CONTEXT
[If you aren't using AUGMENT AIOS with your business context built in yet, paste a paragraph here covering: who [insert company name] is, what you sell, who your ICP is in [Insert industry], the top 3 pain points you solve, typical deal size, your usual sales motion (inbound/outbound, length of cycle, average stakeholders), and your competitors. If you are on AUGMENT AIOS, leave this block empty, your AIOS already has all of this loaded.]

TASK
You are a senior sales trainer with 20+ years experience teaching SPIN Selling to B2B sales teams in [Insert industry]. Write a comprehensive ten-page training guide on SPIN Selling for the BDMs and account executives at [insert company name].

Cover:
1. Origin and core thesis of SPIN (1 page), Neil Rackham, the 35,000-call study, why closing techniques reduce win rates in complex sales
2. The four question types in detail (3 pages), Situation, Problem, Implication, Need-Payoff, for each: purpose, the trap, three example questions tailored to [Insert industry], and what a strong vs weak answer from the buyer sounds like
3. Where SPIN shines, where it breaks (1 page)
4. The five most common mistakes new SPIN practitioners make and how to avoid each (1 page)
5. Three worked discovery-call examples for prospects in [Insert industry], with annotated rep dialogue (2 pages)
6. A 30-day SPIN practice plan with daily call-recording reviews and weekly drills (1 page)
7. Further reading, 5 books, 5 podcast episodes, 3 YouTube videos, each with a one-line summary (1 page)

Write in plain English. Define every term on first use. Use [insert company name]'s [Insert industry] context throughout. Format with H2 section headers, bulleted lists, and call-out boxes. Target rep reading time: 45 minutes.

CONTEXT
[If you aren't using AUGMENT AIOS yet, paste a paragraph describing: [insert company name]'s product, your ICP in [Insert industry], the top 3 pain points you solve, typical deal size, your competitors, and what a SUCCESSFUL first discovery call looks like, the specific next step that means the call worked. Leave blank if on AUGMENT AIOS.]

TASK
You are a senior sales coach producing an exemplar, the kind of recorded call you'd play back to a new hire as "this is what great SPIN execution looks like." Write a ~1,200-word example sales script of a SUCCESSFUL SPIN-driven first discovery call. Not a tutorial, a demonstration of mastery.

CAST
- Alex, a senior BDM at [insert company name], a [Insert industry] company
- Sam, a senior decision-maker (e.g. Head of Operations) at a high-fit target account

STRUCTURE
1. Pre-call (3 lines), Alex's CRM notes: account research, hypothesis about Sam's likely pain, and the planned Need-Payoff Alex wants Sam to articulate by the end of the call
2. Opening (60 seconds of dialogue), rapport, agenda, time-check, permission to ask probing questions
3. Situation (short, 2–3 questions max, Rackham's discipline: don't burn rapport here)
4. Problem (4–5 questions surfacing dissatisfactions, let Sam name the pain in their own words)
5. Implication (the heart of the call, Alex makes the pain hurt by connecting small problems to bigger downstream costs in [Insert industry] terms: revenue at risk, time lost, customer impact, regulatory exposure)
6. Need-Payoff (Alex flips the question, Sam now sells themselves on the value of solving it, in [Insert industry] dollars)
7. The clean close, concrete next step BOOKED in the calendar before the call ends (specific date, time, attendees)
8. Post-call (3 lines), Alex's CRM notes: SPIN summary, what was qualified, what's outstanding, action for the next call

FRICTION TO HANDLE CLEANLY
- One "we already have a solution for that" deflection, show the Implication question that reopens the conversation
- One budget pushback, show how Alex reframes via Need-Payoff rather than defending price

[TURNING POINT]
Mark with `[TURNING POINT]` the exact question where Sam's tone visibly shifts from sceptical to engaged. This will usually be the first Implication question that lands a real consequence.

