Positioning · June 17, 2026 · 7 min read
Why deals stall after your champion wins: the category creation budget-line trap
Your champion won every internal argument and the deal still went quiet. Category creation deals stall at the filing cabinet, because a purchase order needs a budget code and a category nobody has named yet doesn't have one. Call it the missing code. The fix is translation. Turn your category into a line the buyer's finance system already recognizes, then arm your champion with the one page they'll carry into a room you're not in. Here's how to find the line you can displace, and what to do when there honestly isn't one.