you can reasonably cover. Find out whether anyone else needs to be involved in the decision. That tells you what you can settle in this meeting and what will need another conversation.
A founder asks for sales training. You could send a quote straight away, but you still don't know why the team is struggling. People often ask for a service because they think it will solve the problem. You need to understand how they reached that conclusion before agreeing with it.
What is happening in the conversations? Where do the reps become uncertain? What would a useful change look like? Perhaps they need practice. Perhaps the offer is unclear, the team has no shared method or delivery cannot support the promises being made. The answers should influence what you recommend. Otherwise the questions are just a polite route back to the offer you intended to sell anyway.
Ask what the problem causes. Stay with the consequences the person can describe, even if they're less dramatic than you expected. An inconvenience doesn't have to become a crisis for your work to be useful. Exaggerating it makes your recommendation harder to trust.
Before you move on, tell them what you believe you've understood. Explain the connection between what happens now and the change they want. Ask whether you've got it right, and listen to the correction if you haven't. I'd rather find out here that I've missed something than build a proposal around the wrong problem.
Use these steps to guide your questions. Follow what the person tells you.
Agree what the conversation is for before asking the person to explain the problem.
Ask what is happening, what problems it causes and what the person wants to change.
Summarize what you've heard and ask whether you've understood it correctly.
Explain how the work would help and what you would need from the client.
Once you understand the problem and believe you can solve it, explain the connection. What would you do? Which part of the problem would that address? The person needs to be able to follow your reasoning in their own terms. Using the name of your service or framework won't explain that for them.
Tell them what the work needs from their side. You might need access to sales conversations, time with the manager or a decision about the offer before you can begin. Bring those requirements up now, while the person is deciding. They affect the commitment just as much as the fee does.
You don't need to explain everything you know about the subject. Give them enough detail to understand what they're buying: the work included, the price and how you'd get started. If they have questions about any of it, answer them before asking for a decision.
State the price, then let the prospective client answer first. Give them a moment to consider what you've just said. You don't yet know whether they need an explanation or have a question. And you certainly don't know that they want a discount. Wait until you hear their response.
The pause can feel awkward. Let it. If you keep talking, you can end up explaining a price the person hasn't questioned, or offering concessions they haven't asked for. Listen to the answer, then decide which question makes sense. There's no need to use silence as a tactic to make them uncomfortable.
When their answer suggests they are ready, ask about starting. For example: "Shall we get started?" or "When would you like to start?" You can make it practical: "Would Monday at three work for onboarding?" These are examples of what you could ask, not a transcript of the meeting with my client.
That's what I mean by assuming the sale. You've established a need and you know how you can help. Asking about starting is a natural next question. You still need their agreement to the purchase and payment; their interest isn't authorization. But you don't need to apologize for offering the work you've just explained.
If you know you can help, ask about starting. Give the person room to answer.
When the person says yes, accept the order. Confirm the scope and terms, take payment through the agreed process and explain what comes next. If there's a deposit, a document to complete or a starting date to agree, deal with it. You can stop selling and help them get started.
In a larger B2B engagement, the person on the call may want the work but still need approval from someone else. Find out who needs to be involved and agree what happens next. Until that approval is in place, you have a follow-up to arrange rather than an order to accept. The same three outcomes work here; you need to know which one you've actually reached.
Once you've agreed the work, the person should know what to expect from you and what you need from them. If there's something to do before you begin, explain it while you're still talking. Don't leave them wondering whether the payment arrived or whether they're supposed to book another call.
"I want to sleep on it." Fine. The person may need time to think about the commitment or talk it through with someone whose opinion matters. You can give them that time and still agree how to continue. There is no reason to argue them out of thinking.
A natural response is: "Absolutely, no problem. Would tomorrow at three work for a follow-up?" Agree another time if that suits them better. Ask whether there is anything they want from you before then, so they have what they need to consider the offer.
Now they know you'll speak again. They can think about the work, write down questions and bring them to that conversation. They don't have to wonder whether you'll call or work out how to get hold of you. You've agreed what happens next without asking them to buy before they're ready.
Keep the follow-up useful. Agree what you'll discuss and who needs to be there, especially if the decision involves someone else. If the person changes their mind about speaking again, accept it. The appointment gives you both a place to continue, and either of you can say that continuing no longer makes sense.
A person can know they're struggling without knowing where to start or what help to look for. Your questions may make the problem clearer to them than it was before the call. That's useful, but it can also leave them with more to think about. Be clear about whether and when you'll help them work through it.
Think about what they have to work out after the call. If you haven't agreed anything, they may be wondering whether to contact you, what to ask or whether you understood them properly. Agreeing a time to speak removes one of those questions. They can think about the offer knowing when they'll have a chance to talk it through with you.
The problem is still there, but they know when they can speak to you about it. That's why I don't see a direct question about the next appointment as pressure. Asked plainly, it can make things easier for the person who came to you for help.
If I understood the problem and believed I could help, I'd want the person to know where they stood with me. Feeling awkward about asking is something I need to deal with. It shouldn't become another uncertainty for them to carry after the call. I can be considerate and still ask a straightforward question.
You may decide you don't want to take the work. Perhaps you can't solve this particular problem, or the conditions would make it difficult to do a good job. You might simply feel that you shouldn't work together. Understanding the person's need doesn't mean you have to become their provider.
Tell them respectfully. Explain the limitation if that would help them understand your decision. You don't need to make up another offer or promise a referral you can't provide. And don't turn your refusal into a scarcity tactic to make them chase you. If you've decided against the work, finish the conversation honestly.
If you manage a team, make sure sellers know when to decline work and that you'll support the decision. Rewarding only proposals and orders gives them a reason to overlook a poor fit. You can end up with a seller who understands the problem perfectly and still promises work the company shouldn't take on.
If you manage a sales team, take one recent conversation and read the final note. Can you tell what both people agreed? For an order, you should be able to see what was bought. For a follow-up, look for a purpose and an agreed time. If the seller declined the work, another rep needs to know that before contacting the person again.
A task called "follow up next week" tells you what the seller intends to do. Did the prospective client agree to it? Do they know what the call is for? Outreach tasks have their place, but an entry in the CRM alone cannot answer those questions.
Use that distinction when you coach the next conversation. Ask the seller how they suggested finishing and what the other person said. A meeting that ends without an order can still be handled well. Look at whether the seller understood the situation and agreed something useful, then help them with the part they found difficult.
In Revenue Architect, I use the sales process to help people make better decisions in a conversation. A quieter seller can do this just as well as someone who sounds confident from the first sentence. They can use their own words, take time to understand and ask directly about what comes next.
On your next call, pay attention to the handover from explanation to decision. Have you understood enough to recommend the work? Have you stated the price and let the person respond? Have you offered a practical way to begin or agreed a useful time to continue? If the engagement is wrong for you, have you said so?
Some decisions will take longer than others. You can allow for that and still finish today's conversation with an order, a concrete next step or your decision not to take the work. Before you leave it there, check that the other person knows what you've agreed and what they can expect from you.
Twelve years across three continents rebuilding the infrastructure B2B companies use to turn good people into predictable revenue. Now working from Sweden, with a smaller calendar and a tighter focus. Thanks for reading, new essays land here most weeks.
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