QUALITY RULES
- Realistic [Insert industry] pain points, KPIs, language, and buyer behaviour throughout
- After EVERY Alex line, add a `(coaching note: ...)` naming which SPIN question type is executing AND what would have happened if Alex had asked the obvious-but-wrong question instead
- Sam's objections are genuine, not strawmen
- Alex never chases, never discounts, never apologises for the price
- Successful outcome by the end of the call: a 60-minute deep-dive booked with Sam plus one operational stakeholder (the user buyer) within 7 days, with an agreed agenda

FORMAT
Screenplay style, NAME: dialogue + (coaching note). Open with the pre-call note block. Close with the post-call CRM note block. ~1,200 words.

CONTEXT
[If you aren't using AUGMENT AIOS with your business context built in yet, paste a paragraph here covering: who [insert company name] is, what you sell, your ICP in [Insert industry], the top 3 pain points you solve, the conventional wisdom your buyers hold that is WRONG (this is what your Commercial Insight will reframe), typical deal size, and your competitors. If you are on AUGMENT AIOS, leave this block empty.]

TASK
You are a senior sales trainer with 20+ years experience teaching The Challenger Sale to B2B sales teams in [Insert industry]. Write a comprehensive ten-page training guide on the Challenger methodology for the BDMs and account executives at [insert company name].

Cover:
1. Origin and CEB research (1 page), Dixon and Adamson, the 6,000-rep study, why the "relationship builder" profile underperforms in complex B2B
2. The five rep profiles and the Challenger DNA (1 page), Teach, Tailor, Take Control
3. The six-act teaching pitch in detail (3 pages), Warmer → Reframe → Rational Drowning → Emotional Impact → A New Way → Your Solution, for each act: the purpose, an [Insert industry]-specific example, what a strong vs weak execution sounds like
4. How to build a Commercial Insight (1 page), the "unknown unknown" framework, three sources of insight, how to use [insert company name]'s data to support the reframe
5. The five most common mistakes new Challenger reps make and how to avoid each (1 page)
6. Three worked Challenger discovery and demo examples for [Insert industry] prospects, with annotated rep dialogue (2 pages)
7. A 30-day Challenger practice plan (1 page)
8. Further reading, 5 books (including *The JOLT Effect*), 5 podcast episodes, 3 YouTube videos, each with a one-line summary

Write in plain English. Define every term on first use. Use [insert company name]'s [Insert industry] context throughout. Format with H2 section headers, bulleted lists, and call-out boxes. Target reading time: 45 minutes.

CONTEXT
[If you aren't using AUGMENT AIOS yet, paste a paragraph describing: [insert company name]'s product, your ICP in [Insert industry], the conventional wisdom your buyers hold that is wrong (the thing you're going to Reframe), the specific data points you have to back the Reframe, typical deal size, your competitors, and what a SUCCESSFUL outcome of this teaching pitch looks like. Leave blank if on AUGMENT AIOS.]

TASK
You are a senior sales coach producing an exemplar, the kind of recorded call you'd play back to a new hire as "this is what great Challenger looks like." Write a ~1,200-word example sales script of a SUCCESSFUL Challenger-style teaching pitch. Not a tutorial, a demonstration of mastery, where Alex teaches the buyer something new about their own business and then takes control of the buying process.

CAST
- Alex, a senior BDM at [insert company name], a [Insert industry] company
- Sam, the economic buyer (e.g. CFO or COO) at a target account who thinks they already know their market

STRUCTURE, walk all six acts in order
1. Pre-call (3 lines), Alex's CRM notes: the Commercial Insight Alex will deliver, the specific data point that proves it, Sam's likely "I already know my market" reaction Alex will pre-empt
2. The Warmer (60–90 seconds), show Alex understands Sam's world specifically, skip the small talk, no "tell me about yourself"
3. The Reframe, "Here's what most [Insert industry] leaders in your seat don't see...", followed by the specific reframe statement
4. Rational Drowning, the data, the cost of inaction, in [Insert industry] dollars
5. Emotional Impact, make Sam see themselves in the problem
6. A New Way, paint the better world
7. Your Solution, only here connect the new world to [insert company name]'s product
8. The clean close, concrete next step BOOKED in the calendar before the call ends, including the EB (CFO/COO) and the technical sponsor on the next meeting
9. Post-call (3 lines), Alex's CRM notes: did the Reframe land, what evidence, what's the deal-killer to pre-empt before next meeting

