I believe a business owner has the right to stop working with a sales contractor, even if the contractor has built a contact database and almost closed a large deal. It is worth continuing when it is clear what event we are waiting for, what the new deadline is based on and whether the business is prepared to wait. The amount of effort already spent does not in itself oblige you to pay for the next month.
We had a client that produced outdoor advertising. There was no sales team: the same designers who created the designs also handled sales. We began approaching potential customers who had not contacted us: compiling contact databases, making calls and trying to build partnerships. We trained people and wrote rules. From the very start, the condition for continuing sounded roughly like this: make a sale and we will keep working together.
We almost closed a large deal. But approval from the local authority held it up for two weeks, and it did not close by the set deadline. The owner was not interested in the database we had built. In the third month, he decided not to continue working with us. The story has been anonymised, and the time periods have been rounded.
We had something to show. But we were building a way to bring in future deals, while the owner was waiting for one signed deal by his deadline. At the start, we failed to agree in writing what would count as an acceptable result for that period and on what terms the work would continue. So I will not defend what happened by saying “the client just did not understand the value”.
A sale was a condition, but we heard it as a goal
The phrase about making a sale seems clear to both sides. Of course, everyone is working towards deals. But for one side it is a direction to work towards; for the other, it is the basis for deciding whether there will be a next month at all. The difference emerges on the day the work is due for renewal: the contractor brings a database and ongoing negotiations; the client looks for the buyer’s signature.
The approval process explains why a particular deal was delayed. It does not give the contractor the right to extend their own deadline at the client’s expense. The costs of waiting remain with the owner, and only the owner decides whether to bear them. Even if the delay really did arise outside the sales team.
Our mistake in this story was to agree to work without resolving that question. Before starting, we should have asked: if negotiations have reached the point of needing outside approval, but there is no signature by the deadline, do we stop or discuss continuing? If the answer was a firm “we stop”, we should have honestly assessed whether we were prepared to take on the work at all. An extra script or a more detailed report would not have resolved this difference.
When I would still give it more time
But I do not support the rule “no deal by the deadline — change the contractor immediately”. Then each new contractor will have to get to know the market from scratch. And the owner will pay for several fresh starts in a row, without allowing any of them to reach the buyer’s decision.
I would continue working together if the head of sales can show a specific event that still needs to happen, confirmation from the buyer and what the team will do before it. For example, an agreed next contact can provide a basis. A salesperson saying “they are positive about it” does not provide that basis. These are signs to guide a decision in your company, not additional details of the story above.
An extension needs a new limit: the event or date we will work until, and what we will do if there is another delay. In the report, a date we have set ourselves must be distinguished from a date the buyer has confirmed. Otherwise, another month is being bought on the same assumption that has already failed.
There is a limit on the other side too. If the owner is not prepared to wait without a signed deal, you should not sell them patience under the guise of management. I would refuse to take on the work if there were no basis for the deadline they need. That is more unpleasant than agreeing and getting started, but then you do not have to explain to someone why they are obliged to want a different result.
A checklist before renewal
One sign you can see today: what changes in the contractor’s reports between requests for more time? If only the list of completed tasks grows, you have no more grounds for a new deadline. If confirmed actions by buyers have appeared, there is something to base a decision on.
Have the head of sales submit a short note based on this table two working days before renewal. This is a suggested deadline for preparing a decision, not for making sales.
| What to bring to the owner | What to base the decision on |
|---|---|
| The agreed result, date and actual outcome | Whether the deal was signed; the database that has been built is shown separately |
| Unfinished negotiations: what remains to be done, who is taking action, what confirms the next step | Whether there is a basis for waiting for a specific event or only the salesperson’s hope |
| A proposal for the next period: actions, deadline, necessary costs and a condition for stopping | The business accepts this wait or ends the engagement |
| Arrangements for handing over work already started if there is no renewal | The employee who will take over negotiations and the handover deadline are named |
The note is ready when it allows you to choose whether to continue or stop without piecing together each client’s history yourself. The head of sales is tasked with reviewing calls and gathering confirmation. The owner accepts the deadline and costs instead of becoming another salesperson trying to find out from the buyer what they meant.
If the original condition was not written down, work out what it was with the contractor before discussing the next period. You cannot declare the database a sufficient result after the fact just because it has been built. Nor can you quietly add a requirement that was not there before. That difference alone already shows that extending the previous agreement without changes is risky.
Stop spending and preserve the work already started
Choosing not to continue for another month does not mean you have to abandon unfinished negotiations. Separately, decide who will receive the contacts, communication history, existing agreements and immediate next actions. Appoint the person taking over before the contractor’s work ends. If there is no one to take over, that is part of the decision to stop that the owner will have to resolve.
This separates your assessment of the contractor from what happens to the buyers next. You do not need to call the attempt to get sales started a success to hand over the work. It is enough to understand that a conversation already started deserves someone assigned to take responsibility for it, even when you are no longer prepared to look for new clients in the same way.
At RENTROP, you can discuss exactly this in a free sales review: what result you expect from the contractor and whether there are grounds to continue working together. The “turnkey sales management” service is designed for an existing sales team; if designers are selling between projects, you first need to define what has to be created before handing over day-to-day management.
In the outdoor advertising story, the condition was stated right at the start. We should either have accepted it along with the risk of stopping, or agreed something different before starting work. A deal that is nearly closed deserves attention, but it cannot become the owner’s consent to another month after the fact.