How to Establish a Critical Event

This blueprint reframes urgency as something discovered, not manufactured. It introduces the concept of a critical event—an outcome-driven moment in the buyer’s world that creates real consequences if missed—and shows how priority naturally rises and falls over time. By shifting from seller-centric timelines to buyer-centric ones, teams learn how to diagnose deal stalls, re-engage “dark” opportunities, and align value delivery to the customer’s actual decision drivers. The result is more predictable deal progression and fewer false positives in pipeline.

Best For

• Sales managers and frontline sellers struggling with stalled or “ghosted” deals

• CROs and revenue leaders seeking more predictable pipeline conversion

• Enterprise and mid-market sales teams selling complex, multi-stakeholder solutions

• Founders and early sales leaders building disciplined qualification and deal control

• Revenue enablement teams teaching consultative, buyer-centric selling

• GTM organizations experiencing long sales cycles without clear decision triggers

Key Takeaways

• Urgency only exists when a buyer faces real consequences for inaction.

• Deal priority naturally fluctuates over time and can re-emerge if the pain returns.

• A critical event must be defined in the buyer’s timeline, not the seller’s.

• Asking what happens if a date is missed reveals whether urgency is real or assumed.

• Working backward from the buyer’s event clarifies next steps and hidden risks.

• Explicitly confirming the critical event prevents misalignment and false momentum.