I’m Carl Erickson, founder of Iconic Selling and CEO of Beacon Worldwide. After more than 30 years of helping sellers close six and seven-figure deals, one lesson stands out. The people who stop your deal rarely come from outside the buyer’s organization. They’re already inside it.
A few years ago, I worked on a large capital project with a client in forensic services. The opportunity was significant, more than $6 million, and the client’s team had built excellent relationships with senior executives. On paper, everything looked perfect. Then, unexpectedly, the deal started to stall.
When we stepped back and mapped the stakeholders, it became clear why. The implementers, the people who would actually live with the outcome, weren’t on our side. The incumbent vendor had ignored them, assuming their senior relationships were enough. Our client took a different path. They engaged the implementers, acknowledged their risks, and built a collaborative plan to reduce those risks.
By the time the final presentation came, those implementers were vocal supporters. They didn’t have the authority to buy the solution, but they had the power to kill it, and they chose to protect it instead. That shift sealed the deal.
Every seller faces these hidden resisters. How you handle them determines whether your deal survives or dies.
What Are Sales Cycle Resisters?
Sales cycle resisters are people in the buyer’s organization who, for one reason or another, don’t want you to win. They might be loyal to a competitor, they might have had a bad experience with your company in the past, or they may simply believe you aren’t competent to deliver.
Sometimes their resistance is emotional. Other times, it’s political. They may not have formal buying power, but they often have what I call “kill power.” They can slow decisions, raise doubts, or quietly influence others to block progress.
Ignoring them is one of the most common and most costly mistakes sellers make. In complex sales, one resister can unravel months of progress if you don’t take time to understand who they are and why they feel that way.
Why Sellers Miss the Warning Signs
Sellers tend to focus on the people who like them. It’s natural. We all want to spend time with those who validate our efforts. Unfortunately, that creates blind spots. The people who can stop your deal rarely announce themselves. They stay quiet until it’s too late.
In deal reviews, I often ask a simple question, “Who doesn’t want you to win?” The silence that follows is usually revealing. If you can’t name your resisters, it doesn’t mean they don’t exist. It means you haven’t found them yet.
In our Iconic Selling Framework, we teach sellers to think about every sales cycle as an ecosystem. Within that ecosystem are three forces, supporters, neutrals, and resisters. Each group requires a different strategy. Recognizing that mix early gives you the power to shape the narrative before others do.
The Real Power of the Implementers
The story from that forensic services project is a perfect example of what happens when implementers are ignored. Senior executives often make the final call, but implementers live with the consequences. They know where risks hide, and they influence whether a project succeeds or fails long after the deal is signed.
When our client shifted their attention toward the implementers, everything changed. Instead of trying to sell harder, they started to listen. They asked, “What would make this project easier for you?” and “Where do you see potential risk?” Those conversations built trust and created ownership.
The implementers began defending the project internally—not because they were asked to, but because they believed in it. That’s the kind of advocacy you can’t fake.
When sellers go through our Relationship Matrix 360 training, they often realize they’ve been selling only to power and missing the people who actually carry influence. The best sellers build advocates at every level, not just the top.
Turning Resisters Into Advocates
Resisters rarely start out irrational. Most have reasons for their hesitation. Your job isn’t to bulldoze through their objections. It’s to understand what’s behind them.
Start by asking yourself
- What might this person lose if we win?
- What history do they have with our company or competitors?
- How does this project affect their personal success?
Then, invite them into the process. Collaboration is the fastest path to conversion. In our forensic services example, the implementers became allies precisely because they helped shape the risk mitigation plan. The plan wasn’t presented to them, it was built with them.
That’s a powerful shift. You’re no longer the outsider trying to sell something. You become part of the solution they helped create.
How to Create Resisters Against Your Competition
The same strategy works in reverse. Once you understand what motivates a potential resister, you can use those insights to create subtle resistance against your competitors.
For example, if the incumbent vendor relies heavily on senior relationships, build your base among those who feel overlooked. Give them a voice in your process. Show them how your approach reduces their workload or risk. When those individuals start advocating for your plan, they naturally become resisters to the other side.
This tactic isn’t manipulation. It’s alignment. You’re helping people protect their interests through a plan that genuinely benefits them. That’s ethical influence, and it’s one of the most sophisticated skills a seller can master.
We explore this in depth in Course 3: Relationship Matrix 360 and Course 8: Client Relationship Management, where sellers learn how to map influence networks and build durable alliances that outlast individual deals.
The Mindset Shift: From Avoidance to Awareness
Most sellers avoid conflict. They want everyone to like them. But leadership in selling isn’t about universal approval. It’s about awareness. When you know who the resisters are, you can make informed choices about how to engage or mitigate their impact.
Top sellers don’t fear resistance. They study it. They see it as data. Every objection and every hesitation reveals something valuable about the political and emotional dynamics of the deal.
When you approach resisters with curiosity instead of defensiveness, you often find pathways to common ground. Sometimes that leads to a relationship you never expected.
That’s when resistance transforms from friction into fuel.
Ready to Master the Sales Cycle?
If you’ve ever lost a deal and wondered what went wrong behind the scenes, it’s time to sharpen your understanding of influence and resistance. The Iconic Elite Package ($399) is designed for sellers who manage complex, high-value deals where internal politics, hidden stakeholders, and competing interests can make or break success.
This package includes all eight courses, covering the full sales cycle—from qualification to negotiation to client relationship management. You’ll learn how to identify resisters early, build multi-level support, and turn internal politics into an advantage.
About Carl Erickson
Carl Erickson is the founder of Iconic Selling and the President and CEO of Beacon Worldwide. With more than 30 years of sales leadership experience, Carl has helped top sellers close six and seven-figure deals in industries like technology, healthcare, and energy. His client-centric Iconic Selling Framework is a proven pathway to building trust, delivering value, and consistently closing high-value deals. Carl’s mission is simple. Help salespeople sell the way buyers actually want to buy.
About Iconic Selling
Iconic Selling is an 8-course sales training program designed to help you build trust, communicate value, and consistently close high-value deals. Backed by more than 30 years of real-world sales expertise, the Iconic Selling Framework gives you a flexible, client-focused approach you can adapt to your unique personality and selling style. Whether you’re looking to master the fundamentals or refine advanced skills, Iconic Selling meets you where you are in your sales journey.