There are lots of ways to lose a sale, but there are three categories of losses I would have you look for to see if a pattern emerges.

You might be one fix or even a small tweak away from a significantly better win ratio.

You Pursued a Poor Fit

There was never a good fit between the client’s need and your expertise. The client saw it, shared their scepticism or raised objections. You saw it and proceeded anyway.

Maybe it was a questionable fit coming out of the Qualifying Conversation and you decided to move to the Value Conversation to see if the things would change there, as they can. But they didn’t.

Maybe it was sunk cost bias that kept you going. In for a penny, in for a pound. Your innate optimism got the better of you, goading you deeper into a sale you were never going to win.

Looking back with clarity now, can you spot your over-optimism? Was it obvious the fit was never there?

If this is your pattern then look to replace your optimism and enthusiasm with clinical discernment — at least in the Qualifying Conversation where you’re supposed to be weeding out poor fits. Once they’re truly qualified in, then you can allow yourself some enthusiasm, but not before.

Slap down that child-like glee and play clinician. Ask the questions you need to get answered to see if there’s a fit. Voice any doubts that arise and ask the client to address them before they put the objections to you.

Someone Else Was the Advantaged Player

The Flip didn’t happen. No concessions were extracted. You couldn’t get past the gate-keeper to the real decision makers. You didn’t start to retreat to see if they would advance. You submitted the proposal anyway and lost.

It’s not that it wasn’t a good fit for you, but the client clearly saw someone else as the expert, the one they really wanted. You were just another vendor. The third bid.

Depending on your circumstances, you might decide to play these long shots every once in a while, knowing the odds are against you. If it’s a recurring pattern, however, then you’re not “having” a Probative Conversation.

The Probative Conversation is the first conversation in The Four Conversations model of selling expertise, the one that happens without you present, through your agents of thought leadership and referrers. This is where you prove your expertise in the public domain and move, in the mind of your future client, from the relatively powerless position of “a vendor” to the more powerful position of “the expert.” You become the advantaged player.

Seek to climb the Ladder of Lead Generation over time, changing the power dynamics in the relationship before the first person-to-person conversation.

You can and should still do respectful outreach, but also work on the high status activities that build reputation over time. Start that podcast, launch that YouTube channel, start on that book you keep saying you’re going to write, pursue a speaking engagement at that big conference your clients attend.

Yes, these things take time but they pay dividends for years. The second best time to plant a tree is today.

You Mistook Interest for Intent

In the end the client hired nobody. Perhaps you chalked it up to the ghosting problem created by global economic uncertainty, but if you could go back in time and re-qualify this one you’d likely find they were always tire-kicking and had never formed the intent to act (to hire someone like you).

It’s the most common problem in selling expertise: mistaking interest for intent.

Interest does not always or easily translate to intent. If you see this pattern of the client not buying from anyone then you need to get more discerning about intent. You do that by asking Timeframe questions in the Qualifying Conversation.

When people form intent to change or to solve a problem, the next thing they do is look forward in time and anchor their change in behavior to a date — a start date or a completion date. Then they start applying resources (people and budget) against the problem.

You can help them select a start or end date by searching for compelling events (e.g., board meetings, trade shows, new fiscal year or budgeting cycle) but you’re more likely to encounter chronic contemplators whose interest doesn’t translate to intent or action.

You’re not going to close them, but you might get them to complete a needs assessment, pay for a diagnostic or assemble some key people to explore possibilities. Any of these can help to coalesce and solidify intent. From there you can craft your three-option proposal and set up the Closing Conversation.

My favorite Timeframe question has nothing to do with Timeframe and everything to do with intent: “Is this on the wish list or the to-do list?”

Three patterns and their fixes. Two can reap the dividends immediately, and all three will pay off for years.

-Blair