The Most Expensive Word in Sales is ‘Later’

Polite delays protect the status quo and kill deals.

October is a dangerous month in sales. Not because customers get mean, and not because every clinician in America locks themselves in appointments until January, although some of them seem committed to the bit. October is dangerous because this is when one small word starts quietly stealing your pipeline.

Later.

“Let’s look at it later.” “Circle back after the holidays.” “Maybe next quarter.”

Sounds harmless. Almost polite. But I’ve seen this movie before. A practice manager says, “Let’s revisit this in the new year,” on a Tuesday in October. The rep writes it down, feels good about the visit, and moves on.

He calls in February. Somebody else moved the account in December. He never asks a single clarifying question, and it costs him the account.

A slow no has killed more territories than a fast no ever did.

Why later feels so good

Salespeople don’t like hearing no. Shocking revelation, I know. No feels final, personal, and forces you to update the CRM with actual honesty, which is apparently a medical procedure for some reps.

Later feels much better. Later lets everybody leave with their dignity intact. The clinic doesn’t have to decide, and you don’t have to admit the deal may be in trouble. That is exactly what makes it dangerous. Later gives you just enough hope to skip the harder work, so you don’t clarify, challenge, and tell yourself they’re still interested. Maybe they are. Or maybe they just didn’t want to disappoint the nice person standing there
with samples and a branded polo.

Later is not a next step

One of the biggest mistakes reps make is treating later like progress. It isn’t. Later is a fog machine. It makes the opportunity look alive while hiding the fact that nothing is moving.

A real next step has a date, reason and commitment. “Let’s reconnect Thursday after your staff meeting, because you’ll know by then whether the team wants to trial it.” That’s a next step. “Circle back sometime next month” is a sales rep writing fan fiction in the CRM.

Your job is not to bully anybody into buying. Your job is to help them make a clear decision: yes, no, or here is exactly what has to happen next. All three beat floating around in later-land.

What to say when they say later

Don’t panic. Don’t launch into a desperate eight-minute recap of everything you already told them. Slow down and ask one question.

“When you say later, what would need to change?”

Then stop talking.

That question forces clarity without starting a fight. If they say they have to get through inventory first, now you know. If they say the doctors aren’t aligned, now you know. If they say they’re honestly just not that interested, congratulations — you found the truth, and the truth is a lot cheaper than three months of fake follow-up.

Here’s another one worth stealing: “Is this a timing issue, a priority issue, or a fit issue?” Timing means there may be something here later. Priority means you haven’t built enough urgency. Fit means you may be chasing something that was never there. Those are three different problems that need three different responses. But if all you hear is “later,” you’ll treat them the same and send another sad little email in three weeks.

“Just checking in…”

Please don’t. We have suffered enough.

Make the cost of waiting visible

By October, clinics are busy, budgets are being watched, staff is tired, and everybody has a built-in excuse to postpone anything that takes effort. So, respectfully interrupt the drift. Not with pressure. With clarity.

Try this: “I completely understand waiting. Before I disappear until January, can I ask one question? If nothing changes between now and then, would this become more important, less important, or about the same?”

Sometimes waiting is smart. Sometimes waiting is just indecision wearing a sweater. You will not know which one you’re looking at until you ask, and the reps who never ask end up hauling around a pipeline full of imaginary opportunities in tiny little
hope costumes.

The word to listen for

Later is expensive because it feels safe. It protects the customer from deciding and it protects you from hearing no. It also protects the status quo, and the status quo is undefeated when nobody challenges it.

So this month, listen for the word. When you hear it, don’t argue, and don’t retreat to your car and pretend the deal is still glowing.

Ask the question.

“When you say later, what would need to change?”

Photo Credit:

istockphoto.com/Eduardo Monroy Husillos

istockphoto.com/VioletaStoimenova