Sales calls

# Deal: Acme Health — Discovery 2026-03-04

**Stage:** Discovery
**Participants:**
- Mark (AE, our side)
- Jamie (Controller, customer side)
- Priya (Director of Finance Ops, customer side)

## Pain and use cases

- **Stated pain:** "We spend two hours every Monday reconciling vendor
  invoices by hand." — Jamie
- **Business impact:** Two FTE-hours/week — implied, not quantified
  in dollars
- **Implications of doing nothing:** "We're going to fail our next
  internal audit if we don't fix the approval trail." — Jamie
- **Use cases discussed:** Bulk export with row-limit toggle;
  approver-identity in audit log

## MEDDPICC read

### Metrics
Reduce reconciliation time from 2 hours/week to under 30 minutes.
Source: Jamie, stated.

### Economic buyer
- Name: Unknown
- Title: Likely CFO; not named in conversation
- Engaged in this deal? No
- Notes: Jamie said "I'd need to bring this to finance leadership."
  We have not met them.

### Decision criteria
- Audit-log capability is mandatory — stated
- Export performance at 500+ rows — stated
- Integration with existing ERP — implied (asked twice)

### Decision process
- Stakeholders: Jamie (Controller), CFO (unmet), IT (unmet)
- Steps: Implied — Jamie evaluates → CFO approval → procurement
- Current step: Initial evaluation

### Paper process
Unknown — not discussed.

### Champion
- **Name:** Jamie
- **Title:** Controller
- **Strength signals:**
  - Introduced us to others? No (yet)
  - Spending political capital? Unclear
  - Articulates our value back correctly? Yes — referenced our
    audit-log demo unprompted
  - Shared internal info we would not otherwise get? Yes — the
    failed-audit comment
- **Strength read:** Developing
- **Risk:** Has not yet introduced us to CFO; political will untested

### Competition
- Status quo (manual reconciliation) — primary alternative
- "We looked at [Competitor X] last year." — Jamie. Unclear what
  came of that evaluation.

## Multi-threading
- Engaged: Jamie, Priya
- Should engage: CFO (economic buyer), IT lead (integration)
- Coverage read: Single-threaded into Finance

## Timeline and critical event
- Buyer's stated timeline: Internal audit "later this year"
- Critical event: The audit (date unknown — flag to ask next call)
- Our forecast close date: Q3, low confidence

## Single next step
- **Owner:** Me
- **What:** Send the audit-log demo recording and book a follow-up
  with Jamie + CFO
- **By when:** 2026-03-11 (agreed)
- **Why this matters:** Without the CFO meeting, the deal cannot
  advance past evaluation.

## Risk signals
- Economic buyer unmet — biggest single risk
- Timeline vague ("later this year") — no critical-event pressure yet
- Prior competitor evaluation went unfinished — implies the buying
  process stalls

## Quotes worth keeping
- "I trust the numbers. I just don't trust who signed off on them." — Jamie
- "If you fix the export thing, we stay another year." — Jamie

## CRM update — ready to paste

Discovery call with Jamie (Controller) and Priya (Finance Ops). Pain:
manual invoice reconciliation, ~2 hrs/wk, plus audit-log gap. Critical
event: internal audit, date TBC. Champion (Jamie) is developing — needs
to introduce us to CFO. Next step: send audit-log demo, book follow-up
with Jamie + CFO by 2026-03-11. Risks: economic buyer unmet,
single-threaded, prior competitor eval stalled.

Extract structured deal intelligence from this sales conversation. Be
faithful to what was actually said. Distinguish between:
- What the buyer said directly (quote or close paraphrase)
- What was implied (mark as "implied")
- What is unknown (write "Unknown" — do not guess)

No emojis. No pleasantries or filler.

# Deal: {Prospect or Company} — {Call type} {YYYY-MM-DD}

**Stage:** {Discovery | Demo | Negotiation | Other}
**Participants:**
- {Name, role, our side}
- {Name, role, customer side}

## Pain and use cases
- **Stated pain:** {their framing} — "verbatim quote"
- **Business impact:** what does this cost them? Verbatim if quantified;
  "Unknown" if not.
- **Implications of doing nothing:** what happens if they don't solve
  this? Quote if stated.
- **Use cases discussed:** specific scenarios where our product fits.

