Selling to companies: why deals stall, and who really decides

An excellent meeting. The procurement manager at the big company listened carefully, asked smart questions, and said at the end: «This proposal is very good; we'll get back to you.» A week passed. Then another. A month later the reply came: «It's been postponed to next quarter.»

The whole team asks: what did we get wrong? Usually, nothing. The problem is that the person we met isn't the one who decides. They're one of six or seven people who have to agree, and we only met one of them.

I'm Mohamed Samy, head of sales at OG. This article is about the real difference between selling to an individual and selling to a company, and about who's in the room that you can't see.

In short: In B2B selling, the decision is made by a group, not a person. Each of them has a different role and a different fear. The shortest route to a faster deal is knowing who's in the group, what worries each of them, and giving the person you met the material to convince the rest.

The real difference between selling to a person and to a company

When someone buys for themselves, they pay, they use it and they decide. Their decision can take a minute. In a company, those three roles split apart:

• The one who pays (the budget) may be one person.
• The one who uses it may be someone else.
• The one who decides may be a third.
• And alongside them, the reviewers (legal, procurement, technology).

Each of them judges from their own angle: the user asks «will it make my work easier?», finance asks «how much, and what's the return?», legal asks «are there risks in the contract?», and the manager asks «will I look bad if it fails?».

Which brings us to another important point: in B2B selling, the fear of the wrong decision is stronger than the desire for the right one. People are held accountable for failure more than they're rewarded for success, so they choose safety. That explains why «we'll get back to you» is the easiest reply.

Who's on the committee? Five roles

Not every company has a formal committee. But in any deal above a certain size, these roles exist (even if one person plays more than one). We call them:

1. The final decision-maker. The person who can say «yes» and spend. Usually a senior manager or the owner. You don't always meet them at the start.

2. The influencer. The person whose opinion is listened to: an expert in the field or a key user. They may have no authority, but their refusal stops the deal.

3. The user. The person who will deal with what you sell every day. If they dislike the solution, they'll make it fail.

4. The reviewer. Procurement, legal, technology and security. They don't choose, but they can stop it.

5. The champion. The person convinced by you from the inside and ready to defend you in the meetings you don't attend. The most important person in the deal.

The first exercise for any deal: draw the map. Who plays each role? Who have you met? Who haven't you met yet? And if you don't know who the decision-maker is, that's the first thing to find out.

The champion: the person you sell to so they can sell for you

In the meeting you don't attend, someone has to speak for you. That person is the champion. Your real job with the person who met you is to make them able to defend you, not just willing.

Which means giving them:

• A one-page summary of the problem, the solution, the cost and the expected return, in language that reads quickly.
• Answers to the objections the committee is likely to raise (financial, legal and technical).
• Evidence (a similar example, or a limited trial) that lets them say «this isn't a gamble».
• A small step the company can take without a big risk.

That's a big difference between a salesperson who says «call me if you have questions» and one who asks «what's the hardest question you'll be asked in the meeting? Let's prepare an answer for it.»

The buying cycle: why does it take so long?

Selling to companies takes longer than selling to individuals. The reasons are usually:

• More than one person has to agree.
• Budgets are allocated for a period (an annual budget), and sometimes there's no room for a new line.
• Reviews (legal, technical and security) take weeks.
• Other priorities get ahead of you.
• Fear of change (even when the current situation isn't ideal).

There's no fixed figure for the length of the cycle. It varies with the size of the company, the size of the deal and the sector. What matters is knowing your own cycle: from your deal history, how many days does it take from first contact to signature? That number goes into the sales plan (which is why we say a plan that assumes closing in two weeks for a deal that takes three months is a wrong plan).

The real competitor: «no decision»

The biggest competitor in B2B often isn't another company. It's the decision not to decide. The company sticks with the current situation because it's familiar, and changing it costs effort and risk.

That changes how you sell. Instead of focusing on «we're better than so-and-so», we focus on:

• The cost of the current situation. What does the company lose every month by carrying on like this? (Time, money, opportunities.)
• A small cost of change. How do we make the first step simple?
• Clear timing. Why now? (A season, a change, or a goal.)

And if there's no reason for «now», the deal will be postponed. So part of qualification is knowing the event that makes the customer move: a new budget, an ongoing problem, a new manager, or a deadline.

A hypothetical example: a service for a mid-sized company

Suppose a company selling a service to mid-sized industrial companies (the example is entirely hypothetical). Its salesperson met the operations manager at one company, and the meeting was excellent. Two weeks later, no reply.

The map drawn after the delay:

• The user: the operations manager (the person we met). Convinced.
• The decision-maker: the general manager, not met yet.
• The financial reviewer: the finance manager, asking about the annual cost.
• The technical reviewer: the systems lead, worried about integration.
• The potential champion: the operations manager, but they need material.

What changed in the plan:

1. The salesperson sent the operations manager a one-page summary of the benefit and cost, addressed to the general manager.
2. They agreed on a short call with the technical lead to answer the integration questions.
3. The operations manager suggested a limited trial on one production line, at a small cost and for a set period, so the general manager could see the result before a big commitment.
4. A meeting was set with the general manager, with the operations manager present.

