Latest / Sales Leadership with Fexingo: Quota Carriers, Sales Managers, and Revenue Teams / How to Spot Buying Signals That Aren't Flattery
Transcript
- Lucas: There's a line I hear from sales reps all the time: 'They loved the demo. They said it was exactly what they needed. They're just getting budget approval.' And then nothing happens for three months. Luna: The classic 'enthusiasm without action' trap. I've been there. Lucas: Right. And the reason it's so dangerous is that it feels like progress. The prospect says nice things, asks good questions, compliments your product. Your brain registers that as a buying signal. But it's often just flattery. Luna: So how do you tell the difference between a prospect who genuinely intends to buy and one who just likes talking to you? Lucas: Let me give you a story. A few years ago, I was coaching a rep who was chasing a two-point-three-million-dollar deal with a midsized logistics company. The VP of Operations loved every meeting. She said the platform was 'transformational.' She introduced the rep to her team. They did three demos. Luna: That sounds promising. So what happened? Lucas: Six months later, the deal was dead. The VP never got budget. She never even submitted a formal proposal to procurement. She just enjoyed the conversations. She got free consulting on how to improve her workflows. And the rep was so blinded by the 'I love this' signals that he never tested whether she had the authority or the timeline to actually buy. Luna: That's painful. And I bet it's common. Lucas: Extremely. So let's talk about three specific tests you can use to separate real buying signals from flattery. First: the time test. Luna: Time test — meaning, when does the prospect expect to implement? Lucas: Exactly. A real buying signal comes with a timeframe. 'We need this before Q4' or 'We're hoping to have it live by March.' Flattery is vague: 'We'll definitely look at this next year' or 'Once we get through the current project.' If there's no calendar anchor, it's not a buying signal. Luna: Second test? Lucas: The budget test. This is where most reps get fooled. A prospect who says 'budget isn't an issue' but never mentions a number or a process — that's flattery. A real buyer will tell you their budget range, or at least confirm they have a line item. They might say, 'We have two hundred K set aside for this, but we need board approval for anything over that.' That's a buying signal. Luna: Because they're revealing constraints. They're being transparent about the mechanics. Lucas: Right. Flattery sounds like: 'We have plenty of budget, don't worry about that.' But they never show you the process. Third test: authority. Does this person have the power to say yes, or at least to kill the deal? Luna: I've seen reps waste months with a champion who can't actually approve anything. Lucas: It's the most common mistake. A real buying signal is when the prospect introduces you to the decision-maker, or explicitly says 'I'll need to get my CFO on the next call.' Flattery is when they say 'I'll take this to my boss' and then you never hear from the boss. One way to test: ask the prospect, 'If we could solve your top three problems, is there anyone else who would need to sign off?' A buyer will give you names. A flatterer will say 'No, I handle this' — and they don't. Luna: So the pattern is: flattery keeps you in the vague future; buying signals pull you into the messy present. Lucas: That's a great way to put it. The messy present includes real timelines, real budgets, real people. And it's uncomfortable because you have to ask hard questions. Most reps avoid those questions because they're afraid of ruining the good vibe. Luna: But the good vibe is the trap. Lucas: Exactly. So let's talk about how to actually ask those questions without breaking rapport. One technique I like is the 'assumptive qualification' approach. Instead of asking 'Do you have budget?' you say, 'Typically when we work with companies your size, budgets for this type of solution run between one hundred and three hundred thousand. Does that align with what you're thinking?' Luna: That's smart. You're giving them a range they can react to. Lucas: And if they say 'That's way too high' or 'We were thinking more like fifty,' now you have real information. Even a negative reaction is more useful than polite nodding. Same with authority: 'In my experience, deals like this need sign-off from the operations head. Is that person on board?' Luna: What about the prospect who gets defensive when you ask those questions? Lucas: That's actually another signal. If they dodge or get offended, they're probably not a real buyer. A real buyer is used to being asked tough questions — it shows you're serious about helping them. Flatterers crumble because they don't have the answers. Luna: So the goal is to surface the truth early, even if it's bad news. Lucas: Exactly. Better to lose a deal in week two than in month six. I'd rather have a pipeline full of 'nos' than a pipeline full of 'maybes' that never close. Luna: And this ties into something we've talked about before — the BANT framework. But I think a lot of reps use BANT as a checklist after the fact, not as a live filter. Lucas: That's the problem. They fill in the CRM fields based on what the prospect told them, but they never independently verify. So you get a field that says 'Budget: approved' because the VP said 'no problem.' But the VP never showed you the paperwork. Luna: So the fix is to treat BANT as a set of behaviors to observe, not just boxes to check. Lucas: Right. And the biggest behavioral cue is whether the prospect invests their own time. I mean real time — like a two-hour working session where they pull in their team and actually map your product to their processes. That's a buying signal. Sitting through a thirty-minute demo and saying 'great job' — that's flattery. Luna: What about email behavior? I've had prospects who reply fast to everything but never take a next step. Lucas: That's another form of flattery. Quick replies feel like engagement, but if they never commit to a calendar invite with the right people, it's just social lubrication. One trick: send them a calendar link and see if they actually book. A buyer books. A flatterer says 'I'll look at my schedule' and then ghosts. Luna: So we're basically saying: don't trust what they say, trust what they do. Lucas: That's the whole episode right there. Words are cheap. Demos are free. But a prospect who gives you a hard date, a real number, or a direct introduction — that's a buying signal worth building a forecast around. Everything else is just noise. Luna: I want to come back to something you mentioned earlier — the free consulting trap. The VP who loved the demos but never bought — she was essentially getting free process improvement advice. How do you avoid being that rep? Lucas: You have to set boundaries. After the first or second meeting, you need to say something like, 'We've covered a lot of ground. To go deeper, I'll need to understand your timeline and decision process so I can tailor the next steps.' If they won't engage on those terms, you pause. You say, 'Why don't we circle back when you have more clarity?' That's hard to do because it feels like walking away from a deal. Luna: But you're actually protecting your time. Lucas: And your pipeline's integrity. Look, I know every rep wants to be helpful. But if your help isn't moving toward a signed contract, you're just doing free consulting. And in this market — July 2026, with budgets tightening and procurement cycles stretching — you can't afford to waste cycles on flattery. Luna: It's a good discipline. And honestly, if today's conversation moved your thinking forward in some small way — if it helps you spot one fake signal before you waste three months — that's what we're here for. Lucas: If that was worth a coffee to you, we'd appreciate it at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. No pressure — just keeps the show ad-free and lets us keep digging into the real stuff. Luna: Totally. Now back to buying signals — one more thing I want to touch on. What about the prospect who's actually a competitor? I've had reps tell me they've been pumped for information by someone posing as a buyer. Lucas: That's the extreme end of flattery. They love your product because they want to copy it. The test there is the same: real authority and real timeline. A competitor won't have a genuine procurement process. They'll dodge when you ask for a PO number or a legal contact. So trust the tests. Luna: Alright, so let's recap. Three tests: time — do they have a concrete target date? Budget — do they reveal a number or a process? Authority — do they connect you to the real decision-maker? Lucas: And the meta-test: actions over words. If they're not doing the things that show intent, they're not a buyer. They're a nice person who likes your company. Which is fine — but it's not a deal. Luna: Great advice to take into the second half of the year. Lucas: Happy selling, everyone.