Why now: find the signal before you negotiate

What a signal is

Signal is the first move in The Salecopy Method. Its one line is: know why now. Before any negotiation, you write down what changed for the buyer and when.

A signal is a change on the buyer's side that puts a date on the problem. A new leader. A contract ending. A missed target. A tool being retired. Each of these gives someone at the buyer a reason to act by a certain day, and that day is what makes a negotiation finish.

Interest is not a signal. "They liked the demo" is not a signal. "They said it is a priority" is not a signal. A signal has two parts you can write down: what changed, and when it starts to hurt.

Where to look for what changed

Most of the time the signal is already in your notes. The buyer told you in the first call and nobody wrote it on the deal. Start there, then widen out.

• The first conversation. Why did they take the meeting this month and not six months ago?
• People. Is your contact new in the role, or do they report to someone who is?
• Dates on their calendar. A renewal with their current supplier, a budget cycle, an audit, a launch, a busy season.
• Targets. A number they missed last quarter or one they have been handed for the next.
• Tools and suppliers. Something being retired, repriced or no longer supported.
• What they have made public. An announcement, a new location, a set of job postings in one department.

Questions that find it

Ask early, in discovery, while the buyer is still describing the problem. These questions sound odd at the pricing stage and natural in the first two calls. Ask one, then stop talking and write down the answer in the buyer's words.

• "What made you look at this now?"
• "What has changed since the last time you looked at this?"
• "Is there a date this needs to be working by? What sets that date?"
• "What happens on your side if this is still not solved by the end of the quarter?"
• "Who is asking you about this, and how often?"
• "If you did nothing for six months, what would you have to explain, and to whom?"

What a deal with no deadline looks like

A deal with no deadline is negotiated forever. It does not die. It stays in your pipeline (your list of open deals and the stage each has reached), takes up time in every review, and asks for a little more each month. You can usually recognize one from the record.

The mistake Signal exists to prevent is negotiating price on a deal that has no reason to close this quarter. A discount does not create a deadline. It lowers your price on a deal that still has no date.

• The close date has been moved more than once.
• The next step is yours, not theirs: "follow up", "check in", "send more information".
• The buyer asked for a price early and went quiet after getting it.
• The calls are friendly and nothing is different afterwards.
• When you ask what happens if they wait, the answer is "nothing, really".
• They ask for a better price without saying when they would sign.

What to do when there is no signal

First, do not invent one. "This price is only good until Friday" is your deadline, not the buyer's. It also gives something away for nothing, which breaks the Concessions move later in the method.

You have three honest choices. Pick one and write it on the deal.

• Go back and ask. Tell the buyer plainly: "I do not yet understand what makes this urgent for you. Can we spend ten minutes on that?"
• Look for another person. The problem may have no deadline for your contact and a real one for their boss or for finance. This is where the List move helps: see list everyone who can say no.
• Park it. Agree a date to speak again, tied to something on their calendar, and take the deal out of this quarter's forecast (your estimate of what will close and when).

Write it down, then read it back

Write the why-now as one sentence with a date in it. A useful shape is: what changed, when, and what must be true by which day. For example: "Their contract with the current provider ends on June 30, and the replacement has to be running before then." That is an invented example, but notice it can be checked. Someone at the buyer can say yes, that is right, or no, the date is different.

Then read it back to the buyer. "Here is my understanding of why this matters now. Have I got it right?" If they correct you, you have a better signal. If they shrug, you do not have one yet.

An AI assistant can help with the first draft. It reads the notes and the call transcript and proposes the why-now in one sentence. The rep confirms it or rewrites it. The AI does not decide whether the deal is real, and it does not contact the buyer.

Make both fields required before a deal can leave discovery. That one rule keeps deals without a deadline out of negotiation. For how to set that up, read pipeline stages with exit criteria.

The same changes are worth watching before a deal exists. If you score leads, meaning you rank them by how ready they look to buy, a new leader or an ending contract tells you more than a download does.

What to add to your CRM

A prompt to try

You are helping me find the buyer's reason to act now on a deal. Stay in this role for the whole conversation.

Here are my notes and any call transcript:
[paste notes or transcript]

Do the following, using only what is in the notes:
1. List every change on the buyer's side that is mentioned: a new person, a contract or renewal date, a missed target, a tool being retired, a deadline. Quote the line each one comes from.
2. Propose the why-now in one sentence with a date in it. If the notes do not support a date, write NO DEADLINE FOUND. Do not invent one.
3. List what is missing: which of these I do not know yet (what changed, when it starts to hurt, who at the buyer feels it).
4. Give me three questions I could ask on the next call to fill those gaps.

Do not draft a message to the buyer and do not contact anyone. I will confirm or rewrite the why-now myself.