How Deals Get Decided in Your Patch.

Most reps guess how fast a deal will close and who has to say yes. Here is how to learn the real path buyers in your patch take, so your forecast stops lying to you.

Will Koning

Founder, meritt

meritt illustration: market & context fit

Picture this. You tell your boss a deal will close this month. You feel good about it. Then it stalls for eight weeks because a person you never met said no. That hurts. The good news is this is fixable. How deals get decided in your patch is not a mystery. It is a pattern you can learn. Once you see the pattern, your forecast stops lying to you.

The mistake most people make

Most people guess. They look at one keen contact and assume the whole company moves that fast. They forget to ask who else needs to say yes. So they promise a close date that was never real. Then a legal review, a budget sign-off, or a quiet boss pops up out of nowhere. The deal does not die because it was bad. It slips because you misjudged how it moves and who holds the pen.

What good looks like

Good reps can draw the path. They know roughly how long a deal like this usually takes. They know the stages it passes through. Most of all, they know the people who have to nod before money changes hands. None of this is luck. It comes from looking hard at past deals and asking smart questions. When you can lay out that path, you sound like someone who has done this before.

Then they do one more thing. They find the slowest step and start it first. Approvals do not have to happen in the order they appear on a diagram. Security review and procurement often run in the background while everything else carries on. If the longest step is the one you kick off last, its full length lands on your close date. Kick it off early and most of it disappears into time you were spending anyway.

How to do it

Map a deal you already won

Take one recent win and write down every stage it passed through. Note each person who touched it and what they needed before they said yes. This becomes your map for the next one.

The meritt deal took eleven weeks. Champion, then her boss, then legal, then finance signed.

Ask a coworker who knows the patch

Someone on your team has run these deals before. Ask them one simple question: what usually slows these down? Five minutes saves you weeks of false hope later.

You have sold into firms like meritt before. What stage tends to stall, and who causes it?

Ask what happens after the yes

Most reps map the decision and forget the paperwork. Security reviews, procurement and legal all sit after the yes and can each add weeks. Ask about them early, while it is a calm question rather than a panic. Then ask which one usually takes longest, and start that one first.

Once you have decided, what still has to happen? Which of those normally takes the longest, and can we start it now?

See the difference

Weak

My contact loves it, so we should close by Friday. One excited person, no map, no idea who else has to agree. Friday comes and goes. So does the month.

Strong

My champion is sold. But deals this size at firms like meritt take about ten weeks, and finance signs last. I have not met finance yet, so I am forecasting next quarter, not this one.

The strong version is not slower. It is honest. It counts the real steps and the real people, so nobody gets a nasty surprise.

How you'll know it's working

You have got this when you can lay out the usual way buyers in your patch make a decision. Try it on your next live deal. Can you name the stages it will pass through? Can you name every person who has to say yes? Can you give a timeline that is based on past deals, not hope? If yes, you are there. Your forecast starts to match reality, and that trust is a skill that follows you everywhere.

Questions people ask

How do I learn how deals get decided in my patch?

Start with a deal you already won. Write down every stage it passed through and every person who had to say yes before money moved. Then ask a coworker who knows the area what usually slows these deals down. Those two steps give you a real map of the timeline and the decision makers, instead of a guess based on one keen contact.

Why do my deals take longer than I expect?

Usually because you counted one excited contact and missed the people behind them. Most buying decisions need more than one yes. A budget holder, a legal review, or a quiet boss can each add weeks. When you map who really has to sign off, the timeline stops surprising you, because you planned for every person from the start.

How do I find out who really makes the decision?

Ask, and look at past deals. On a live deal, ask your contact a plain question like who else needs to be comfortable before this goes ahead. On past deals, trace who actually signed at the end. The pattern repeats. The same kinds of roles, like finance or legal, tend to show up as the final yes again and again.

How can I make my sales forecast more accurate?

Base it on how deals really move, not on how you hope they move. Use a past win to see the usual number of stages and weeks. Check whether you have met every person who has to say yes. If a key approver is still missing, push the close date out. A forecast built on the real path is one your boss can trust.

Which approval should I start first?

The slowest one. Ask your buyer which step normally takes longest, then get that moving straight away. Security reviews and procurement often run quietly in the background while the rest of the deal carries on, so starting them early costs you nothing. Leave the longest step until last and its full length gets added to your close date.

What is the paper process and why does it matter?

The paper process is everything that still has to happen after the buyer says yes: security review, procurement, legal, and the signature itself. It is the most commonly missed part of a timeline, because it feels like a formality. It is not. Each of those steps can add weeks, so ask about them early rather than discovering them in the last week of the quarter.