Re engage a stalled deal
Re-engage stalled deals is an Agent Skill: a written method your AI applies on demand, in Zealos or in any client that reads SKILL.md.
Re-engage stalled deals is an Agent Skill: a written method your AI applies on demand, in Zealos or in any client that reads SKILL.md.
A stalled deal is rarely revived by a check-in: it needs a reason for the buyer to spend attention now, which means new information rather than a reminder that you are still here.
| name | objection-handling |
|---|---|
| description | The objections we get and the responses that work, including what not to say. Use when drafting a reply to a hesitant prospect, preparing for a negotiation, or reviewing a stalled deal. |
| allowed-tools | none — this skill adds judgement, not reach |
| compatibility | Zealos, Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and any client that reads SKILL.md |
| license | Free to use and edit |
--- name: objection-handling description: The objections we get and the responses that work, including what not to say. Use when drafting a reply to a hesitant prospect, preparing for a negotiation, or reviewing a stalled deal. --- # Objection handling An objection is information. The instinct to answer it immediately is what turns it into an argument. ## The shape 1. **Repeat it back** in their words, more precisely than they said it. 2. **Ask one question** that finds what is underneath. 3. **Answer the real objection**, which is usually not the stated one. 4. **Confirm** it is resolved before moving on. If you skip this, it returns at procurement. ## Common ones, and what is usually underneath | Stated | Usually means | |---|---| | "Too expensive" | Value is unclear, or they are comparing to a cheaper thing that does less | | "Bad timing" | No trigger, or a competing priority they have not named | | "We built something internally" | Sunk cost, and someone's reputation is attached to it | | "Need to talk to the team" | We have not met the actual decision maker | | "Send me some information" | Polite exit — ask what specifically they need it to answer | ## Never - Answer a price objection with a discount before understanding it. - Say "great question". - Disparage the competitor. Compare on a dimension the buyer already named. - Argue with a feeling. "It feels risky" is not resolved by facts about uptime.
The quarter's worth of stalled deals gets worked with a real angle each rather than a round of just checking in.
Closed-lost stops being a graveyard and becomes a list with a re-entry criterion attached to each entry.
Deals that went quiet while you were building get revisited with something new to say rather than an apology for the gap.
With new information, not a reminder. If nothing has changed in their world or yours, the honest move is to close the loop and set a date to revisit.
When you have nothing new to say twice in a row. Define that stop condition in the skill so the decision is not made under pressure.
Permission to close the loop works. A guilt-shaped breakup email works once and costs the relationship.
Post-call automation turns a recorded conversation into the three things that outlive it: the commitments each side made, the fields that changed, and the follow-up that has to go out today.
/call-recap-formatA pre-call brief is worth writing only if it changes what you ask: who is in the room, what they are measured on, what happened last time, and the one question you cannot afford to leave without answering.
/discovery-questionsAI email triage is worth having only when it sorts by consequence rather than by recency: what blocks a deal, what someone is waiting on you for, and what can be read at the end of the week.
/email-rulesCRM data hygiene survives AI only if one rule is written down first: a field left blank is a known unknown, while a field filled in by inference is an unknown unknown that will be reported on as fact.
/crm-field-conventionsQualification is a claim about evidence, not a score: a deal is qualified when every criterion has a source you can quote, and unevidenced criteria are named rather than filled in optimistically.
/meddiccA follow-up gets a reply when it opens with the specific commitment made on the call, stays under 120 words, and asks for exactly one thing the recipient can answer in a sentence.
/email-rules