Help the buyer bring the other decision makers in, so you are not left waiting for an answer.
When a buyer says "I need to check with someone else", help them bring that person into the decision instead of waiting for an answer. Find out who the person is and what matters to them. Offer a joint meeting or a one-page summary written for them. Ask what the buyer will recommend, and agree two dates before you leave.
The objection is often true. Most purchases of any size involve more than one person, such as a spouse, a business partner, a director, a finance team or a parent. The problem is that most sellers do nothing with it and just wait. If you wait, the decision gets made in a conversation you are not part of, by someone who only heard about your offer second-hand.
Priya walks Joel through her proposal. Joel owns a business with more than one outlet. The walkthrough goes well. He likes option two and says the weekly till check is exactly what he needs. Then he says he needs to check with his wife, because she does half the books, so it is her call too. Priya says "Of course," and the meeting ends.
A week later Priya sends a polite follow-up. Joel says they are still discussing it. Two weeks after that he stops replying. Priya never spoke to Joel's wife and never learned what his wife was weighing up.
Start with two questions: "Who else will be involved?" and "What do you think will matter most to them?" Use them to understand the situation. They should never be used to block the buyer.
Ideally you would have found the other people during discovery. The Discovery course, lesson 5.4, "Map who decides and how", shows how to map everyone involved in a decision. If a decision-maker appears for the first time at this stage, note it for your next discovery meeting. Right now your job is to understand that person.
In the better version, Priya asks both questions. Joel names his wife, Lin, who does the Sunday books with him. He says Lin will want to know they are not just paying someone to do what she already does well. She will also want to know whether she will still see the numbers.
The way the buyer describes the other person tells you what that person will be weighing up, so you can help address it. From Joel's answer, Priya works out that Lin's concern is about control and value rather than price.
Offer both ways of helping. The first is a short joint meeting. It lets the other person hear the offer first-hand and raise their own concerns with someone who can answer them. A decision made after a joint meeting is better informed than one made from a description over dinner. Priya suggests twenty minutes with the three of them, so Lin can ask her own questions.
The second, for when a meeting is not possible, is a one-page summary for the other person. It covers the situation, the options, your recommendation and the next step. It follows the format from Lesson 2.4, "Write a one-page proposal", but you write it with the other person's concerns in mind. Priya adds two lines for Lin. The first says the weekly report means Lin will see each outlet's numbers every Monday. The second says the Sunday hours she spends now are part of the cost Joel calculated.
You saw the same objection at a larger scale in Lesson 4.2, "Listen, clarify, respond, confirm". Hafiz was selling to Rachel's firm, and the decision needed Kelvin, the director, and the finance manager. Hafiz offered a meeting with Kelvin and wrote a short note for the finance manager comparing the cost of the problem with the price.
Before you leave, ask: "When you talk to [them], what will you recommend?" This is one of the most useful questions in the whole course, because the answer shows you where the buyer stands.
If the buyer says they will recommend your option, they are on your side. The conversation with the other person is then about bringing that person along. If the buyer says they will just lay out the options and see what the other person thinks, they may not be convinced themselves. "Check with my wife" (or something like it) may be covering their own doubt. Explore this straight away using the clarify step from Lesson 4.2. You could say: "It sounds like you're not completely sure yourself. What's holding you back?"
Joel says he will recommend option two, but he is not sure Lin will agree to pay for something she has always done herself. He is on Priya's side, so the work now is helping him bring Lin along.
End by agreeing two dates: when the buyer will talk to the other person, and when you will follow up. Priya asks Joel when he will talk to Lin, and he says Sunday. He agrees that Priya will call him on Tuesday to hear how it went, and to set up a meeting with all three of them if that would help.
A follow-up on a date the buyer chose has a purpose. Joel is expecting the Tuesday call because it is the next step they both agreed, so it does not come across as chasing him. Lesson 7.3, "Follow up after a proposal by adding something", builds on this agreed follow-up.
That evening, send a short message confirming the follow-up date, with the one-page summary attached. Priya sends Joel a note confirming Tuesday and attaches the summary she wrote for Lin.
The same steps apply in financial advice. When a client says they need to talk to their spouse, offering a joint meeting is often the most useful thing an adviser can do. A household decision made by both partners together tends to hold.
For the activity below, think of a live deal where someone other than your main contact will have a say.
Write the questions and the offer you will make when a buyer needs to check with someone else. Then draft the one-page summary you would give them.
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