4 min read
The surest sign a sales call is going well
The #1 thing I listen for to tell, in real time, whether a deal has legs: forward-looking questions.
Hello, world :)
To engineers, it can seem like sales “just happens,” right up until a technical founder has to start selling their own product. Then the patterns get confusing. Conversations go well, but the revenue never materializes. Or a call feels lackluster, and then the buyer comes back asking for next steps. It’s natural to resent sales calls when they feel like time taken away from the business. After all, you only have so many hours in the day to feed a brand-new startup, and a million fires to put out.
Another challenge: a half hour goes by SO FAST. It’s really hard to run a structured call that hits every note on their side and yours. How do you know if you’re sharing too much of your product, not enough, or just enough? When prospects ask questions, are they truly engaged? And how do you know you’re talking to the right people without asking icky questions like “Are you the decision-maker?”
Here’s the #1 thing I listen for to tell, in real time, whether a deal has legs.
Forward-looking questions
Is the person making plans for what a successful implementation of my product looks like? Are they asking questions specific to a future state they’ve described?
- They tell you their internal next steps without being prompted.
- They name the buying committee in real time.
- They speak with ownership — “My team needs to use this,” not “I think this looks cool.”
When I hear forward-looking statements, I know I have a serious deal on my hands, and I stop pitching. First, they already mostly get what I’m selling, so more pitching just wastes time. Second, the decision process and decision criteria are the most underdeveloped parts of a deal in early calls, so that’s where the rest of the call should go.
Once you hear forward-looking statements, the next part of the call should sound something like this:
Say it like this
“Hey, it sounds like there’s a good fit. Who else on your team should we loop in?”
“Walk me through how you’re planning to evaluate this. Have you evaluated solutions like this in the past?”
“I’d like to understand the timelines here. I don’t want to be the person pinging you on vacation. Can you walk me through any deadlines we need to hit, and when?”
One important note: every question at this stage should be open-ended. Never, ever ask “Do you have any questions?” once you’ve heard forward-looking statements. It’s a huge unforced error.
The takeaway
You don’t need a perfect script to run a great sales call. You need to know what you’re listening for. Once a buyer starts talking about the future, how their team will use your product, who else needs to weigh in, and what happens next, stop selling and start mapping the deal. The founders who learn to hear that shift are the ones who stop guessing which deals will close.
Not sure if your deals have legs?
If you’re stuck on a deal and can’t tell whether it’s real, bring it to me. In a Deal Post-Mortem, I review the call recordings, emails, and CRM history for one deal and tell you what actually happened, and what to do next. Or book a 30-minute intro call and we’ll talk through where your deals are getting stuck.
Written by Abigail Aragon