Notice there's no price cut here. The tools are the map, the material and the small step.

Questions that reveal the map

Without sounding like an interrogation, there are natural questions that make clear who's in the picture:

• «Apart from you, who else will have a say in this decision?»
• «Has the company bought something like this before? How was the decision made?»
• «What has to be reviewed before signing? Legal? Technical?»
• «What could cause this decision to be postponed?»
• «If we go ahead, when could we start? And what has to happen before then?»
• «What worries you most about this?»

That last question in particular opens an important door: the fear the customer won't mention unless asked.

The message for each role

Not everyone on the committee needs the same words. The same offer is told differently:

One common mistake is giving everyone the same general presentation. What matters to finance isn't what matters to the user.

The first meeting: a 30-minute agenda

Most salespeople go into the first meeting to «present». It's better to go in to understand. This is an order we follow, adapted to the deal:

First 5 minutes: the frame. «We're here to understand your situation and see whether there's something we can help with. If there isn't, we'll say so honestly.» That sentence lowers the tension and sets the meeting up as a conversation, not a pitch.

10 minutes: the current situation. What's being done now? What isn't working? What does it cost? How long has it been happening? In these minutes, the customer does 80% of the talking.

5 minutes: the decision. Who else will have a say? What happened the last time you bought something like this? When should this be settled?

5 minutes: what we can do. Not all our features. What relates to the problem we heard.

5 minutes: the next step. With a date and an owner. «I'll send you a summary tomorrow, and we'll speak on Thursday with the technical lead?»

The rule: the meeting doesn't end without a specific, dated next step. «We'll be in touch» isn't a step.

The follow-up message: within hours of the meeting

The message sent after the meeting is the material the champion will forward to colleagues. So it has to be written as if it will be read by someone who wasn't there. This is its structure:

1. A sentence about the problem in the customer's words: «We understood that delays in X are costing you Y.»
2. What we proposed in three simple points.
3. The cost and the timeframe, clearly.
4. The next step, with a date and an owner.
5. One question that opens the door: «Is there anything we've missed?»

And skip heavy attachments. A short message that can be read in a minute. If the champion is going to forward it, make it sendable as is, without edits.

Negotiating with procurement

When the deal reaches procurement, the rules change. Procurement's job is to push on terms and price. It isn't personal. So prepare:

• Know the options before you go in. Who else is bidding? What are the alternatives? What sets you apart?
• Don't negotiate on price alone. Price is part of a package: scope, duration, deliverables and payment terms. If a discount is requested, ask for something in return (a longer term, upfront payment, or a wider scope).
• Set a floor for yourselves before the meeting. If you don't know the lowest point you'll accept, you'll concede more than you need to.
• Agree principles with the decision-maker before details. Once they've decided, procurement executes.
• Write everything down. Verbal agreements in large deals get forgotten.

In my opinion, the hardest moment is when the customer says «the price is high». It doesn't always mean it really is high. It may mean they need a justification to give their boss. (There's a whole article on answering that objection.)

The limited trial: the strongest tool for reducing fear

When a company is afraid of a big commitment, the best answer is often a small step with limits: a pilot for a set period, on a limited scope, with success criteria agreed before it starts.

The structure of a good trial:

• The goal: what are we trying to prove? (Saving time, or improving a specific number.)
• The scope: one department, one branch or one line.
• The duration: fixed.
• The success measure: a number agreed before the start, not after.
• The cost: clear, and if possible deducted from the larger deal if it succeeds.
• The decision afterwards: what happens if it succeeds? And if it doesn't?

Without a success criterion set in advance, the trial turns into a free phase that drags on without a decision. That happens a lot.

And keep in mind: not every service suits a trial. Some work (a full strategy, for example) is hard to split. In that case the small step can be a first phase (a diagnosis or a workshop) that gives them a sample of our work and builds trust.

The committee map: a template

Here's a simple table to copy for every large opportunity:

The «Stance» column is the most important. A sceptic isn't an enemy; they're someone with concerns that need answering. The biggest risk comes from the person we never spoke to at all.

When a deal is lost: review without blame

Not every deal will close. What makes the difference is learning from the ones that are lost. After every large B2B deal you lose, hold a short review (15 minutes):

1. When did we realise it was stalling? Could we have known earlier?
2. Who did we meet, and who didn't we? Was the decision-maker missing?
3. What was the stated reason for the refusal? And is it the real reason?
4. What could we have done differently?
5. If the customer agrees to talk to us, what could we ask? («If we had done something differently, what would it have been?»)

Record the answers in one place. After ten deals, you'll see a pattern. And usually the pattern won't be about price.

B2B in the region: practical notes

All of this is general, but there are some notes from working in the region (observations from the market, not a published study, and they vary from company to company):

• A personal relationship opens the door but doesn't close the deal. Large companies need formal procedures (vendor registration, multiple quotes, approvals) even when the relationship is excellent. Prepare the paperwork early: commercial registration, tax card and company profile.
• Vendor registration at large companies can take time. Ask about it in the first meeting, not at the last minute.
• Payment. Payment terms at large companies are often deferred. Factor them into your cash flow before pricing.
• Language and documents. Some companies ask for documents in Arabic, in English or both. Prepare both.
• Different markets. Purchasing and contracting procedures differ between Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Don't assume what worked in one market will work in another. And some sectors (government and semi-government) have special rules that need review.

