Foundation

• I can explain, in one paragraph, how pre‑sales differs from sales, customer success and delivery
• I can name the buying‑committee bias most likely to kill a specific deal I'm watching, and why
• I can apply the trust equation to explain a real relationship, technical or otherwise, that went wrong

Practitioner

• I can run a MEDDPICC scorecard from memory, unprompted, on a live opportunity
• I can run a 30‑minute discovery call using open‑then‑narrowing questions without a script in front of me
• I can build a situation‑slide‑first demo narrative for an unfamiliar product from a one‑page brief
• I can scope a POC with 3–5 written, measurable success criteria and a pre‑agreed next step
• I can make a bid/no‑bid call on an RFP and defend it in one sentence
• I can build a one‑page ROI/TCO case using the customer's own numbers
• I can explain how a compliance‑framework audit (Essential Eight, Cyber Essentials, NIST/CMMC, or my market's equivalent) creates both risk and expansion opportunity for a managed-service customer
• I can draft a tight SOW that protects margin while giving delivery clear guardrails (in/out of scope, risks, assumptions)
• I can describe the practical difference between pre-sales ownership and delivery ownership in a dual-dotted MSP structure

Architect

• I can map a customer's current‑to‑future state and tie it to specific business capabilities, not just features
• I can translate a technical risk into a board‑level business‑risk sentence on the spot
• I can plot a real buying committee on a power/interest map from memory
• I can run a deal strategy session agenda for a virtual team with no direct reports
• I have at least one piece of public, published thinking I could point a hiring panel to today
• I can pattern-match quickly across unfamiliar verticals (government, health, retail, education) and still lead with quantified business impact