Red Flags — When to Walk Away

Parent: ICP & Targeting

Disqualifiers worth catching early so we don't waste cycles on bad-fit prospects.

Hard nos

• "We're getting quotes from 4 vendors" — RFP shopping = race to bottom = our pricing won't survive. Walk.
• "Our IT team has to approve everything" — committee selling = 9-month cycle, often dies in legal review.
• "Can you do it for $15K?" — they're not buying value, they're shopping price. Walk.
• "We just need a quick prototype" — prototypes don't pay $47K and don't ship. Walk.

Yellow flags (worth probing)

• "We've tried this before with another vendor" — ask what went wrong. If "they delivered something that didn't work," good — we can be different. If "we never finished spec'ing it," that's on them and will happen again.
• "Our process is too custom" — no, it isn't. Every contractor says this. But ask them to walk you through it. If after 20 minutes you genuinely cannot find a pattern, then maybe walk.
• "Email me a proposal" before any discovery — they're shopping. Push for a 30-min call before sending anything.

Green flags

• "Our office manager is buried" — concrete pain, named person.
• "We just hired someone to do this and they quit after 6 months" — labor problem we can solve with automation.
• "We tried Zapier but it broke" — they understand the category, just need a real implementation partner.
• Owner is on the discovery call — fast decision path.

Last updated: 2026-05-24