How Do You Sell?

So far we’ve looked to understand an organisation and found ways we can build a hypothesis (Layer 1). Then we’ve taken that hypothesis and will use a set of inputs to build: the value map, MEDDPIC, the mutual action plan, the champion plan, the give/get (Layer 2). And now it’s time to put it all together in a sales cycle (Layer 3).

A sales cycle isn’t a pitch that gets bigger. It’s a sequence of stages, each one clearing a different question, each one leaving a different artefact behind. You don’t run all your inputs at once. You run the one the stage in front of you needs, and you read what comes back to know whether you’ve earned the right to move - or whether it’s time to walk.

So this layer doesn’t teach the tools again. It walks one deal through the stages and shows where each input lives, what each stage produces, and how to tell whether a stage is genuinely done, just feels done, or it’s quietly telling you to leave.

Layer 3

Most CRMs already think in stages, and they weight them by percentage - a rough read on how likely the deal is to close. We’ll use the same markers, because the point of a stage isn’t the number, it’s the question the number stands in for. A deal doesn’t move to 25% because time passed. It moves because a specific thing cleared.

There’s no separate discovery step to hunt for - discovery is simply how the first stage gets done. It’s the one activity that fills your inputs instead of spending them: you walk in with the Layer 1 value-chain read as a hypothesis, and you leave with the value map corrected and MEDDPIC starting to populate. After that, every stage fires something you already built and lands something the customer can hold.

Two columns below are worth reading twice. Criteria to advance is the gate - the specific thing that must be true to earn the next stage. Exit criteria is the opposite read: the signal that this opportunity isn’t real, and your finite time is better spent elsewhere. Qualifying isn’t a phase you do once; it’s that second column, live at every stage.

Stage	What it is	Tools & activities	Criteria to advance	Exit criteria (walk / disqualify)
0% - Establishing the value map	First real engagement with prospect. Turning hypothesis into a buyer-facing value map and starts filling MEDDPIC.	Value map; MEDDPIC (begin filling); multi-threaded discovery	You can state, in the buyer’s language, why doing nothing is expensive. Value map worked with prospect.	No fundable pain - nothing ties to a funded initiative or a number anyone owns. Interesting, not urgent. Park it.
10% - Developing champions	Finding the person who advocates for you and sells when you’re not in the room. Test whether they’re real.	Champion plan (identify, develop, test, leverage)	Champion has done something for you (set up the EB meeting, shared internal cost etc)	The “champion” keeps dodging the test - a fan or a coach, no path to the economic buyer.
25% - Developing the solution	Co-build the case with the champion and put it in front of stakeholders - the first artefact with the customer’s name on it.	Champion deck (co-build + test); Mutual Action Plan (first co-build)	Champion is presenting the deck internally: a shared, dated plan exists	No one will co-build or carry the deck with you. Stalled - disqualify
50% - Proving capabilities	Proving what you offer works in context to the solution proposed.	Proof plan / POC; agreed success criteria (functional + non-functional); MEDDPIC decision criteria	Proof accepted against the agreed criteria; the decision criteria are yours because you helped write them	Proof fails the bar, or the criteria keep moving and are written to a competitor’s strengths.
75% - Negotiating the proposal	Moving into commercial terms both sides can live with.	Give/get (traded, never given); the proposal (co-build, present, accept)	Terms both sides traded for; proposal accepted in principle by the economic buyer	They only take, never trade, or there’s no real budget and the number can’t get there. Stop conceding.
90% - Completing contracts	The paper moves through legal, security, procurement - where clean deals die if the path isn’t mapped.	MEDDPIC paper + decision process; the MAP pointing at the signature date	Contract executed, PO in hand	Paper stalls with no PO path or date. Not a no, but not a deal - move it out of the quarter
100% - Closed won	Signed, and set up so the next deal is easier. The win feeds back to Layer 1.	Handover to customer success; adoption plan (champion co-owns); win/loss review	Signed, live, and adopted	If it’s lost, still run the win/loss review - the read marks your ICP and process for the next deal

The throughline is the inputs firing in order: the value map at 0%, the champion plan at 10%, the champion deck at 25%, the proof at 50%, the give/get and proposal at 75%. You built each one in advance in Layer 2. Here they land at the stage that needs them. And the two owners clear on the same schedule - the maintenance lead sees inspections working on a phone in the field, IT sees the security answers and the integration hold. One activity, both people answered.

