I have a friend (We’ll call him Rick) who recently sold his company. From beginning to end, the sale process took about two years. Rick’s goal was to have the business sold by April 30, 2025. It almost didn’t happen.
Last Tuesday, Rick received a call from the prospective buyer. He said he wanted to postpone the sale until later in the year. Rick didn’t panic. He knew he needed to work through some last-minute sticking points. They did, and on Thursday of the same week they had the closing, and the sale was complete.
How did Rick turn the situation around so quickly? He was prepared. Rick and I had several conversations about 11th hour surprises. Rick considered everything he could think of that could make the deal go south. With the list, for each concern he carefully considered how to respond to each objection in a way that kept things going. It worked. There were two objections: One dealt with a large sale that had not been closed yet. The other was an employment contract dispute. They calmly got to work and came up with a plan they were both comfortable with. The objectives were resolved, and the closing naturally followed.
Many sales reps have experienced a “sure thing” deal go bad at the last minute. I recommend that we all learn from Rick, and prepare for those last-minute objections. Doing this will allow us to be calm and not panic, and systematically work through all remaining objections. Then…CLOSE!
