Start watching for these patterns in your prospects. Once you see them, you can't unsee them. And more importantly, you'll know how to respond.

1.            The Great Call That Goes Nowhere

You hang up feeling amazing. The prospect loved everything. They asked great questions. You nailed every answer. Then... radio silence for three weeks.

What happened? Nothing. Literally nothing.

A great call is just a great call. Not a closed deal!

What's missing? A clear next step and a reason to take it.

2.            The Fake Decision Maker

You spend weeks building rapport with someone who keeps saying, "Let me run this by my boss" or "I need to check with the team." Every decision gets deferred upward.

What's missing? The real decision maker (obviously). You might have to start with the messenger, but you need to get in front of the person who makes the call.

3.            The Stagnant Deal

Everything looks perfect. Great discovery call, positive feedback, budget confirmed, timeline agreed. But weeks pass, and nothing moves forward.

Your deal is stuck.

What's missing? Urgency. You need to help your prospect see why they need to move forward now instead of later. It could be budgeting, time of year, initiatives, or timelines.

4.            The Ego Play

You've got a prospect who cares way more about looking smart than saving money. They interrupt your ROI presentation to tell you about their last successful project and name-drop constantly.

What's missing? Make your prospect feel important. These buyers need to feel important more than they need to feel informed.

5.            The Innovation Anxiety

Your prospect loves your solution but keeps asking "what if it doesn't work?" or "how do we know this is stable?" They're paralysed by the fear of making the wrong choice.

Traditional risk mitigation isn't enough here.

What's missing? Proof and assurance. Provide your prospect with proof and assurance that your solution will work for them.

How to Build Pattern Recognition Muscles (and Close More Deals)

Here's exactly how to develop this skill:

• Review your calls (actually, though). Don't just take meetings and move on. Listen to recordings. Read transcripts. Hunt for the cues you missed in real-time. Pay attention to tone shifts and subtle pushback.
• Document everything. While reviewing, write down what you discover (or use AI notes and review them). Take note of the situation, buyer type, and outcome. Then perform a deal autopsy. After about 30 calls, patterns will start jumping out at you.
• Listen to the language. It's not just what they say... It's how they say it. Notice how they end calls, what reasons they give for delays, and which words they emphasise. This reveals what actually matters to them.
• Study your losses obsessively. Every closed-lost deal is a chance to learn what went wrong (even if it was totally out of your control). Treat failures like crime scenes: investigate until you understand exactly what happened and why.

Once you develop pattern recognition, closing becomes less about persuasion and more about prescription and process.