Pull the Thread
When a deal goes quiet, most managers assume they know why. The best ones ask the one question that actually shows them. Pull the right thread and the real blocker comes to the surface.
| 01 — THE STORY
What do you mean you're looking for a thread?
I'm sitting with a rep, working through a deal. I'm asking question after question. He finally looks at me and says: "What do you want to know?"
I told him I was trying to find the thread of the sweater.
He said, "What do you mean?" I said, you ever have a sweater with a loose thread hanging off it? He said yeah. I said, what happens when you pull it? He said it gets worse. I said, exactly. It gets worse, or it unravels, or the whole thing comes apart. That's what I'm looking for.
Most of the time when a rep goes to their manager with a stuck deal, the manager sees a closing problem. So they do what managers do: offer a discount, get on the phone themselves, start pushing the deal over the line. They're trying to force it through.
But when I pulled the thread on this deal, the whole thing came apart. There was no defined outcome. No economic buyer identified. The rep was selling to someone who couldn't say yes. It wasn't a closing problem at all. It was a discovery problem. The deal was never real to begin with.
Really great managers do something different. They get the rep to go to the balcony, and look at the deal from above with no emotion. They let the rep feel the thread come loose. They let them see where the holes are. And then they coach them through it. That's the difference between managing a deal and coaching one.
| 02 — THE TOOL
Run discovery on your rep, not just their deal.
The same discovery skills you coach your reps to use with customers are the ones you need to use with your reps. Ask the questions. Find the thread. Let the deal unravel before you decide what it needs.
When a rep brings you a stuck deal, before you do anything else, ask these:
WHY MANAGERS SKIP THIS: Pulling the thread is uncomfortable because it might mean the deal isn't real. Most managers would rather believe the deal is closable and push harder than face the fact that it was never qualified properly. But saving a bad deal costs everyone more time than walking away from it early.
| 03 — THE CHALLENGE
Find a stuck deal this week. Put down the lighter.
Pick one deal on your team that's been stuck longer than it should be. Before you do anything to help move it forward:
— Paddy Mac
PaddyMacSays · Sales is a contact sport.
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