FRICTION TO HANDLE CLEANLY
- One "we already know our market" pushback, show Alex's evidence-led counter
- One discount request, show Alex Taking Control, defending price with the cost-of-inaction not the value-of-product, and refusing to discount without an equal concession

[TURNING POINT]
Mark `[TURNING POINT]` the exact line where Sam first agrees out loud with the Reframe, usually a "huh, I hadn't thought about it that way" moment immediately after Rational Drowning. This is the proof the teaching worked.

QUALITY RULES
- Realistic [Insert industry] KPIs, language, and economic-buyer vocabulary throughout (Sam should sound like a CFO, not a generic exec)
- After EVERY Alex line, add a `(coaching note: ...)` naming the act, the Challenger move, AND what would have happened if Alex had defaulted to relationship-builder mode instead
- Sam's pushback is intelligent and sceptical, he's smart, that's why he's the EB
- Alex never apologises for being direct, never asks "what's your budget"
- Successful outcome by the end of the call: a 90-minute strategic deep-dive booked within 10 days with Sam (CFO/COO) plus the operations VP attending, with Sam having committed verbally to the Reframe

FORMAT
Screenplay style, NAME: dialogue + (coaching note). Open with the pre-call note block. Close with the post-call CRM note block. ~1,200 words.

CONTEXT
[If you aren't using AUGMENT AIOS with your business context built in yet, paste a paragraph here covering: who [insert company name] is, what you sell, your ICP in [Insert industry], the top 3 pains you solve, typical deal size, the deal stages most likely to stall ("let me think about it" purgatory, ghosting, free consulting), and your competitors. If you are on AUGMENT AIOS, leave this block empty.]

TASK
You are a senior sales trainer with 20+ years experience teaching the Sandler Selling System to B2B sales teams in [Insert industry]. Write a comprehensive ten-page training guide on Sandler for the BDMs and account executives at [insert company name].

Cover:
1. Origin and core thesis (1 page), David Sandler, why "the seller qualifies the buyer, " the inverted dynamic of mutual qualification
2. The Sandler Submarine in detail (3 pages), Bonding & Rapport → Up-Front Contract → Pain → Budget → Decision → Fulfilment → Post-Sell, for each compartment: purpose, the trap, an [Insert industry] example, what a strong vs weak execution sounds like
3. The Pain Funnel (1 page), the 8 scripted questions that drive surface pain to emotional pain to commitment, with [Insert industry] examples
4. Sandler signature moves (1 page), No-Pressure Selling, the Negative Reverse, the Thirty-Second Commercial, when to use each
5. The five most common mistakes new Sandler reps make and how to avoid each (1 page)
6. Three worked Sandler discovery-call examples for [Insert industry] prospects, with annotated rep dialogue (1.5 pages)
7. A 30-day Sandler practice plan with role-play drills and Up-Front Contract scripts (0.5 page)
8. Further reading, 5 books (including *The Sandler Rules*), 5 podcast episodes, 3 YouTube videos, each with a one-line summary (1 page)

Write in plain English. Define every term on first use. Use [insert company name]'s [Insert industry] context throughout. Format with H2 section headers, bulleted lists, and call-out boxes. Target rep reading time: 45 minutes.

CONTEXT
[If you aren't using AUGMENT AIOS yet, paste a paragraph describing: [insert company name]'s product, your ICP in [Insert industry], the top 3 pains you solve, typical deal size, your typical buyer's "thinking-about-it" or ghosting pattern, and what a SUCCESSFUL Sandler-qualified outcome looks like, the next step that means the call worked AND that you didn't waste your time. Leave blank if on AUGMENT AIOS.]

TASK
You are a senior sales coach producing an exemplar, the kind of recorded call you'd play back to a new hire as "this is what great Sandler looks like." Write a ~1,200-word example sales script of a SUCCESSFUL Sandler-driven first discovery call where Alex either qualifies a real deal forward OR walks away cleanly with both parties' time saved. Not a tutorial, a demonstration of mastery: no chasing, no discounting, no closing techniques.

