We’re getting interest, but deals don’t close. Why?

The surface symptom

You’re getting conversations. Calls feel warm. Prospects ask questions. But very few of these turn into real deals.

Nothing explicitly goes wrong; it just… fades.

The usual explanations

• “The market is cautious.”

• “Budgets are tight.”

• “People are still evaluating.”

• “We need to follow up more.”

Sometimes those are true. Often, they’re incomplete.

What’s actually happening (two different problems)

This symptom usually hides one of two very different issues:

1. You’re talking to the wrong audience.

The conversations feel positive, but you’re not truly relevant to the buyer’s core problem or priority. Interest exists, urgency doesn’t.

2. You’re talking to the right audience, but the conversation doesn’t create a logical next step.

Buyers understand you, but don’t see what should happen next, or why moving forward makes their decision easier.

These require completely different fixes.

Why this shows up at your stage

Early on, almost any interest feels like progress. As volume increases, it becomes harder to tell which conversations are real and which are just polite curiosity.

Without clear signals of buyer intent, everything looks the same - until nothing closes.

Where things usually break

• The call ends without a compelling reason to continue the conversation

• Buyers don’t see how you can help them in their role right now

• Next steps feel optional, not necessary.

• Follow-ups feel polite, not useful.

• Momentum depends entirely on you pushing

What to examine first

Look at your last 10–15 initial conversations and ask:

• Who created the urgency - you or the buyer?

• What did the buyer want next, specifically?

• Can you identify exactly where conversations usually stall?

• Are the people going cold similar in role, size, or use case?

Patterns here tell you which problem you actually have.

The key insight

Interest is cheap. Deals move only when the buyer can see how moving forward with you helps them do their job better or make a safer decision. Until then, conversations remain conversations.