None of this changes the core idea. It changes the details that need preparing before the deal reaches the signing stage.

When don't we recommend chasing a B2B deal?

Not every opportunity is worth it. There are signs we're wasting time:

• No access to anyone with influence on the decision after reasonable attempts.
• No clear problem, and the customer is «just exploring».
• The expected cycle is longer than we can financially afford to wait.
• The customer asks for customisations that turn the offer into a different product from the one we provide.
• The deal depends on a big discount to go through, and the remaining margin doesn't cover the cost.

Turning down an unsuitable opportunity frees time for better ones. In my opinion, a salesperson who says no to a third of opportunities closes more than one who says yes to all of them, because their time is focused.

And what's marketing's role in B2B?

An important question, since this article is about sales: if a committee makes the decision, the committee researches you without talking to you. The technical reviewer searches your name, finance looks for past clients, and the decision-maker looks at your website. So your reputation, website and content answer for the salesperson in the meetings they don't attend. And when someone searches for you and finds nothing clear, they become the sceptic on the committee.

That's exactly why the brand matters even when the decision is made on numbers, and there's a whole article on that. What matters here is that sales and marketing in B2B have to agree on the same message, because the committee hears from both.

Three decisions for next week

If you have an open B2B opportunity today, do these three things before anything else:

1. Draw the committee map in a table, and write down who you haven't met yet.
2. Ask the champion one question: «What's the hardest question you'll be asked?», and prepare the answer in writing.
3. Propose a small, dated step: a meeting with the reviewer, a limited trial, or a short workshop.

These three take a day's work, and they usually move a stalled deal more than ten follow-up calls.

Common mistakes

1. Selling only to the person we met. If they aren't the decision-maker, we're selling to someone who can't say yes.

2. Relying on «we'll get back to you». Without a next step and a date, the deal is hanging.

3. Arguing with specifications. Buying committees don't buy specifications; they buy reduced risk and a goal achieved.

4. Cutting the price to get past a delay. The delay usually isn't about price. A discount teaches the customer to delay.

5. Ignoring the reviewers. Legal and technical stop deals at the last minute. Talk to them early.

6. One presentation for everyone. Every role needs an angle.

7. Starting with the big deal. In B2B, it's better to start with a small step (a trial, a pilot project) and grow once you've proved your value.

Objections we hear

«We're a small company; who bigger are we going to meet?»

The roles exist even in small companies, but they're concentrated in fewer people. In a small company, the owner plays every role. But if you're small and selling to a large company, the map matters more, because you're less able to sustain a long cycle.

«We can't reach the decision-maker»

Hard, but usually possible. The route isn't to go over the champion's head, but to help them bring you in. Ask for a joint meeting, or offer to prepare material they can present themselves.

«B2B is all about relationships»

Relationships open the door, but the decision needs justifications that can be put to the committee. A relationship without material ends with «we like you, but we can't».

«All this makes the deal longer»

It reveals the real length early. The map doesn't make the deal longer; it lets you know its length from the start instead of being surprised.

The deal sheet: one page for each large opportunity

For every B2B opportunity, make a sheet with:

1. The company and the problem: what's bothering them? And what does it cost?
2. The trigger: why now?
3. The map: user, influencer, decision-maker, reviewers, champion (by name, or «unknown»).
4. Who we've met and who's left: who we've seen and who we haven't.
5. The concerns: for each role.
6. The next step: what, when and who's responsible.
7. The material: what we're preparing for the champion.
8. A fallback plan: if the deal is postponed, how we stay usefully in touch.

And review it in the weekly meeting on large opportunities.

In my opinion, and from what we see in the market: deals that stall usually don't stall because the customer refused, but because someone on the committee was never asked. The time you spend listening to every voice early saves months at the end.

B2B deal checklist

• Do we know who the champion, decision-maker, user and procurement contact are, and who could block it?
• Does each role have a message that fits its concern?
• Does the first meeting have a 30-minute agenda and questions to reveal the map?
• Did we send a follow-up message within hours of the meeting?
• Do we know the usual buying cycle and how many steps remain?
• Do we have a limited-trial proposal that reduces the customer's risk?
• Have we prepared an answer to «no decision» as a real competitor?
• Is the committee map written down and updated for every large opportunity?
• When a deal was lost, did we review the reason without blame?
• Is there one deal sheet for every large opportunity?

The bottom line

Selling to a company isn't selling to one bigger buyer. It's selling to a group, and each person in it has a fear and a question. The deal moves when we know who they are, equip the champion with material, and keep the first step small and safe.

One last question for the deal you're working on today:

If I asked you who the decision-maker on this deal is, by name, and when you'll meet them, could you answer?

If not, that's what to do before any other presentation.

A deal stuck with a committee you cannot read? One of our experts is ready to listen. The first call is free.