CAST
- Alex, a senior BDM at [insert company name], a [Insert industry] company
- Sam, a senior decision-maker at a target account who is curious but not yet committed

STRUCTURE, walk all seven compartments of the Submarine in order
1. Pre-call (3 lines), Alex's CRM notes: account research, Alex's hypothesis on Sam's likely pain, the budget threshold below which Alex will disqualify
2. Bonding & Rapport (60 seconds, genuine, brief, no fake interest)
3. **Up-Front Contract**, the signature Sandler move. Alex explicitly proposes "30 minutes, my goal is to leave this call clear it's either a fit or it isn't. No 'let me think about it', that's polite avoidance and wastes both our time. Deal?" Sam agrees.
4. Pain, three layers: surface pain → personal cost → emotional cost. Use the Pain Funnel to push from each layer to the next.
5. Budget, talked openly before minute 20. Alex asks "if we go further, what does your current spend look like, and is a higher number a non-starter?"
6. Decision, Alex maps who decides, when, how, and pre-closes the "I'll talk to my partner / accountant" outs
7. Fulfilment, only here does Alex present, and only the part matching what's qualified
8. Post-Sell, Alex pre-empts the post-call doubts ("what could come up between now and Thursday that would make you cancel?")
9. Post-call (3 lines), Alex's CRM notes: qualified yes/no, what's locked, what's outstanding

FRICTION TO HANDLE CLEANLY
- One "let me think about it", show Alex enforcing the Up-Front Contract and asking the harder question instead of accepting the deflection
- One Negative Reverse moment, Alex leans AWAY from the deal ("based on what you've told me, I'm not sure we're the right fit") to force Sam to defend their own need

[TURNING POINT]
Mark `[TURNING POINT]` the exact moment Sam answers the emotional-layer pain question with real honesty (not a corporate answer). This is the proof the Pain Funnel worked.

QUALITY RULES
- Realistic [Insert industry] pain, language, and decision dynamics
- After EVERY Alex line, add a `(coaching note: ...)` naming the compartment, the move, AND what would have happened if Alex had defaulted to traditional "pushy salesperson" mode
- Alex never chases, never discounts, never closes with "what's it going to take to do business today"
- Sam is intelligent and slightly guarded, exactly the kind of buyer who normally ghosts pushy reps
- Successful outcome by the end of the call: a 90-minute deep-dive booked WITH all named decision-makers attending, locked against the pre-empted "I need to think" outs. OR a clean walk-away if Sam disqualifies on budget or decision authority, both are wins under Sandler

FORMAT
Screenplay style, NAME: dialogue + (coaching note). Open with the pre-call note block. Close with the post-call CRM note block. ~1,200 words.

4. MEDDIC

Origin: Jack Napoli and Dick Dunkel at PTC (Parametric Technology Corporation), late 1990s. PTC grew from $300M to $1B in three years on the back of MEDDIC. The methodology was kept inside enterprise software for a decade before becoming the de facto enterprise SaaS qualification framework in the 2010s.

Core thesis: In high-value, multi-stakeholder enterprise deals, deals don't get won, they get qualified to the point where losing becomes impossible. MEDDIC is a qualification checklist, not a selling methodology. You can run MEDDIC underneath SPIN, Challenger, or Sandler, it complements them.

The acronym

Letter	Element	What you must know
M	Metrics	The quantified economic outcome the buyer expects. Not "improve efficiency", specific dollars, percentages, hours.
E	Economic Buyer	The single person who can say yes and sign the cheque. Not the procurement contact. Not the influencer. The person whose budget it actually comes out of. If you haven't met them, the deal isn't qualified.
D	Decision Criteria	The formal criteria the buyer will evaluate vendors against. Get them in writing.
D	Decision Process	The steps from now to signature. Who, when, what artifacts. Legal review? Board approval? IT security review? Each step is a deal-killer waiting to happen if you didn't map it.
I	Identify Pain	The pain that justifies the expense. Without identified, owned, quantified pain, the deal stalls in procurement.
C	Champion	An internal advocate who will sell on your behalf when you're not in the room. Champions have three traits: personal stake in the outcome, influence with the Economic Buyer, and willingness to be coached by you.