The champion deck

The old company version of this deck led with the vendor: who we are, the analyst quadrants, why our product wins. Those are credibility pieces, and they still earn their place - just not at the front. A deck that opens with you is a deck the champion can’t use, because it isn’t about their world yet.

So this one leads from the Layer 2 lens. It opens with the buyer’s own case - the goals, challenges and required capabilities straight off the value map - and only then reaches for proof and credibility to de-risk it. It’s the value map, made customer-facing. Every section traces back to an input you already built:

Deck section	The Layer 2 input behind it
Executive summary	The value map hypothesis - written last, read first
Business goals & plans	Value map: objectives, strategies, funded initiatives
Challenges & required capabilities	Value map: challenge -> consequence -> capability
The teams	Champion plan + key players / buying committee
Proof of concept & evaluation	Value map proof row + the 50% proof plan
Business value & ROI	The financial-impact read - their number, not your feature
Why us, analyst recognition, risk-free	Credibility - kept, but behind the case, not in front of it

Two rules keep it a champion deck and not a brochure. Co-build it - a deck handed over is a deck ignored; a deck built together is one they defend. And test it, the same way you tested the champion: if they won’t present it, you don’t have the deck you think you have.

The deck carries the first half of the story - why change, what’s needed, what it’s worth. The second half - the money, the terms, the plan to go live - lives in the proposal at 75%. Splitting them on purpose lets the champion walk the business case around internally without a price tag hanging off every conversation, and the commercials arrive only once the case is already won.

The proposal

Where the champion deck deliberately kept a price tag off every conversation, the proposal is where the numbers finally live - but only because the value is already agreed. That order matters. By the time you’re pricing, the buyer has accepted why they’d change and seen the proof hold; the proposal isn’t arguing value anymore, it’s pricing an agreement. Every number in it traces back to a trade you planned in the give/get and a plan you co-built in the MAP, which is why nothing here should surprise anyone in the room.

Proposal section	What goes in it	The input behind it
Recap of the case	A one-page restatement of why-change, the agreed value, and the accepted proof - the bridge from the champion deck, so no one relitigates the case	Value map + accepted proof plan (50%)
Scope & configuration	Exactly what they’re buying, sized - users, environments, modules, capacity - scoped to what the proof actually validated, nothing padded	Proof plan outcome + the solution vision from the value map
Commercial terms & pricing	List price, quantities, the discount and its condition, term, total - every concession shown as a trade, never a giveaway	Give/get
What’s included	Onboarding, support, training, enablement - the wrapper that answers “what happens after we sign” and de-risks the buy	Give/get gives + adoption plan
Plan to go live	A dated path from signature to value - enablement, first outcome live, ramp - worked back from the deadline they care about	Mutual Action Plan (MAP)
Paper & next steps	The signature path itself - legal, security, procurement, the PO - and the one exact next action	MEDDPIC paper + decision process (90%)

Two rules keep it a proposal and not a quote. Co-build it, then present, then accept - the same motion as the deck, so it arrives expected rather than lobbed over. And never introduce a number the value map hasn’t already justified: the proposal doesn’t argue value, it prices an agreement.

The bottom line

A sales cycle isn’t a bigger pitch, it’s a cleaner sequence. Each stage asks one question, each input you built in Layer 2 answers it, and the percentage is a claim you can check - not a feeling you can talk yourself into. That’s the whole shift here: you stop chasing deals and start reading them. Move when the stage genuinely clears, walk the moment the exit column says it won’t, and you’re never the last person in the room to find out a deal was never real. You still don’t own the outcome - but run the cycle honestly and you own the next best thing: always knowing exactly where you stand.