Latest / Closing the Deal with Fexingo: Sales, Negotiation, and Revenue Conversations for Operators / The One Reason Prospects Ghost You After the Demo
Transcript
- Lucas: There's a pattern I keep hearing from sales leaders this quarter, and it goes like this: the demo was great, the buyer asked smart questions, the follow-up deck got sent, and then… nothing. Luna: Radio silence. And they can't figure out why. Lucas: Right. It's the single most frustrating moment in a sales cycle — you think you're in control, and suddenly you're not even in the room. I wanted to dig into one specific reason this happens, because it's fixable. Luna: What's the reason? Lucas: Misaligned decision criteria. The seller and the buyer are grading the deal on completely different scorecards, and neither side realizes it until the buyer goes quiet. Luna: Can you give me a concrete example of how that plays out? Lucas: Absolutely. I was talking to a VP of Sales at a mid-market SaaS company — let's call it 'DataFlow' — they sell a data integration platform. They had a deal with a regional bank, roughly $120,000 annual contract value. Six months of engagement, four demos, a proof of concept that the IT team loved. Luna: So everything looked solid. Lucas: On the surface, yes. The IT director was the champion, the demo went smoothly, the POC showed a 40 percent reduction in manual data entry. Then the deal went to the procurement committee — and stalled for three weeks. The rep sent follow-ups, offered to loop in the CFO, got no reply. Eventually the champion said the project was 'paused.' Luna: What was the gap? Lucas: The seller assumed the buyer's decision criteria were technical — speed, accuracy, integration ease. And those were important to the IT director. But the procurement committee was evaluating on a different set: total cost of ownership over three years, vendor lock-in risk, and how many internal training hours would be required. Nobody on the sales side ever asked the committee what their criteria were. Luna: So both sides thought they agreed, but they were actually having two separate conversations. Lucas: Exactly. And the worst part is, DataFlow could have addressed all three of those concerns early. Their three-year TCO was actually lower than the incumbent's, they had a standard data export API that eliminated lock-in risk, and their onboarding required only four hours per user. But those facts never surfaced because the rep never asked the right people the right questions. Luna: So what should the rep have done differently? Lucas: There's a framework I've seen work consistently. I call it the 'Criteria Audit.' It's a simple set of questions you ask every stakeholder before the demo ends — not after, because after the demo, the buyer is already forming an opinion. Luna: Walk me through it. Lucas: Step one: ask the champion directly — 'When your team evaluates this, what are the top three criteria you'll use to make a decision?' And then ask the same question to every other person who will have a vote. Don't assume the champion speaks for the committee. Luna: That sounds obvious, but I bet most reps skip it because they're focused on closing the champion. Lucas: They absolutely do. The champion is your ally, but the champion doesn't control the budget or the risk assessment. So step two: after you get the criteria, rank them by importance with each stakeholder. What's a must-have versus a nice to have? Luna: And you do this live, on the call? Lucas: Yes. It's a bit uncomfortable, but it's incredibly powerful. You say something like: 'Just to make sure we're on the same page, could you rank these in order of importance for this decision?' That gives you a weighted scorecard. Luna: And then you align your messaging to that scorecard in real time. Lucas: Right. If the CFO's number one criterion is total cost of ownership, you don't spend more time talking about technical features. You show the three-year cost comparison. And if you find a criterion you can't meet — say, they require ISO 27001 certification and you don't have it — you surface that early, before it becomes a silent blocker. Luna: That's the thing about silent blockers — they're only silent because nobody asked. Lucas: Exactly. And the Criteria Audit forces the conversation. In DataFlow's case, if the rep had asked the procurement lead 'what matters most to you?' they would have learned about the TCO concern and the training hours. They would have had a chance to address those in the demo itself. Luna: So the lesson is: don't just qualify the deal, qualify the criteria. Lucas: That's the one-sentence version. But let me add a nuance: criteria can change. Even after you've done the audit, a new stakeholder might enter late, or the committee might shift priorities after seeing a competitor's proposal. So you need to revisit the criteria at key milestones — after the demo, after the proposal, before the final presentation. Luna: That's a lot of asking. Does it ever annoy buyers? Lucas: It can, if you do it badly. You want to frame it as alignment, not interrogation. Say, 'I want to make sure we're still focused on what matters most to you. Has anything changed since we last spoke?' That's respectful, and it signals that you're paying attention. Luna: I've seen a version of this where the rep actually builds a shared document — like a Google Doc — with the criteria and updates it in real time with the buyer. Lucas: That's brilliant. It makes the criteria visible and collaborative. The buyer can see that you're transparently tracking their priorities, and it creates a natural agenda for the next conversation. Luna: I want to ask about a related scenario — what about when the criteria are unspoken because the buyer themselves doesn't know what