MEDDPICC extension (Napoli, 2017) adds P (Paper Process, contracts, legal, procurement) and a second C (Competition, who else, why you, why not them).

How MEDDIC is used in practice

• It's a CRM scoring discipline. Every deal has a MEDDIC scorecard (0–10 per letter). Anything under 6 across the board is not forecast.
• Pipeline reviews use the language. "What's the Metric?" "Have you met the Economic Buyer?" "Who's your Champion?", if the rep can't answer, the deal doesn't get manager attention.
• It exposes ghost deals. Most "happy ear" deals fail on EB (rep never met them) or Champion (rep has a fan, not a champion).

Where it shines

• Enterprise sales over $50k ACV, 6+ month cycle, four or more stakeholders.
• Sales orgs with messy CRM and over-optimistic forecasting.
• Buying processes with procurement, legal, or security gates.

Where it breaks

• SMB deals where there's no real buying committee, MEDDIC becomes overhead.
• Self-service or product-led growth motions.

Best trainers and users

Who	Why they matter
Jack Napoli	Co-creator. Founded MEDDIC Academy in 2017, the only certified MEDDIC / MEDDPICC training. Online + corporate.
Andy Whyte	Author of MEDDICC: The ultimate guide to staying one step ahead in the complex sale (2020), the best modern field manual. Runs MEDDICC Ltd.
PTC	The original. Still trains its own sales team on it.
Force Management	"Command of the Message" + MEDDIC, used at Snowflake, MongoDB, Datadog, Confluent, Atlassian's enterprise motion.
John Kaplan	President of Force Management. The most influential voice teaching MEDDIC-adjacent enterprise selling in the US.
Companies built on it	PTC, Salesforce (enterprise team), Snowflake, MongoDB, Datadog, GitLab, HashiCorp, Confluent, Atlassian Enterprise, Workday, ServiceNow. The list of decacorn SaaS companies running MEDDIC is essentially the list of decacorn SaaS companies.

Best book to hand a BDM: MEDDICC by Andy Whyte. Then layer Napoli's MEDDIC Academy online course on top.

Build your own MEDDIC training pack

Copy these prompts into ChatGPT, Claude, or your AI of choice. Replace [Insert industry] and [insert company name] with your own context before sending, and paste a paragraph into the Context block if you aren't running AUGMENT AIOS yet.

Prompt 1, Ten-page MEDDIC training guide

CONTEXT
[If you aren't using AUGMENT AIOS yet, paste a paragraph here covering: who [insert company name] is, what you sell, your enterprise ICP in [Insert industry], typical ACV ($50k+ for MEDDIC to make sense), average sales cycle length, number of stakeholders in a typical deal, your top 3 competitors, and which procurement/legal/security gates buyers typically run you through. If you are on AUGMENT AIOS, leave this block empty.]

TASK
You are a senior enterprise sales trainer with 20+ years experience teaching MEDDIC and MEDDPICC to B2B sales teams in [Insert industry]. Write a comprehensive ten-page training guide on MEDDIC qualification for the enterprise account executives at [insert company name].

