Latest / Closing the Deal with Fexingo: Sales, Negotiation, and Revenue Conversations for Operators / How Asking for the Second Signature Wins Deals
Transcript
- Lucas: There is a specific moment in every large deal where confidence peaks, and then immediately drops. It happens after the champion says yes, after the price is agreed, after the scope is locked. That is when the rep hands the contract to legal and waits. Most people think the hard part is over. But in reality, that silence is where half the deals die. Luna: Right, because legal doesn't know your champion. They only see risk. So you hand them a document that looks perfect to the buyer, but it's full of traps for the other side. Lucas: Exactly. And the rep assumes legal will just rubber-stamp it. But in enterprise sales, especially with compliance-heavy industries, legal is a gatekeeper, not a rubber stamp. I saw a recent case where a software provider lost a two hundred thousand dollar annual contract because legal flagged a data residency clause that the champion had completely forgotten about. The rep had no idea until three weeks later, by which time the budget cycle had closed. Luna: So the rep was blindsided by their own customer. What did they do wrong in the initial handshake? Lucas: They treated the contract as a transactional endpoint rather than a collaborative starting point. They didn't ask for the second signature. In many enterprises, the champion signs, but the CFO or the VP of Operations must also sign off. If you don't engage that second signer early, you are gambling that they won't have questions. And they always do. Luna: It feels like skipping the pre-flight check because the pilot said he's ready to fly. Lucas: That is a perfect analogy. You wouldn't let a pilot take off without checking the instruments. Yet reps send contracts to procurement without even introducing themselves to the person who has to countersign. The second signature isn't just a formality; it's a verification of operational readiness. When the CFO signs, they are confirming that the budget exists and the vendor is approved. When Operations signs, they are confirming that implementation is feasible. Luna: So asking for that second signature early actually de-risks the deal? It sounds like more work upfront. Lucas: It is more work upfront, but it saves months of delay later. Let me give you a concrete example. A few years ago, a supply chain tech company was closing a deal with a regional manufacturer. The champion, the director of logistics, loved the platform. They agreed on price. The rep sent the standard agreement to legal. Two weeks passed. No response. The rep assumed slow processing. Then, out of nowhere, the company’s controller called to say they needed a ninety-day payment term instead of thirty. The rep panicked because their policy was strict. The deal almost died right there. Luna: Because they hadn't aligned on terms with the actual payer. Did they lose it? Lucas: They nearly did. But the rep realized their mistake. They stopped waiting for legal and picked up the phone. They asked the champion to introduce them to the controller. Once they spoke directly, they learned the controller wasn't trying to squeeze them; they were just following a new quarterly cash flow directive. The rep adjusted the payment schedule slightly, got the controller on board, and secured the second signature within forty-eight hours. The deal closed two weeks earlier than it would have if they had just waited. Luna: So the key move was bypassing the passive wait and creating active alignment with the financial stakeholder. Lucas: Precisely. The rep shifted from being a vendor to being a partner in the buyer's internal process. They understood that the second signature represents a different set of priorities. Legal cares about liability. Finance cares about cash flow. Operations cares about timeline. If you only talk to the champion, you are only addressing one of those three pillars. The deal collapses if any pillar cracks. Luna: But how do you ask for that second signature without sounding pushy or distrustful of the champion? Lucas: You frame it as helping the champion succeed. You say something like, 'I want to make sure this gets through your finance team smoothly. Who else needs to sign off on this, and what are their main concerns?' That puts the rep in the position of an ally. It shows they are proactive about removing friction for the buyer. It doesn't challenge the champion's authority; it supports their ability to close internally. Luna: It turns the contract into a roadmap rather than a barrier. That changes the tone entirely. Lucas: And it gives you data. When you ask who the second signer is, you might find out there isn't just one. There might be legal, finance, and IT security all needing to sign. Knowing that upfront allows you to prepare tailored answers for each group. Instead of sending one generic email to legal, you can send a specific memo to IT security about data protocols. You customize the closing package to match the buyer's internal structure. Luna: That sounds like a lot of coordination. Does every company have that many layers? Lucas: Not every company, but every growing company does. As organizations scale, governance increases. Even a mid-market firm with five hundred employees will have a distinct separation between purchasing, legal, and end-user approval. If you treat a two-hundred-person company like a startup, you will miss steps. You need to map the signing authority before you draft the final agreement. Ask the champion: 'Walk me through your approval chain. Who has the pen in the end?' Luna: Mapping the chain. I like that. It prevents the surprise phone call from the controller that nearly killed that previous deal. Lucas: Exactly. Surprise approvals are the enemy of speed. When you map the chain, you can estimate the timeline accurately. You know that legal takes ten days, finance takes five, and operations takes three. You build that buffer into your project plan. You stop guessing and start managing. This is basic project management applied to sales. Most reps skip it because they are afraid of slowing down the momentum. Luna: But isn't slowing down to ask these questions actually speeding up the close? Lucas: It is. Momentum without direction is just noise. If you rush the contract to legal without clearing the stakeholders, you create bottlenecks. Every time legal sends a comment back, the clock resets. If you have already spoken to the finance lead, you can resolve those comments instantly. You turn potential delays into instant confirmations. The second signature request is essentially a stress test for the deal. If the buyer resists sharing who the second signer is, that is a red flag. It suggests internal disagreement or lack of budget. Luna: So hesitation to reveal the second signer is itself a signal of trouble. That is a powerful diagnostic tool. Lucas: It is. If the champion says, 'Just leave it with me, I'll handle it,' you should be cautious. That usually means the champion is hoping to hide problems until it is too late to fix them. You want transparency. You want to see the signatures lined up before you deliver the product. Because once you deliver, the leverage shifts. Before delivery, you are negotiating. After delivery, you are implementing. Implementation is harder to reverse than a contract term. Luna: So securing the second signature protects your revenue recognition too. You don't want to book a deal that falls apart in implementation. Lucas: Absolutely. Revenue ops teams hate it when sales books a deal that requires custom work nobody agreed to. By getting the second signature from operations, you ensure that the technical scope is validated. The second signer is often the person who will suffer if the implementation fails. Their signature is a promise of capability. It aligns expectations. It ensures that the buyer is ready to receive what you are selling. Luna: It turns the sale into a partnership from day one. That builds trust faster than any discount ever could. Lucas: Trust is built on competence. Showing that you understand the buyer's internal complexity proves you are competent. It shows you respect their processes. Most reps try to override the process. The best reps navigate it. They become guides through the jungle of corporate bureaucracy. That makes them invaluable to the champion. Luna: So the lesson is clear: never assume the champion is the only voice. Always find the second signature. Lucas: Always. And if there are multiple signatures, treat each one as a mini-sale. Prepare a brief for each signer. Address their specific fears. Make it easy for them to say yes. Because when you get that second signature, you aren't just closing a deal. You are unlocking the entire organization behind it. Luna: If these conversations have moved your work forward in some small way, consider supporting the show. It helps keep the content ad-free and independent. You can find us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Lucas: Thanks for listening. It really does make a difference. Now, back to the deal. Luna: Right. So, thinking about your own current pipeline, who is the second signer you haven't met yet? Lucas: That is the question. Are you going to ask them, or are you going to hope they don't care? Luna: I'm picking up the phone. Thanks for the reminder. Lucas: Good. Because the best deals don't just happen. They are constructed, one signature at a time.