How to Get a Deal Unstuck
Every sales team has deals that stop moving. The prospect was engaged, the demos went well, the champion seemed enthusiastic — and then nothing. Emails go unanswered. Meetings get rescheduled. The deal sits in Stage 3 for six weeks while the close date is quietly pushed forward each Monday.
Most stuck deals are not dead. They have stalled for a specific, diagnosable reason — and most of those reasons have a specific play that can restart momentum. The critical first step is diagnosis: the play that works for a deal stalled because the EB hasn't been engaged is different from the play for a deal stalled because the champion has gone cold.
Diagnosing Why the Deal Is Stuck
Run through the MEDDPICC diagnostic before choosing a play:
Is the pain genuinely established?Did the prospect articulate a specific, quantified business problem — or did the deal progress on positive sentiment and feature interest? If the pain was never properly established at the business level, the deal has no urgency foundation. No amount of follow-up fixes this.
Has the Economic Buyer been engaged?If the only person you've spoken with is the champion, and the champion has gone quiet, there's no one else driving the deal internally. EB absence is the most common root cause of stuck deals.
Is there a compelling event?Did the prospect ever name a specific reason they need to act by a specific date? If not, the deal has no internal deadline and can drift indefinitely.
Is the champion still in role and still engaged? Champion changes — role change, departure, promotion, restructure — kill more deals than any other single factor. Verify the champion is still in role and still engaged before diagnosing anything else. Has the decision process been established?Does the prospect know what their own decision process looks like? Who needs to approve, what legal or procurement steps are involved, and what the timeline from verbal to signed looks like?
Is competition the reason?Has a competitor appeared or intensified since the deal went quiet? Sometimes deals stall because the prospect is in active evaluation with a competitor and doesn't want to tell you.
The Plays by Root Cause
Stuck because EB hasn't been engaged:Play: Ask the champion directly. "We're at the stage where [EB role] would typically need to be part of the conversation to move this forward. Can you set up a 30-minute call with [EB name] for us to walk through the business case?"
If the champion says yes but hasn't delivered the introduction in two weeks: "I know you're busy — would it help if I drafted the intro email to [EB] that you could send directly?"
Stuck because no compelling event:Play: Return to the implication. "You mentioned [specific business pain] in our last call. We're now six weeks from our original target date — what does it mean for [specific business objective] if this slips another quarter?"
If the implication doesn't create urgency, the pain isn't real enough to drive a decision. Consider disqualifying.
Stuck because champion has gone cold:Play: Multi-thread. Go around the cold champion to another contact in the account. Use the MAP or a business-relevant reason to reach out to a secondary contact directly: "I wanted to share [specific resource] with [secondary contact] given their work on [relevant initiative]."
Alternatively: create a reason for the champion to re-engage — a new customer reference from a similar company, a product update directly relevant to their stated use case, or a specific question that requires their input.
Stuck because of internal process (procurement, legal, IT):Play: Surface the specific blocker and assign it to the MAP. "Can you help me understand where we are in the process? Which step are we waiting on — legal review, IT security assessment, procurement?" Then: "What do you need from us to move that step forward? Can we do a 30-minute working session with [relevant internal stakeholder] to get this unblocked?"
Stuck because of competition:Play: Ask directly. "I want to be straightforward — are we still in active consideration, or has the evaluation shifted? I'd rather know now so we can figure out if there's still a fit." Direct honesty often produces direct honesty in return — and is better than months of declining follow-up.
The Executive Outreach Play
When a deal is stuck despite champion engagement, an executive-to-executive outreach can restart it. The AE's manager or CRO reaches out directly to the prospect's equivalent — not as escalation, but as executive sponsorship:
"I wanted to reach out personally to offer any additional support as you evaluate [solution category]. I've seen the results [Company A and B] have had, and I wanted to make sure [Prospect Company] has everything you need to make the best decision for your team."
This play works because it signals that the vendor is serious, provides the prospect's executive with permission to re-engage, and creates a peer-level relationship that the champion can leverage internally.
When to Disqualify a Stuck Deal
Not every stuck deal should be rescued. The cost of maintaining a deal in the pipeline — manager time, rep attention, forecast space — is real. Disqualify when:
The champion has been genuinely unresponsive for 4+ weeks despite multiple channels and approaches.
There is no established pain, no compelling event, and no EB engagement — and the champion can't be moved to create any of them.
A competitor has been selected and the prospect is managing you as a backup or benchmark.
The deal's MEDDPICC score is below 30% and shows no improvement trajectory.
Park disqualified deals in a nurture sequence and revisit when circumstances change. Don't carry them in active pipeline where they obscure real opportunities.
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About the Author
Alex Margarit, Sales AI Expert, SaaS Sales Leader, BMC, ServiceNow, Docusign — 25+ years in SaaS sales.
