B2B sales is not a microwave meal
B2B sales is not a microwave meal. It is a recipe. And most people ruin it by trying to rush it.
A deal goes quiet. A buyer stops replying.
A proposal sits with finance. A next step becomes a vague promise.
The instinct is to turn up the heat. Send another follow-up. Push for urgency. Try to force it forward.
Sometimes, the deal is dead.
But often, it is still cooking. Just not in front of you.
It is happening in rooms you are not in.
The buyer is explaining the risk. Finance is asking harder questions.
The champion is looking for support. The problem is not urgent enough yet.
So you start evaluating the recipe. Was the value clear enough?
What is missing? What is not landing internally?
This is where most people get it wrong.
They assume every quiet deal needs more heat. Push too soon and you burn trust. Wait without purpose and the deal goes cold.
The skill is reading what the deal needs next.
Dead deals need honesty. Slow deals need support. Confused deals need clarity. Political deals need a stronger champion.
Your job is not to chase quiet deals. It is to understand what stage the recipe is at. Then change what you are giving the buyer to move it forward.
And each one needs a different input.
A clearer business case. Better language for finance.
A sharper risk argument. A next step they can say yes to.
Most deals are not won in the demo. They are won in the quiet part after it.
Good deals look bad when you judge them too early. That is the mistake most pipelines make.
They take the deal off the stove before it has had time to cook.
How much uncertainty can you tolerate while you keep changing the recipe?
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