Stalled deal

A stalled deal is an open deal that has stopped moving. It is still in the CRM and its amount is still in the forecast. But nothing has happened with the customer for a while: no reply, no meeting, no new step. The seller may still be sending messages, so from the inside it does not feel stalled.

To spot it, count days since the last customer action, not the last seller action. A reply, a booked call or a document sent back all count. A message the seller sent into silence does not. Most CRMs show the last activity date, but it includes the seller's own messages. Add a field for the last customer action.

Won deals spend about 10 days in Proposal. A deal with no customer reply for 25 days in Proposal goes on the stalled list.

Set a limit for each stage and treat it as a hypothesis to test. Start with your own data: how long do won deals usually spend at each stage? A deal past that limit goes on the stalled list. Example (invented numbers): won deals spend about 14 days in Decision. So a deal there with no customer action for 30 days is flagged.

The head of sales brings the stalled list to the weekly pipeline review. Each deal gets one of three decisions. Set a dated next step that asks the customer for something. Reach someone more senior on the customer's side. Or close it as lost. Keeping it open without a decision is not one of the options.

A stalled deal is the opposite of an active deal. It may have a next step on paper, but the customer is not taking part. Ghosting is the sharper case, where the customer stopped replying at all. Stalled deals left in the pipeline inflate coverage and make the forecast look safer than it is.

• Counting seller activity as movement. Five follow-up messages without a reply still describe a stalled deal. Measure days since the customer last did something.
• One limit for every stage. A decision can take longer than a first conversation for good reasons. Set the limit per stage from your won deals and recheck it each quarter.
• Pushing the decision date forward every week. A date moved again and again hides the stall from the forecast. If the date moves twice, the deal goes on the review list.
• Keeping stalled deals open to protect the pipeline number. A long pipeline that does not move is worse than a short one that does. Close what is dead, with a lost reason.

By Friday, the head of sales pulls every open deal with no customer action in the last two weeks. Start with that cut and adjust it later from your own data. Each seller brings their list to the next weekly meeting. Every deal leaves the meeting with a dated step that asks the customer for something. Or it closes with a reason.

CRM rules the team follows and a forecast review you can run every week.