## MEDDPICC read

### Metrics
What measurable outcome does the buyer expect? "Unknown" if not stated.

### Economic buyer
- Name: {name | Unknown}
- Title: {title | Unknown}
- Engaged in this deal? {yes | no | unclear}
- Notes on access: what would it take to get in front of them?

### Decision criteria
What is the buyer evaluating us on? List explicitly. Quote if available.

### Decision process
How will they decide? Who's involved, what are the steps, what's the
sequence?
- Stakeholders: {list with roles}
- Steps: {e.g., shortlist → POC → procurement → legal → signature}
- Current step: {where they are now}

### Paper process
Procurement, legal, security review. Have they started? Expected timeline?

### Identify pain
Have we explicitly tied our solution to a quantified pain? {yes | no}

### Champion
- **Name:** {name | none identified}
- **Title:** {title}
- **Strength signals:**
  - Have they introduced us to others? {yes | no}
  - Are they spending political capital? {yes | no | unclear}
  - Do they articulate our value back correctly? {yes | no}
  - Have they shared internal info we would not otherwise get? {yes | no}
- **Strength read:** {Strong | Developing | Weak | None}
- **Risk:** what would cause us to lose this champion?

### Competition
Who else are they evaluating? Status quo (doing nothing) counts.

## Multi-threading
- Engaged: {list}
- Should engage: {list with reasons}
- Coverage read: {Strong | Adequate | Single-threaded | At-risk}

## Timeline and critical event
- Buyer's stated timeline: {date | range | Unknown}
- Critical event: {event | none identified}
- Our forecast close date: {date}

## Single next step
The ONE specific action that moves this deal forward. Not three.
- **Owner:** {me | them | shared}
- **What:** {exact action}
- **By when:** {date — explicitly agreed, or flagged if not}
- **Why this matters:** one sentence

## Other action items
- [ ] **{Owner}** — {what} — by {when}

## Open questions / information gaps
What we still need to learn to qualify or close.

## Risk signals
Anything that could indicate stalled momentum, competitive pressure,
or champion weakness. List even minor signals.

## Quotes worth keeping
Two to four verbatim quotes that capture pain, urgency, or commitment.

## CRM update — ready to paste
A five- to eight-line summary formatted to paste directly into the
opportunity activity log. Lead with stage, single next step, and any
risk signals.

## Buyer reactions by capability
For each major capability shown:
### {Capability}
- **Reaction:** {Positive | Neutral | Negative | Confused}
- **Stated feedback:** verbatim or close paraphrase
- **Follow-up questions:** {list}
- **Concerns:** {list}

## Objections raised
For each objection:
- **Objection:** in their words
- **Underlying concern:** what they're really worried about
- **How we responded:** summary
- **Resolved?** {Yes | Partially | No}
- **If not resolved:** follow-up commitment

## Fit read
- **Capabilities that landed:** {list}
- **Capabilities that fell flat:** {list}
- **Missing capabilities they asked about:** {list — flag gaps}

Produce a win/loss debrief for this deal. The audience is internal —
sales, product, and leadership use this to update the playbook.

# Deal: {Company}
**Outcome:** {Won | Lost to competitor | Lost to no-decision | Churned}
**Final ACV:** {if won}
**Decision date:** {date}

## Decision-making reconstruction
- **Who actually decided:** name and role
- **What ultimately drove the decision:** in their words if possible
- **When the decision crystallized:** what call or moment

## What worked (or would have worked)
Specific moments, behaviors, or moves that landed. Quote-backed where possible.

## What didn't work (or contributed to loss)
Specific moments, behaviors, or moves that hurt. Quote-backed where possible.

## What we missed
- Information we did not have but should have
- Stakeholders we did not engage
- Signals we read wrong
- Objections we did not surface

## Competitive read (if lost to competitor)
- Who they chose, and why in their words
- What they got from the competitor we did not offer
- What we could have done differently

## No-decision read (if lost to no-decision)
- Why they decided not to act
- Was the pain real?
- Did we have a critical event?
- What would have unstuck this?

## Playbook implications
- Discovery question updates: {list}
- Objection-handling updates: {list}
- Qualification criteria updates: {list}
- ICP flag: did this deal even fit our ICP?

## Quotes worth keeping
The most useful verbatim moments — for enablement, marketing, case
studies (if won).