Issue #114

Why You Get Ghosted And How to Stop It

A senior sales VP came to me with a problem that looked simple: his team was capable but inconsistent.

He wanted structure, focus, and a strategy the board would back.

We made progress quickly.

We clarified the outcomes he wanted, mapped the skills gap, and built a training and coaching plan he could justify financially.

He understood the logic, believed in the solution, and had the authority to act.

On paper, everything worked.

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And then... nothing happened.

Calls slowed, momentum died, and the project stalled without even being rejected.

It just faded.

That pattern used to frustrate me. But after seeing it several times, I started to understand what was really going on.

Momentum

The VP hadn’t lost interest.

He’d lost momentum and simply moved on.

He agreed with the work intellectually but never transferred ownership into his organisation.

He would have needed to bring in HR to define capability gaps, Finance to release budget, and Operations to absorb time for training.

That meant extra meetings, negotiation, and risk.

So the idea stayed safe and conceptual, a good plan that never entered the bloodstream of the business.

Read more about why projects don't get followed up by clicking here.

Common Pattern

Every stalled project I’ve seen follows the same path.

The buyer believes in the logic but not in their own ability to execute it.

They like the conversation but fear the confrontation due to the extra work it creates internally.

And because the project remains at the level of “initiative,” not “imperative,” it loses energy fast.

When I looked back across similar cases, the pattern was unmistakable:

1. Conceptual safety

The sponsor keeps the discussion abstract so they can’t be held responsible if it doesn’t work.

2. Political inertia

Other departments need to be involved, but no one wants to make the first move.

3. No quantified pain

Without numbers, there’s no urgency. The project competes with everything else and always loses.

4. Lack of visible proof

No early win, no reason to keep talking.

So, I built a process to prevent it and now you can use it too.

How To Stop It Happening

First, before we design anything, we define who actually owns the outcome. Not someone who likes the idea, but the person who loses sleep (maybe their job) if it doesn’t change.

That name is always the starting point.

Next, we measure the problem.

If a company’s missing £3m in potential revenue because their qualification process leaks, that becomes the anchor. Numbers create gravity.

Then, we turn the logic into an internal story.

Together, we draft the short presentation, the note to the CFO, or the board slide that explains the issue in their language, risk, performance, cost, growth.

The client must be able to communicate the plan without me.

Finally, we design an early visible success, something small but undeniable. It might be one region hitting quota, a new forecast accuracy, or an improved win rate in a single segment.

Once a win becomes visible, internal resistance melts.

Happy Endings

The VP came back six months later, still wrestling with the same problem but now ready to do it properly.

We rebuilt the case with data from his own pipeline: lost deals, time wasted, margin erosion. The numbers told the story better than any deck.

He took that to his board, got funding, and within one quarter, the team was hitting its activity-to-revenue ratio for the first time in two years.

That’s when I stopped blaming clients for “going quiet.”

Here's a template you can use to create a plan to get a deal off the floor and back onto the client's agenda:

Get Deals Going Again Template.pdf

Facing Facts

Most of them aren’t indecisive, they’re isolated. They need help building alignment around an idea that threatens existing comfort.

My role (and yours) isn’t to motivate them. It’s to make it safe for them to move.

That’s the hidden work in enterprise selling and consulting.

If you need to get a plan together to land the client in the first place then click here and thank me later.

The sale isn’t complete when someone says yes. It’s complete when the idea can live without you.

Last week I broke down four case studies on LinkedIn:

You can see them here, what stalled, what recovered, and how to keep your projects alive when the politics start.

Or click the image.

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If you want to get your team trained up in the basics of enterprise sales, get my course.

It is a complete set of 5 to 10 minute videos that you can use to build the foundations of enterprise sales into your team.

Use them in your team meetings to coach your team to excellence, step by step.

"I showed them the video about the nine elements of a sale and I couldn't shut them up for an hour..." Simon, VP Sales. He uses the course to focus his team on a different skill every two weeks.

Email or DM me on LinkedIn if you want to discuss coaching, consultancy or training. First call is free.