Your salespeople come back with good news and tell you that they spoke with the decision maker of the big opportunity they’ve been working on. They report that the decision maker told them they’re very interested in moving forward but want to wait until the close of their fiscal year (90 days away) or want to first complete a project they’re currently working on (60 days) before discussing further. Your salespeople are psyched. They try to get you psyched. You get psyched.

Yesterday, 50 salespeople gave me their biggest closing obstacles – about 25 – when we combined them all. I showed them the four bases in Baseline Selling and defined what must happen for the salesperson to reach each base. Then I asked them to identify the specific base paths where the closing obstacles should have been dealt with. Closing takes place at home plate and sure enough, all 25 of those closing obstacles actually should have been dealt with either between 1st and 2nd base or between 2nd and 3rd base. The moral of the story is your salespeople haven’t even earned the right to close until there are not issues that would prevent them from getting the business.