Cover:
1. Origin and PTC story (1 page), Jack Napoli, Dick Dunkel, PTC's $300M → $1B run, why qualification is the discipline that wins complex deals
2. The MEDDIC elements in detail (3 pages), Metrics, Economic Buyer, Decision Criteria, Decision Process, Identify Pain, Champion, for each: definition, the qualification test, the 0–10 scoring rubric, an [Insert industry] example, what a strong vs weak signal looks like
3. The MEDDPICC extension (1 page), Paper Process and Competition, when to add the extra letters
4. How to use MEDDIC as a CRM and pipeline-review discipline (1 page), the scorecard format, what triggers deal removal from forecast, the language a manager uses in deal review
5. The five most common mistakes new MEDDIC practitioners make and how to avoid each (1 page), usually missing the Economic Buyer, confusing a "coach" with a Champion, or accepting "Metrics: improve efficiency" instead of a dollar figure
6. Three worked MEDDIC-qualified deals at [Insert industry] target accounts, with the scorecard before/after deep discovery (1.5 pages)
7. A 30-day MEDDIC practice plan focused on Champion-building and EB-access conversations (0.5 page)
8. Further reading, 5 books (including *MEDDICC* by Andy Whyte), 5 podcast episodes (Force Management's *Audible-Ready Sales Podcast*, 30MPC), 3 YouTube videos, each with a one-line summary (1 page)

Write in plain English. Define every term on first use. Use [insert company name]'s [Insert industry] context throughout. Format with H2 section headers, bulleted lists, and call-out boxes. Target reading time: 45 minutes.

Prompt 2, MEDDIC winning qualification-call script

CONTEXT
[If you aren't using AUGMENT AIOS yet, paste a paragraph describing: [insert company name]'s product, your enterprise ICP in [Insert industry], typical ACV, average cycle length, named competitors, the security/legal/procurement gates buyers run you through, and what a SUCCESSFUL MEDDIC qualification outcome looks like, the next step that moves the deal forward AND the disqualification signal that would kill it. Leave blank if on AUGMENT AIOS.]

TASK
You are a senior enterprise sales coach producing an exemplar, the kind of recorded call you'd play back to a new hire as "this is what great MEDDIC looks like." Write a ~1,300-word example sales script of a SUCCESSFUL MEDDIC-driven second-stage qualification call where Alex either advances the deal with a complete scorecard OR makes a sober no-go call. Not a tutorial, a demonstration of mastery.

CAST
- Alex, a senior enterprise AE at [insert company name], a [Insert industry] company selling a $200k+ ACV solution
- Sam, a director-level operations leader at a Fortune-1000-ish target account, currently a "coach" who could become a true Champion

STRUCTURE, surface every MEDDIC element by the end of the call
1. Pre-call (4 lines), Alex's CRM notes: account research, the current MEDDIC scorecard (0–10 per letter, most likely 4–6 across the board), the two letters Alex is here to push from 5 to 8, and the disqualification trigger
2. Opening, short, agenda explicit ("our purpose today is to map who-decides-what and lock down the Metrics, I'll be direct on this")
3. Surfacing **M (Metrics)**, Alex pushes Sam from "improve efficiency" to a quantified dollar figure tied to [Insert industry] outcomes
4. Surfacing **E (Economic Buyer)**, Alex asks the Napoli question: "Walk me through how a $200k decision actually gets made, what's the path from your desk to a signed contract?" Names the EB and the access path
5. **D (Decision Criteria)**, get it in writing, including non-negotiables
6. **D (Decision Process)**, Alex builds a mutual close plan live with Sam, named stakeholders and dates
7. **I (Identified Pain)**, the pain that justifies the spend, with executive sponsorship confirmed
8. **C (Champion test)**, Alex deploys the Champion test: "Sam, would you be willing to host the next call WITH your CFO present and walk them through what we've built together?" Watch the answer carefully, Champions accept, coaches deflect
9. The clean close, TWO booked next steps before the call ends: an EB intro and a security questionnaire kick-off
10. Post-call (4 lines), Alex's CRM notes: updated MEDDIC scorecard (each letter now 7+/10), what changed, the deal-killer to pre-empt before the EB meeting

FRICTION TO HANDLE CLEANLY
- One "I can take it to our CFO myself, no need for you to be in the meeting", show Alex's Champion-vs-coach test response, refusing to be excluded politely but firmly
- One Decision Process gap, Sam can't name the security review owner. Show Alex turning that ignorance into a value-add ("let me bring you the questionnaire template so you look prepared internally")

[TURNING POINT]
Mark `[TURNING POINT]` the exact moment Sam moves from coach to true Champion, usually when Sam answers the "would you host the CFO call with me" question with genuine willingness AND specific timing.

