The Opportunity You're Afraid to Close

Sometimes you're not afraid of losing the opportunity.

You're afraid of getting it.

And I think that's a distinction a lot of ambitious people don't recognize, because consciously, of course you want the opportunity.

You've been working toward it.

You've been making the calls, putting together the proposals, having the conversations, trying to get your business to the next level.

Then somebody actually wants to give you the business.

And suddenly you hesitate.

You need to review the proposal one more time.

You want to make sure the terms are exactly right.

Maybe there's another detail you should explain, another question you should ask, something you should clarify before they commit.

And all of those things can sound perfectly reasonable.

Sometimes they are.

But sometimes what's really happening is that you understand what saying yes is going to require of you.

I was working through this with somebody who was pursuing contracts much larger than anything he'd handled before.

He knew how to do the technical work.

He'd spent considerable time developing the solutions.

He understood the numbers and believed he could deliver.

But when it came time to ask for the business, he kept hesitating.

At first, we talked about his closing process.

How he presented the proposal.

What he said when someone wanted to move forward.

Whether he had the agreement and payment process ready.

Those things mattered.

But eventually he said something that got to the real issue.

He was afraid to close the deal because if he closed it, he'd actually have to do it.

Because now we're not talking about a sales technique.

We're talking about responsibility.

As long as the opportunity is still out there, you get to imagine what winning it would mean.

The revenue, the growth, the credibility, the next level of your business.

But once somebody commits, all of that becomes real.

Now there are expectations.

Deadlines.

Money involved.

People depending on you.

And there's a possibility that you might make a mistake.

I want to be clear about something.

That possibility doesn't disappear just because you prepare more.

You should absolutely do the work.

Understand the scope.

Know your numbers.

Protect yourself contractually.

Be honest about what you can deliver.

But when you're taking on something bigger than you've ever handled before, there's uncertainty you simply cannot eliminate through preparation.

You have to do the thing to develop the ability to do the thing.

And that means accepting that learning might cost you something.

Maybe you underestimate part of the job.

Maybe you miss something.

Maybe you have to solve a problem you didn't anticipate.

That's not an argument for being careless.

It's an argument for understanding the price of growth.

Because you can't simultaneously demand the opportunities that come with a bigger business and insist that none of them make you uncomfortable.

At some point, the question stops being whether you're completely ready.

It becomes whether you're willing to take responsibility for becoming ready.

And sometimes the next thing you need to do isn't another round of preparation.

It's ask for the business.