they want? That happens in more complex or innovative products. Lucas: That's a tougher case. When the buyer is still figuring out their own needs, the Criteria Audit has to be more consultative. You're not just listing criteria; you're helping them discover what they should care about. You might say, 'Other clients in your industry found that integration time and compliance reporting were the two biggest factors. Do those resonate with your team?' Luna: So you're seeding criteria based on your experience. Lucas: Exactly. But you still ask them to rank it. The key is that the buyer owns the final list. If you dictate it, you've lost credibility. If they co-create it with you, you've built trust and alignment. Luna: Let me ask a blunt question — is this framework realistic for a rep who has a quota of, say, 15 calls a day? Won't it slow them down? Lucas: It's a fair concern. But I'd argue it speeds things up in aggregate. If you invest an extra 10 minutes per deal to do a proper Criteria Audit, you're likely to uncover disqualifying issues earlier — which means you can kill bad deals faster and focus on the ones that can close. The ROI is huge. Luna: Kill them faster instead of letting them drag out for months. Lucas: Exactly. In DataFlow's case, the deal dragged for six months and then died. If the rep had done the audit in the first month, they'd have known the committee's concerns and either addressed them or realized the deal was a long shot. That's six months of pipeline that could have been reallocated. Luna: I want to bring this back to the original problem — prospects going silent. If the criteria are aligned, does that guarantee they won't ghost? Lucas: Nothing guarantees that. But alignment dramatically reduces the probability. Most ghosting happens because the buyer has unresolved concerns they don't want to share — they're afraid of confrontation, or they think the seller can't fix it. If you've created a safe space to surface criteria, you've also created a safe space to surface objections. Luna: So the Criteria Audit is also an objection-handling tool. Lucas: Exactly. It's a proactive objection handler. Instead of waiting for the buyer to say 'it's too expensive' or 'we need to think about it,' you ask 'what would make this a no-brainer for you?' and you deal with it before it becomes an obstacle. Luna: That's a good segway — if today's episode was useful to you and you want to keep it ad-free, buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo helps. It's how we keep these conversations going without sponsors. Lucas: Yeah, seriously. A handful of listeners chipping in makes a real difference. Okay — let's get back to the framework. One more layer I want to add: after you've collected the criteria, you need to map them to specific proof points in your demo or proposal. Luna: Can you give an example of that mapping? Lucas: Sure. Suppose the buyer's top criterion is 'ease of onboarding for non-technical users.' In your demo, you don't just show the admin interface — you show a five-minute walkthrough from a non-technical user's perspective. You literally say, 'I want to show you how a marketing manager would set this up in under 10 minutes, because that's what you told me matters most.' Luna: That's powerful because it shows you were listening. Lucas: It does. And it forces you to prioritize the demo content. Most demos are feature dumps — the rep shows everything because they're afraid of missing something. But a criteria-mapped demo is concise, relevant, and memorable. The buyer walks away thinking, 'That rep understood us.' Luna: I've seen a stat that says 60 percent of buyers choose the vendor that best understood their needs, not the one with the best product. Lucas: I believe it. Understanding is a differentiator. And the Criteria Audit is the mechanism to get there. It's not complicated — it's just intentional. Luna: So if someone listening wants to implement this tomorrow, what's the first step? Lucas: Pick one deal in your pipeline that's been sitting for more than two weeks without clear next steps. Call the champion and say, 'I want to make sure I'm focused on what matters most to your decision-makers. Can you help me understand the top three criteria your committee will use?' Then ask if you can speak directly to one of those decision-makers. That's the start. Luna: And if the champion hesitates? Lucas: That's a red flag. It might mean the champion doesn't have the influence you think they have. Or they're not being transparent with you. Either way, you want to know that now. Luna: So the Criteria Audit also serves as a champion qualification tool. Lucas: Exactly. It's a multi-purpose framework. It aligns criteria, surfaces objections, qualifies the champion, and shortens the sales cycle. The only cost is the courage to ask. Luna: I think that's the real obstacle — many reps are afraid of sounding pushy or ignorant by asking basic questions late in the cycle. Lucas: I get that. But framing is everything. If you say, 'I apologize for asking this so late, but I want to be sure…' — that sounds weak. Instead, say, 'To make sure I deliver the most value, let me confirm the criteria your team is using to evaluate.' That sounds confident and helpful. Luna: Confidence is contagious. If the rep is confident asking, the buyer feels confident answering. Lucas: I think that's a good place to wrap. One concrete takeaway: before your next demo, write down what you think the buyer's criteria are. Then verify them by asking. And if they don't match, adjust your demo on the fly. That small discipline can save you from the silent treatment. Luna: And if it saves you one deal, it's worth the 10 extra minutes. Lucas: Exactly. Thanks for the conversation, Luna. Luna: Thanks, Lucas.