My worst sales call lasted 47 minutes. I knew in the first 3 I'd lost the deal.
Six years on sales floors taught me one thing that no course will put in a syllabus.
Bad deals have a smell. You learn to recognise it early.
This particular call started wrong. The prospect had rescheduled twice. Joined three minutes late. Said "remind me what this is about?" in the first 30 seconds.
Those aren't neutral signals. They're data.
I kept going anyway. 47 minutes of my best discovery questions, a solid demo, three objection handles I'd refined over hundreds of calls. He said "send me something in writing" and disappeared.
Four follow-ups and six weeks later I accepted what I knew in minute three.
The lesson nobody tells new salespeople: closing rate matters less than knowing which deals are worth your time. Every deal you stay in too long is a better-fit prospect you didn't call.
Three signals I learned to watch for in the first 5 minutes:
- Late + unprepared = not the real buyer (you're likely pitching the wrong person)
- "Remind me what this is about" = the request didn't come from them
- No questions back in the first 10 minutes = you haven't found the pain yet
None of these alone is a deal killer. All three together? Qualify harder, cut it short, or move on.
I still stay too long sometimes. But I lose a lot less time than I used to.
What's the earliest signal you've learned to trust?
Building Genie 007 (genie007.com) — voice-to-action for everything you do on a computer. Say it rough, get the finished thing.
Love this angle. Building Xstream4K right now so this hits close to home — what made you look into it in the first place?
Painful and familiar. A first-five-minutes checklist that has saved me a lot of sunk time:
If 2 and 3 are fuzzy after five minutes, I politely exit: "Sounds like timing isn't right — happy to reconnect when X is clearer." Same pattern applies outside sales too: recruiting outreach that ignores urgency and fit burns the same way.
Respectful exits protect your calendar and your reputation.
That four-point check is exactly right — and I'd add one more to run before you even start: 'Is there someone above you who needs to approve this?' If yes and they're not on the call, you're in the wrong meeting. The polite exit script is underrated. Most founders treat a no-show or vague prospect as a failure. Walking away cleanly keeps the door open and your pipeline honest.
I’d trust vague urgency more than lateness. A busy buyer can join late and still be serious; the stronger signal is when they can’t explain what happens if nothing changes.
I reckon “Why solve this now rather than six months from now?” is the useful early test. If there’s no real cost to waiting, even a good demo probably won’t create one.
'Why now rather than six months from now' is the cleanest version of that question, and if they can't answer it specifically — not in buzzwords but in actual business cost — you have your answer. The demos that close fastest are always the ones where the buyer already knew they had a deadline and were looking for confirmation they'd found the right solution.