CARD
One‑Page Cheat Sheet
The whole manual compressed to what you'd want beside you on a live call. Print it and keep it in the notebook.
Prints on one A4 page
Opening a discovery call
- Confirm who's on and what each needs from the 30 minutes
- "Before I tell you anything about us — walk me through how this works today"
- Business pain before technical detail, always
- Quantify in their numbers, then say the number back
- Never present in a discovery call
- Close on one specific, dated next step
MEDDPICC, in eight questions
- M — what number does this have to move?
- E — who signs, and have I met them?
- D — what are they judging on, and did I shape it?
- D — what are the steps to signature, in order?
- P — who reviews paper, and when did we start?
- I — is my solution tied to their stated pain?
- C — who sells this when I'm not in the room?
- C — what else are they considering, including nothing?
Demo sequence
- Confirm the audience and their goals
- Offer a menu; let them choose the order
- Situation slide first — get "yes, that's it"
- Show the outcome, then work backwards
- Ask a question every few minutes
- Recap and next step in writing, same day
Handling an objection
- Confirm you understood it — say it back
- Acknowledge without conceding
- Normalise it: others have raised this
- Resolve with evidence, not adjectives
- Check it landed: "does that close it off?"
- Never disparage a named competitor
Questions that move a deal
- "What happens if nothing changes this year?"
- "What's driven this to be a priority now?"
- "If we prove X, is that blocker gone?"
- "Who else has to be convinced, and by what?"
- "What would make this an easy yes?"
- "Walk me through what happens after you decide"
Red flags — requalify or walk
- No access to the economic buyer after two asks
- Criteria that read like a competitor's spec sheet
- A POC with no agreed "then we buy"
- Scope growing without the timeline moving
- No critical event and no wish to move if risk were removed
- Can't be delivered on the standard stack