Stop Chasing Approval

The moment approval feels like progress

I often notice this moment in sales conversations. The meeting ends well. The buyer nods. The language is positive. Someone says, “This makes sense.” And yet, weeks later, nothing moves. No objection is raised. No clear no is given. The deal simply slows down.

What’s happening in these moments is rarely about lack of interest. It’s about misinterpreting what progress actually looks like.

Many sellers are still wired to chase approval.

A verbal yes. A reassuring signal. A supportive stakeholder who sounds convinced. Approval feels like momentum. But approval is not the same as alignment.

Approval is personal. Alignment is collective.

What approval hides inside organisations

In one conversation with a sales team, a seller described a deal they were confident about. “The business head is fully aligned,” they said. “He likes us and wants to move forward.” When we unpacked the account further, a different picture emerged. Finance hadn’t validated the commercial logic. Operations hadn’t assessed the impact on existing workflows. IT hadn’t been consulted on long-term ownership.

The seller had approval. What they didn’t have was alignment.

Where alignment actually breaks

Alignment takes longer to surface because it lives between people, not inside them. It shows up in how trade-offs are discussed, how risks are shared, and how consequences are distributed across functions.

When alignment is missing, buyers rarely push back openly. Instead, they pause. They delay. They go quiet.

From the seller’s side, this silence is often misread as hesitation or loss of urgency. In reality, it is usually a sign that the buyer is trying to prevent internal friction. Moving forward without alignment feels unsafe.

This is where many deals quietly lose momentum. Sellers continue to push for commitment, believing more conviction will help. Buyers retreat further, not because they disagree, but because they are protecting internal coherence.

Chasing approval in these moments increases pressure. Building alignment reduces risk.

A conversation that changed the direction

I remember working with a client selling a multi-year services engagement. The sponsor was enthusiastic and repeatedly reassured the seller that the deal would close. Yet every attempt to move to the next step stalled. When the seller finally slowed down the conversation, a different reality emerged. Finance was uncomfortable with the payment structure. Operations felt the rollout timeline was unrealistic. None of these concerns had been voiced earlier because no one wanted to disrupt the sponsor’s momentum.

Once those concerns were surfaced and addressed collectively, the deal moved forward with far more confidence.

Nothing about the solution had changed. Only alignment had.

What strong sellers do differently

High-performing sellers learn to recognise the difference early. They stop asking questions that seek reassurance and start asking questions that invite alignment.

Instead of asking, “Are you comfortable moving ahead?” they explore, “Where might this decision become difficult internally?” Instead of asking, “Who else needs to sign off?” they examine, “Who might feel exposed if this moves forward?”

These questions slow conversations down in the moment. They also prevent months of delay later.

Sales teams that build alignment consistently see different outcomes. Forecasts become more reliable. Late-stage surprises reduce. Buyer relationships deepen because sellers are no longer perceived as pushing for closure, but as helping the organisation move together.

Alignment does not remove disagreement. It makes disagreement visible early, when it can still be resolved.

Before your next deal review, it’s worth pausing to reflect.

Are you tracking approvals, or are you mapping alignment? Are you measuring enthusiasm, or are you understanding risk distribution?

The answers explain why some deals accelerate smoothly while others stall without warning.

In My View

From what I’ve observed, the most durable deals are not built on strong approval. They are built on shared understanding. When sellers stop chasing individual yeses and start helping buyers align internally, progress feels slower at first. Over time, it becomes far more predictable.