# Sales strategist Human Guide

## What This Is For
Expert sales strategy and operations guidance for B2B SaaS companies. It gives the agent a clearer input/output frame for go-to-market work: what context to ask for, what decisions to make, and what usable artifact to return.

Use this as a human-readable version of the Sales strategist agent skill. It is meant for marketers, operators, founders, and other non-coders who want the workflow without reading agent-specific implementation instructions.

## When To Use This
- Use this when you need a repeatable process for sales strategist.
- Use this when the task needs judgment, examples, constraints, or a clear output format rather than a one-off prompt.
- Use this when you want to hand an AI assistant enough context to produce a usable marketing artifact.

## When Not To Use This
- Do not use this when you only need a quick factual answer.
- Do not use this when the work depends on private data you cannot share with the assistant.
- Do not use this as a replacement for legal, compliance, financial, or medical review.

## What You Need Before Starting
- The goal or business outcome you want.
- The audience, customer segment, or market context.
- Any source material the assistant should respect, such as notes, briefs, examples, URLs, or brand guidance.
- Constraints such as tone, length, channel, deadline, region, or approval requirements.
- A clear definition of what a good final answer should look like.

## Step-By-Step Workflow
1. State the job clearly: "Use the Sales strategist guide to help me with..."
2. Add context: audience, goal, offer, channel, source material, and constraints.
3. Ask the assistant to identify missing inputs before producing the final output.
4. Have the assistant follow the skill-specific guidance below.
5. Review the result against the final checklist and ask for revisions where needed.

## Skill-Specific Guidance
- **Process before people** — A-players in a broken system lose to B-players in a great system
- **Qualify ruthlessly** — Time is inventory; don't waste it on bad-fit deals
- **Forecast with discipline** — Hope is not a strategy; data is
- **Align incentives** — Compensation drives behavior, design accordingly
- **Iterate constantly** — Sales is a science; run experiments, measure results
- `methodology-*` — Sales frameworks, qualification criteria, selling approaches
- `process-*` — Sales stages, exit criteria, deal flow management
- `planning-*` — Territory design, account planning, forecasting
- `ops-*` — Quota setting, capacity planning, tech stack, compensation
- `optimization-*` — Win rate analysis, deal velocity, pipeline health
- **Happy ears** — Believing what prospects say without validation
- **Demo-first selling** — Showing product before understanding pain

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: Philosophy, How This Skill Works, Core Frameworks, Sales Qualification Frameworks, The Sales Pipeline Hierarchy, Sales Motion by ACV, Pipeline Coverage Model, Comp Plan Architecture, Sales Technology Stack, Anti-Patterns.

Use these questions to steer the work:
- What is the intended audience or buyer?
- What source material must be preserved?
- What should the assistant optimize for: clarity, persuasion, accuracy, speed, creativity, or conversion?
- What examples represent the desired quality bar?
- What should the assistant avoid?

## Common Mistakes
- **Qualify ruthlessly** — Time is inventory; don't waste it on bad-fit deals
- │ Required Pipeline: $4M (4x coverage) │
- | **E** | Economic Buyer | Who signs the check? Who can kill the deal? | Can't identify, never met them |
- | **I** | Identify Pain | What happens if you don't solve this? | "Nice to have" not "must have" |
- AE: "What happens if you don't solve this problem?"
- ✗ Warning sign: prospect may not have organizational support
- Ideal for markets where buyers think they know what they need (but don't).
- └── Don't be afraid of productive tension

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the Sales strategist human guide.

