How to Close a Stalled Deal: When Your Champion Can't Get It Done Internally
Three weeks ago, Jason Park looked you in the eye and said, "We want to move forward." You updated your CRM. You told your manager the deal was closing this month. You mentally spent the commission. Then: silence. A follow-up email met with "We're still working through it internally." A call last week: "I think we're close. Let me circle back with finance." Another call yesterday: "I'm sorry, I know this is dragging." Your quarter ends in three weeks. The deal has been in your pipeline for two months. And the terrifying realization settling in your gut is that Jason isn't stalling because he doesn't want to buy. He's stalling because he doesn't know how to buy. The sale isn't stuck. Your champion is.
Why This Conversation Goes Wrong
You offer a discount to create urgency. "What if we could do 15% off if you close by end of month?" Jason's blocker isn't price — it's internal politics. A discount doesn't help him have the CFO conversation he's been avoiding. It actually makes it worse, because now the CFO wonders why the vendor just dropped their price unprompted.
You pressure your champion. "We really need to get this done by Friday" adds your deadline to his anxiety pile. Jason is already embarrassed about the delay. Pressure doesn't motivate a conflict-averse person — it paralyzes them. He'll stop returning your calls entirely.
You go around your champion. Emailing the CFO directly or calling another stakeholder without Jason's knowledge feels proactive but is catastrophic. You just undermined the one person advocating for you internally. Jason feels betrayed. The CFO feels ambushed. The deal dies for political reasons that have nothing to do with your product.
You accept "we're working on it" at face value. Three weeks of "circling back with finance" isn't a process — it's avoidance. Every time you accept the vague update and schedule another follow-up, you enable the stall. Politeness is not the same as progress. At some point, helping Jason means being honest about what's actually happening.
The Champion's Playbook
Stalled deals are rarely about the product. They're about the gap between your champion's enthusiasm and their political capital. Jason wants to buy. His VP supports it. But the CFO holds the pen, and Jason has never sold a CFO on anything in his career. Your job in this call isn't to close the deal — it's to coach Jason into a closer. Give him the playbook, and he'll give you the signature.
Name the pattern without blame
"Jason, I've been in a lot of deals like this. The product fit is clear, the team wants it, and then it stalls in finance. That's not unusual — it means we need to change the approach." You just normalized his struggle. You didn't say "you've been avoiding the CFO." You said "this is a pattern I've seen before and here's how we solve it." Jason's shoulders drop. He can breathe.
Diagnose the real blocker
"Can I be direct? Have you had the conversation with Linda yet, or are you still figuring out how to frame it?" This is the pivotal question. Most reps never ask it because it feels confrontational. But it's not confrontational — it's empathetic. You're giving Jason permission to admit what he's been too embarrassed to say: he doesn't know how to sell this internally.
Build the internal business case together
"Linda cares about payback period and revenue impact — let me put together a one-page ROI summary built for a CFO audience. I've done this before and I know what finance teams actually respond to." Don't send Jason into the CFO's office with nothing but enthusiasm. Give him a document. Give him talking points. Give him the math. You are arming your champion for the fight you can't attend.
Offer to join the conversation
"Would it help if I joined the call with Linda? Not to pitch — just to answer the technical and ROI questions that always come up in these conversations." This is the sentence that changes everything for Jason. He's been dreading a solo conversation with the CFO. You just offered to stand next to him. The relief is audible.
Set the clock with business logic
"If we get the CFO call scheduled this week, we can have everything ready for approval by the 15th. That means your team starts onboarding before Q2 planning locks in." Urgency tied to their calendar, not yours. Jason doesn't care about your quarter. He cares about getting his team the tool before budget season. Align the timeline to his world.
The moment that changes everything
He's not hesitating. He's ashamed.
Jason has been telling you "we're working on it internally" for three weeks, but the truth is simpler and sadder: he hasn't had the conversation with his CFO. Not once. He's been putting it off because he doesn't know how to frame the ROI, he's never challenged Linda on a spending decision before, and he's embarrassed that he can't close this on his own. Every vague update — "circling back with finance," "still working through it" — is a cover story for avoidance. The moment you recognize this, the entire dynamic shifts. Jason doesn't need a deadline. He doesn't need a discount. He needs someone to say: "I'll help you build the case and I'll be in the room with you." That sentence doesn't close a deal. It rescues a champion.
What to Say (and What Not To)
Instead of
"What if we could do 15% off by end of month?"
Try this
"This doesn't sound like a pricing issue. What does Linda actually need to see to say yes?"
Instead of
"We really need to move this forward."
Try this
"I've seen this exact situation before — it's totally normal. Let me help you build the case for Linda."
Instead of
"Can you get me on the phone with your CFO?"
Try this
"Would it help if I joined the call with Linda? Not to pitch — just to answer the ROI questions that always come up."
Instead of
"Is there anything blocking this on your end?"
Try this
"Can I be direct? Have you had the conversation with Linda yet, or are you still figuring out how to frame it?"
Instead of
"Just checking in on the status."
Try this
"I put together a CFO-ready one-pager with payback period and revenue impact. Can we spend 10 minutes going through it?"
Instead of
"Let me know when you have an update."
Try this
"If we get the CFO call scheduled this week, your team could start onboarding before Q2 planning locks in."
The Bigger Picture
According to CSO Insights, 58% of qualified sales pipeline deals end in "no decision." Not lost to a competitor — lost to inertia. The buyer wanted the product, the demo went well, and then nothing happened. The single biggest cause, per Gartner research: the champion couldn't build internal consensus. They lacked the political skills, the ROI narrative, or the confidence to push the deal through procurement and finance. The product was never the problem. The internal sales process was.
Jason's situation is more common than most sales organizations acknowledge. A LinkedIn study of 3,000 B2B buyers found that 48% of deals stall because the internal champion doesn't feel confident presenting the business case to financial decision-makers. These aren't bad champions — they're good people in a role they were never trained for. The rep who recognizes this and coaches the champion through the internal sell doesn't just close one deal. They build a career-long referral source.
There's a human cost to stalled deals that pipeline metrics don't capture. Jason has been apologizing to you for three weeks. He's been telling his VP of Sales that the deal is "almost there." He lies awake wondering if he's going to be the person who delayed a tool his whole team wants. The best closers understand that unstalling a deal isn't a negotiation tactic — it's an act of service for a champion who asked for your help and doesn't know how to ask for more.
Practice This Conversation
10 minutes · AI voice roleplay with Jason Park
Reading about this is step one. Practicing it changes everything. Sonitura lets you rehearse this exact conversation with Jason Park, a realistic AI director of sales enablement at a 500-person tech company who reacts to your words in real time. It takes 10 minutes. When a deal stalls because your champion is stuck, you'll already know how to hand them the playbook.
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