Case: a stalled deal, write the next three messages

A deal that goes quiet after one positive call usually has a discovery gap, not a busy buyer. Look at what the first call didn't find.

The notes from Cobalt's call on 18 November show a real problem: tutors change often, lessons are cancelled at short notice, HR gets no attendance reports. But the last line says what wasn't asked: who approves the budget, who else decides, how the current school was chosen. The call ended with "Send me a proposal and I'll take it to my management", not a dated next step.

That's the call that sells too early: a positive champion, a proposal, and no map of who pays. The proposal is now somewhere inside Cobalt, with nobody to argue for it in the right room. Silence is often what that looks like a month later.

Reading it this way matters, because it points to the fix: not a louder email, but the missing discovery.

Not every date is pressure. A date from the buyer's own process is information, and often the most useful thing you can share.

Cobalt's contract with its current school ends on 31 March 2027 and renews for a year unless Cobalt gives notice by the end of January. That's a real deadline, and it's Cobalt's, not Klasna's. If nobody acts by then, Cobalt stays with the school it's unhappy with for another year.

How to use it: mention it once, as help, never as a threat. "I noticed your current contract needs notice by the end of January; if it's useful, I can help you have what management needs before then." That helps the champion plan, and it gives message 2 a natural reason.

Compare an invented deadline ("offer valid until Friday"), which serves only the seller. The difference is whose calendar the date comes from.

The tempting follow-up to silence is a nudge with urgency: "Just checking in again! Our offer is only valid until Friday, after that prices go up. Let me know!" Every part of it hurts.

• "Just checking in" gives the reader nothing. It asks her to do work (reply) and offers no reason to.
• "Only valid until Friday" is an invented deadline. Klasna has no such plan, and she'll likely spot it.
• "Prices go up" is an invented price rise, a bluff that gets found out.

Invented urgency may get a reply once, but it costs the trust you'll need when procurement and management join the deal.

The rule for every follow-up: give her something useful or make her next step easier. If a message does neither, don't send it.

After silence, the first message goes to the champion and has one job: give her something useful and ask one easy question.

"Useful" means something that helps her with the next conversation inside Cobalt, not a reminder of your proposal. For example: a sample lesson for one team, so she has something concrete to show management; or a one-page summary of what Cobalt would get, written for whoever "management" turns out to be.

"One easy question" means a question she can answer in a line from her phone: "Would a sample lesson for one project team next week be useful?" Not three questions, and not a demand for a meeting.

Avoid the empty forms: "just following up", "did you get my proposal?", a resend of the same PDF. If she replies to message 1, you skip the rest of the plan and continue the conversation.

The last message in a follow-up sequence closes the loop: you'll stop following up, there's no guilt, and the door stays open. For example: "I won't keep writing about this. If English for your engineers comes back on the table, before the end of January or later, I'm glad to help."

It works for two reasons. It's easy to answer: a one-line "thanks, not now" or "actually, let's talk" costs her nothing. And it's honest: it ends the pressure, which often makes people more willing to reply.

The condition is that you mean it. If she says no or doesn't reply, you stop. A "last message" followed by more messages is just another trick, and she'll remember it next time Cobalt looks for a school.

Space the three messages about a week or more apart: 9 December, 16 December and 12 January, still before Cobalt's notice date.

A plan for a stalled deal works best as three short messages, each with one job, about a week or more apart:

1. 9 December, help the champion: something useful (a sample lesson for one team) and one easy question.
2. 16 December, ask how Cobalt decides: who else is involved, how the current school was approved, and what has to happen before the end-of-January notice date.
3. 12 January, close the loop kindly: you'll stop following up, and the door stays open.

The sequence moves from helping (a reason to reply), to understanding the decision (the discovery that's missing), to letting go gracefully (an easy reply either way). The last message still lands before Cobalt's own notice date.

Keep each one short: she reads them on her phone between meetings. And the plan adapts: a reply at any point replaces the remaining messages with a conversation.

Message 2 has to fill the discovery gap: who else decides and how Cobalt buys. The blunt version, "Who is the decision-maker?", rarely works in writing. It puts the champion on the spot, can sound like you doubt her role, and is easy to ignore.

Ask about something that already happened instead: "When Cobalt chose its current school, who was involved, and how long did it take?" A past purchase is easy to describe without losing face, and it reveals the committee, the steps and the timing.

Then tie it to the real date and make it easy: "What would those people need from us before the end of January? I can prepare a page for finance or answers for IT security."

Avoid questions that push her to escalate ("Can you get your CEO on a call this week?") or blame her for the silence ("Why haven't you replied?").

The stall at Cobalt isn't the learning lead's fault: being busy isn't a mistake. The gap is ours: the first call never asked who pays. So the fix isn't a better follow-up email; it's a habit in the next discovery call.

Before any proposal, find out:

• who approves the budget and how they like to see decisions;
• who else decides (finance, IT security, operations) and how the current provider was chosen;
• the buyer's own dates, such as a budget close or a contract notice period;
• a next step with a date, names and an action on their side, not "send me a proposal".

When Marta asks why it stalled, be specific about the gap, not about the person: "We sent a proposal after one positive call without learning who approves it."

How it fits together: silence points to a discovery gap; skip fake urgency; three messages with three jobs; ask about the process through a past purchase; fix the habit. Next module: the proposal itself, a quote built from the buyer's economics.