The Champion Who Left
Meridian sells a $120k enterprise workflow platform. A seven-month evaluation at a logistics company has reached 'verbal yes' from the VP of Operations, who sponsored the project. Two weeks before contract signature, the VP leaves. Procurement now requires a security review, three customer references, and CFO approval. The account executive says Meridian is 'still the frontrunner' because IT liked the demo and the evaluation scorecard ranked Meridian first. The CRM lists Close Date as end of month and Forecast Category as Commit. The new interim sponsor is the CFO, who has not seen the business case. The Critical Event was 'VP Ops wants to retire the legacy system before peak season,' but no one has confirmed the date with the CFO. The AE proposes re-sending the proposal and offering a 15% discount to keep momentum.
1. Assess the deal using SPICED. Which elements were assumed rather than validated?
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Situation and Pain were documented, but Impact was not validated with the economic buyer. The Critical Event was personal to the VP Ops ('retire the legacy system before peak season'), not institutional; no one confirmed the date or consequence with the CFO. Decision was incomplete: procurement, security, references, and CFO approval were known but not mapped or sequenced. The champion was a single point of failure.
'Verbal yes' from a sponsor is not a decision. The scorecard ranking is evidence of technical fit, not commercial commitment. The AE's 'frontrunner' claim is an assumption; the new interim sponsor has not seen the business case. The deal is not in Commit. It is in discovery with a new buyer.
2. What should the AE do in the next 10 business days, and what should happen to the forecast category?
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In the next 10 days, the AE should secure a meeting with the CFO and interim sponsor and bring a one-page business case: quantified impact, cost of delay, implementation plan, and risk. Reconfirm the Critical Event with the CFO: 'What happens if this is not live by peak season?' Map the decision process: security review owner, reference requirements, procurement steps, and signature authority. Multi-thread to IT and procurement.
Do not lead with a 15% discount. It signals the value case is weak and may not be necessary. The forecast should move from Commit to Pipeline or Upside until the CFO validates the business case and the decision path. Commit means the buyer has agreed, not that the AE feels good. If the AE cannot get the CFO meeting, the deal is at risk of silent death.
3. What coaching or deal-review change would prevent this pattern across the team?
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Change deal reviews to test champion redundancy and economic buyer validation. For any deal above $100k, require evidence that the economic buyer has stated the impact and critical event in their own words, and identify at least two active contacts. Ask, 'Who loses budget or status if this fails?' and 'What happens to this project if the champion leaves?'
The leader should inspect the last buyer interaction, not the rep's summary. This is a coaching pattern: reward reps for surfacing risk early, not for keeping deals in Commit. If the forecast is inflated, the fix is deal hygiene plus a review cadence that rewards truth. The pattern repeats when reps are punished for moving deals backward.