Enterprise deals have a gravity field. Once you've spent 3 months, 10 meetings, and 40 hours of sales engineering time on an opportunity, walking away feels like destroying value. This psychological sunk cost creates the conditions for closing deals you shouldn't close.
The walk-away criteria that matter:
Budget doesn't exist or won't be approved. If the champion doesn't have budget and isn't able to get budget approved in the current fiscal year, you're in a deal that's burning your capacity with no close date. A prospect who can't get budget approved for your deal in their current fiscal year is not a current-year opportunity. Categorize it honestly and stop investing current-year resources in it.
No economic buyer engagement after repeated attempts. If you've been working with a champion for 3+ months and haven't been able to get a meeting with a single person above their level, the champion is either not influential enough to advance the deal internally or the organization isn't ready to buy. Both are walk-away signals.
The use case doesn't fit. Sometimes the evaluation process reveals that the customer's workflow requirements don't match your product's capabilities. Building custom features to win a single deal rarely ends well — the customer expects a level of product investment that your business model doesn't support.
The procurement terms require unacceptable risk transfer. Some enterprise legal and procurement teams require vendor indemnification clauses, liability caps far below deal value, or data ownership provisions that create unacceptable risk. Know your contract floor and walk if it can't be reached.
Walking away from a bad deal is a resource allocation decision. The 6 months you don't spend closing the wrong deal is 6 months you spend closing the right one.
Qualify ruthlessly. Walk early when the signals are there.