My goal:
[Describe the business outcome]

Audience:
[Describe who this is for]

Context and source material:
[Paste notes, examples, links, or existing copy]

Constraints:
[Tone, length, channel, timeline, must-include items, must-avoid items]

Before producing the final output, ask me for any missing information that would materially improve the result.
```

## Final Checklist
- [ ] The output matches the original goal.
- [ ] The audience and context are reflected in the answer.
- [ ] Important constraints and source material were preserved.
- [ ] The assistant made the relevant decisions explicit.
- [ ] The final artifact is ready to use, review, or hand to the next person.

## Source
This guide was generated from the ncklrs/startup-os-skills skill entry for `sales-strategist`.

## Source Skill Notes
These notes preserve the nuance from the original skill. Use them as supporting reference when the workflow above feels too generic.

# Sales Strategist

Strategic sales operations expertise for B2B SaaS companies — from process design and methodology selection to compensation planning and pipeline optimization.

## Philosophy

Great sales organizations are built on **process, not heroics**. The best quota-crushing reps eventually leave, but excellent sales systems compound.

The best B2B sales strategies:
1. **Process before people** — A-players in a broken system lose to B-players in a great system
2. **Qualify ruthlessly** — Time is inventory; don't waste it on bad-fit deals
3. **Forecast with discipline** — Hope is not a strategy; data is
4. **Align incentives** — Compensation drives behavior, design accordingly
5. **Iterate constantly** — Sales is a science; run experiments, measure results

## How This Skill Works

When invoked, apply the guidelines in `rules/` organized by:

- `methodology-*` — Sales frameworks, qualification criteria, selling approaches
- `process-*` — Sales stages, exit criteria, deal flow management
- `planning-*` — Territory design, account planning, forecasting
- `ops-*` — Quota setting, capacity planning, tech stack, compensation
- `optimization-*` — Win rate analysis, deal velocity, pipeline health

## Core Frameworks

### Sales Qualification Frameworks

| Framework | Focus | Best For | Key Questions |
|-----------|-------|----------|---------------|
| **MEDDIC** | Deal qualification | Enterprise, complex sales | Metrics, Economic Buyer, Decision criteria, Decision process, Identify pain, Champion |
| **BANT** | Lead qualification | Transactional, high volume | Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline |
| **SPICED** | Discovery | Consultative sales | Situation, Pain, Impact, Critical Event, Decision |
| **SCOTSMAN** | Opportunity scoring | Mid-market | Solution, Competition, Originality, Timescales, Size, Money, Authority, Need |
| **CHAMP** | Modern qualification | SaaS, product-led | Challenges, Authority, Money, Prioritization |

### The Sales Pipeline Hierarchy

```
                    ┌─────────────────┐
                    │    Closed Won   │  ← Revenue
                    ├─────────────────┤
                    │   Negotiation   │  ← Contract stage
                    ├─────────────────┤
                    │    Proposal     │  ← Pricing/SOW
                    ├─────────────────┤
                    │   Evaluation    │  ← POC/Trial
                    ├─────────────────┤
                    │   Discovery     │  ← Qualification
                    ├─────────────────┤
                    │  Meeting Set    │  ← First meeting
                    └─────────────────┘
```

### Sales Motion by ACV

| ACV Range | Motion | Team Structure | Sales Cycle |
|-----------|--------|----------------|-------------|
| **<$5K** | Self-serve/PLG | No AEs, maybe Success | Days-weeks |
| **$5K-$25K** | Transactional | SDR → AE (1:4 ratio) | 2-6 weeks |
| **$25K-$100K** | Mid-market | SDR → AE → CSM | 1-3 months |
| **$100K-$500K** | Enterprise | SDR → AE → SE → CSM | 3-9 months |
| **>$500K** | Strategic | Named accounts, exec sponsors | 6-18 months |

### Pipeline Coverage Model

```
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    PIPELINE MATH                            │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Target Revenue: $1M                                        │
│  Win Rate: 25%                                              │
│  Required Pipeline: $4M (4x coverage)                       │
│                                                             │
│  Average Deal Size: $50K                                    │
│  Deals Needed: 80 opportunities                             │
│                                                             │
│  Meeting → Opportunity Rate: 40%                            │
│  Meetings Needed: 200                                       │