What I learned in a 4-day sales cycle about how indecisive people drain the living blood out of your business
Last month, I sent out an email on Tuesday, spoke to a prospect on Wednesday, sent a proposal on Thursday, and closed the deal on Friday.
That’s the fastest sales cycle I’ve ever experienced.
I was shocked when it all happened. Just a few days before, I almost didn’t send out the email that evening. I had it in the back of my mind that most sales cycles take time – “So no rush. I’d just send it in the morning the next day.” I was about to fall victim to my own indecision. Then I pushed myself for another 15 minutes to send out a series of emails.
That extra 15 minutes resulted in a deal a few days after.
On the zoom call later that day, we adjusted the contract. He sent it over. I signed. He signed. Done.
One thing was clear. It was just the right timing and the customer knew exactly what they wanted.
When I went for a walk later that evening it dawned on me.
I’d been waiting for the perfect moment instead of creating decisive moments.
The real win wasn’t luck, it was decisiveness meeting decisiveness.
You’ll waste everyone’s time playing nice.
Business is better with decisive people.
Indecisive people will drain the life out of your business.
Be more decisive by finding and working with decisive people. That’s it.
A few months before this deal closed, I sent my sales coach a message. There were two sales deals that had stalled. He sent me a loom video, saying “This is not top sales practice. Nifemi. You need to close on the first call.” I initially pushed back because most of my deals took multiple decision makers to get onboard. But I thought I’d try my coach’s approach, and I started seeing the difference in my close rate. Things just moved a lot faster. Just like the deal that closed last month.
My previous approach was enabling indecisiveness, both for me and the person on the other side of the call.
Now I quickly evaluate whether the person can make a decision. If not, I move on to spend more time with the people that can decide.
I’ve seen this play out in not just sales. I see it in anything that needs two or more people to agree and align on something – a meeting time, a project next step, dinner plans.
Getting alignment is such a pain. It requires taking a decision that is hard to back out of.
If you communicate that you can meet at 1pm on Tuesday, you will have to do the hard work of cancelling and rescheduling it if for some reason that time doesn;t work anymore. So the easiest thing to do is – not decide.
But this lack of decision is a complete waste of time. It might be something you can afford in a big corporation or social obligations with friends. It’s life or death when you’re running a business.
The more you give your time to people that don’t value your time, the more they waste your time. It doesn’t happen the other way around. I used to think trust was built linearly with time spent. So I’d shrug off another 30-minute conversation as “getting to know one another.” But I was wrong.
I had to learn this the hard way – the more time you spend with people that waste your time, the less you’re spending with people that are ready to take action with you.
Same energy used. Different results.
One conserves your energy as you find the right people. The other one makes you run out of cash.
And the name of this game is “don’t run out of cash.”
I experienced this a few months ago. In the span of three days, most of the meetings on my calendar were getting cancelled last minute. A “last minute emergency” here. Another “let’s pick this up another time.” I sat there, looking at all the meetings, realizing none of them had a pressing problem I could solve.
Neither party could decide where to take the conversation.
The longer you keep a conversation obscure, the farther you drift from your goal. You end up disrespecting everyone’s time, including yours.
The sooner you help everyone decide, the better.
This comes with a skill of perceiving whether the person on the other side of the table is decisive or not.
This does not come naturally. You have to test it out.
So how do you actually test for decisiveness? Because waiting for someone to decide on their own is a luxury you can’t afford in business.
Force decisions with a “high-status” binary test
Here’s what I’m learning on the practice ground: The best sales people are the ones that fill their pipeline with decisive leads.
You have to ask “what’s their willingness to act.”
I’ve been doing this lately. Before I used to cop out. If there wasn’t a good fit, I wouldn’t even bring my business up. These days, even if it’s not a fit, I tell them what I do, how much I charge, and send a proposal of how I can help, regardless. I want to hear a no from them, not from “the thoughts in my mind.”
It allows me to present them with a binary decision, while signaling the value of my time.
My sales coach calls it “High-status selling.” I still hear his Aussie accent when he said this, “You’re not begging them for a deal, Nifemi. You’re asking them whether they want something that you consider valuable, yes or no.”
Here’s how I’ll approach it if you’re curious to experiment with it:
Start by reminding yourself that your time is valuable, and so is the time of the person you are talking to. The goal is to save you both time.
Now, put a single value in front of them, make it time bound, ask them if they want it, and don’t budge.
Not because you’re not open to negotiating. But because you need them to make a decision first that opens up the negotiations.
It’s a clear test. They would either give you a yes or no.
Here’s what it looks like in different stages.
To book a meeting, for instance:
High-status binary test: “I have availability at 1pm on Thursday. Does that work for you?”
Low-status ambiguity: “Do you have some time to chat?”
One of them is a clear answer. They have to say yes or no, and respond with a more convenient time.
The other question puts the burden on the other person to think and then decide.
To close a deal: High-status binary test: “It’s a $5,500 engagement. How does that work for your budget?”
Low-status ambiguity: “It all depends, what can you pay?”
I tried this with a prospect last week who said no to the $5,500 price. Normally I would have panicked and offered a discount. Instead, I asked what budget worked for them.
Turns out they had $2,500 and wanted a smaller scope. He’s on the waiting list for when I launch my lower-scoped entry offer. The binary test didn’t kill the deal, it clarified it.
That response will let you know whether they need more information, what’s holding them back, and ultimately whether they can decide.
The other approach? Well, let’s keep talking.
Closing Reflection
It took me years to realize how to respect my time.
And honestly, I’m still learning.
In the chase for a deal, I played nice, lowered my status, and ended up in conversations with people that couldn’t decide for themselves. We were all in a ball of indecision. Now, I’m training myself to be more decisive by attracting decisive people with decisive conversations.
I’m doing this to respect everyone’s time, including mine. I’ve found that it’s so easy to do, when you have the tools to help people make decisions faster with a binary test.
They’ll respect you for it, and respect your time right back.
So here’s the question I want to leave you withWhat’s one conversation this week where you can test the binary approach? Reply and let me know what happens – I’m curious how it lands for you.
Yours truly,
Nifemi
P.S. I’m currently working with 3 technical founders on their GTM systems. If you’re curious how decisiveness applies to go-to-market, reply and let’s talk.
