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Aurelius · Work & Leadership
Knowledge + Guidance

Why do my simple deals close but the big ones stall?

You know how to close a deal when one person decides. You read them, answer their doubts, they sign. That skill will not save you here. A complex deal has no single decider. It has a committee, each one protecting something different, and most of them you have never even met. You keep going back to your one contact, asking when it will move. They say soon. It is not soon. This is not because the deal is bad. It is because you built a relationship with one person and mistook it for a sale. The fix is not more charm. It is more information: who else must agree, what each one stands to lose, and what happens if nobody decides at all. Go find that out. Nothing else you do will matter until you do.

◆ How this problem reads on the two dials
GuidanceKnowledge
Coaching
More to learn
1:1 with AureliusWith others (a Pod)
Mostly you & the coach
A little with peers
Stalled multi-stakeholder deals need a repeatable way to map who really decides, then direct coaching to apply it to the reader's actual stuck deal.
How the two dials adapt to you →
What’s really going on

The deal is not stalled. You are still negotiating with one person while five others quietly decide your fate. Stop chasing your one contact for an answer they cannot give. Find every person who can kill this deal, learn what each one fears to lose, and speak to that fear directly.

🔒 What you’ll build togetherUnlock by starting
A moveList every person connected to this deal by name, not by title.
A moveFor each name, write one sentence: what do they personally lose if this deal happens.
A moveFind the person who says yes easily. Ask yourself if they actually have the power to make it happen. If not, stop treating them as your buyer.
A moveAsk your contact directly: who else has to agree before this moves forward.
A moveSet a real date for the next decision. A deal with no deadline does not stall — it simply waits, forever, while you wait with it.

What changes unlock by starting

  • You can name every person who influences a stalled deal, instead of guessing.
  • You stop mistaking a friendly contact for someone with real authority.
  • You leave every meeting with a written next step and a date attached to it.
  • You know within one conversation whether a deal is truly moving or just being polite.

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One object, two jobs: a public answer to a real problem, and — the moment you start the chat — Aurelius’s live plan for your version of it.