Philip is a character licensing agent in the Philippines. His job is to connect beloved brands, anime titles, video games, and comic properties to companies that want to put those characters on their products. Think milk tea chains, apparel brands, fun run organizers. If a brand wants to slap a beloved character on a t-shirt, Philip is the guy who makes that deal happen.

Here is the thing. When a company reaches out to Philip already knowing and loving the character, the deal practically closes itself. He gets to the first meeting, they are all in, and within a couple of weeks there is a signed forecast. Easy money. But when he goes outbound to companies that are unfamiliar with the property? Crickets. Ghosting. Long silences after proposals go out.

Philip called in to Ask Jeb looking for better closing techniques. He thought the problem was at the end of the sales process.

It was not. The problem was at the beginning.

You Are Dealing with Two Completely Different Buyers

The first thing I told Philip is that he needs to stop treating his fast buyers and slow buyers the same way. Fast buyers, the ones who already love the character, have already made the internal decision before they ever talk to him. He is just there to facilitate the paperwork. But slow buyers are an entirely different animal. They do not share his passion. They are not going to buy because the character is incredible. They are going to buy because the business case makes sense. And if Philip cannot build that case through deep discovery, they are going to disappear.

This is the same dynamic I see in every kind of complex sale. The companies calling you are already half sold. The companies you have to go find are not. You cannot run the same play on both. Fanatical Prospecting is built around this idea: know who you are dealing with before you invest your best time and energy.

Identify the Seeker Before You Write the Proposal

Here is where slow buyer deals die. You get into a first meeting with someone who acts like they have authority. They ask good questions. They nod along. They say they will take it back to the team. You build a full proposal. You send it over. And then you never hear from them again.

That person was a seeker. They were sent to gather information, not to make a decision. We sometimes call them “Seymours” because they always want to see more. More information, more decks, more pricing. And once they have everything you have, they do not need you anymore. That is not a closing problem. That is a qualification problem, and it has to get solved in discovery, not at the close.

In Philip’s world, the BASICS framework matters here. There are Buyers, Amplifiers, Seekers, Influencers, Coaches, and Sponsors in every deal. When Philip is dealing with a fast buyer, he often has amplifiers inside the company pushing the deal up. They love the character. They are doing the selling for him internally. With slow buyers, those amplifiers do not exist. Which means Philip needs to ask early and directly: who makes this decision, who has influence over it, and can we get those people in the room?

If the person you are meeting with will not let you access the actual decision maker, disengage. I know that feels harsh. But you are not going to close that business, and you are going to waste a lot of time finding that out the hard way.

Build Checkpoints, Not Proposals

The best thing Philip can do with a slow buyer is slow the process down and build in multiple steps before the proposal ever comes out. Here is why this works. It is called the investment principle. The more a prospect has to commit time and effort to your process, the more they value the outcome. If they can get your full proposal with one meeting and one email request, they have invested almost nothing. When they ghost you, it costs them nothing either.

Instead, build four to five checkpoints. An initial discovery meeting. A deeper discovery meeting with more stakeholders in the room focused on business case, demographics, and ROI. A consensus meeting. Then and only then a proposal. At every step, you are asking for a commitment to the next step. If they say yes and show up, they are engaged. If they keep pushing back and asking you to just send the information, they are telling you they are not serious.

Every micro-commitment is a test. Treat each step as a qualifying checkpoint, not just a task to complete. The buyers who are not serious will fall out early, and that is a good thing. Your pipeline should only carry deals that are actually moving.

Do not send your pricing, your licensing terms, or your full proposal until a prospect has walked through those steps with you. That information is your leverage. The moment you hand it over with nothing in return, you have given away your best reason for them to stay in the conversation.

Philip is a passionate guy. He loves these characters. You could hear it in his voice. But passion is not enough when the person across the table does not share it. Build the business case through discovery. Test engagement at every stage. Withhold your leverage until they have earned it. Do those three things consistently, and you will stop getting ghosted.

Got a sales challenge you want Jeb to answer? Submit your question and you could be featured on the next Ask Jeb episode of the Sales Gravy Podcast. Head to salesgravy.com/ask to submit your question now.