QUALITY RULES
- Realistic [Insert industry] enterprise procurement reality (security, legal, IT review, board approval)
- After EVERY Alex line, add a `(coaching note: ...)` naming which MEDDIC letter is being progressed AND what would happen if Alex accepted Sam's weaker first answer instead of pushing harder
- Sam is genuinely uncertain about parts of the buying process, that's normal at a director level. Alex doesn't make him feel stupid; he equips him.
- Alex never chases the EB by going around Sam (that kills Champions); always with Sam's permission
- Successful outcome by the end of the call: MEDDIC scorecard at 7+/10 across all six elements, EB meeting booked within 14 days, security questionnaire kick-off agreed

FORMAT
Screenplay style, NAME: dialogue + (coaching note). Open with the pre-call CRM block including the BEFORE scorecard. Close with the post-call CRM block including the AFTER scorecard. ~1,300 words.

---

5. Solution Selling

Origin: Mike Bosworth, mid-1980s. Codified in Solution Selling: Creating Buyers in Difficult Selling Markets (1994). Updated by Keith M. Eades as The New Solution Selling (2003) and again as The Collaborative Sale (2014). Sales Performance International (SPI) is the institutional home of the methodology.

Core thesis: Buyers don't buy products, they buy outcomes. The seller's job is to diagnose before prescribing, identify the buyer's latent pain (pain they can't yet articulate), develop a shared vision of the solution, and only then connect product capabilities to that vision.

Solution Selling dominated B2B from 1990 to 2010. Then The Challenger Sale (2011) explicitly framed itself as the replacement for it. The truth is somewhere between, Solution Selling is alive and well in markets where buyer expertise is genuinely low.

The core process, nine stages

1. Prospect, find latent need, not active need.
2. Diagnose, the 9-box Pain Sheet: surface pain → reasons (3) → impact (3).
3. Develop Vision, co-create the picture of the better future.
4. Vision Re-engineering, if a competitor got there first, reshape the buyer's vision around your unique strengths.
5. Justify, quantified business case.
6. Decision Process, map the buyer's process.
7. Negotiate, control the close.
8. Implement, successful delivery is the next sale.
9. Manage, account growth.

The 9-box Pain Sheet (Solution Selling's signature tool)

	Question to ask
Box 1, Pain	What's the surface problem?
Boxes 2–4, Reasons	What three things cause this pain?
Boxes 5–7, Impact on others	Who else is hurt? Show how the pain spreads through the organisation.
Boxes 8–9, Capabilities needed	What would the buyer need to be able to do to fix this?

The genius of the 9-box: it gets the buyer to fill in their own boxes. By the time Box 8 is filled, the buyer has described your product without you naming it. You then say: "What you've just described, that's what we do."

Where it shines

• Categories where the buyer doesn't yet know the solution exists.
• Long, consultative B2B sales with high domain complexity.
• Mid-market markets where buyer expertise is uneven.

Where it breaks

• Expert buyers who know exactly what they want, the Challenger critique.
• Commodity or transactional sales.
• Markets where competitors have already educated the buyer, Vision Re-engineering becomes harder.

Best trainers and users

Who	Why they matter
Mike Bosworth	Originator. Now retired from active training. What Great Salespeople Do: The Science of Selling Through Emotional Connection (2012) is the evolution.
Keith M. Eades	Founder of Sales Performance International (SPI). Author of The New Solution Selling and The Collaborative Sale. The institutional voice of modern Solution Selling.
Sales Performance International (SPI)	The training company. Global, large enterprise focus, runs in 50+ countries.
Companies institutionalised on it	IBM (1990s, built the global sales academy on it), Microsoft (mid-90s), SAP, Oracle (pre-CRM era), Cisco, HP, Lockheed Martin, Siemens, most legacy enterprise tech.
Mike Weinberg	Modern New Sales Simplified and Sales Truth, not pure Solution Selling, but the most popular modern voice that combines Solution Selling's discovery with Challenger's directness.

Best book to hand a BDM: The New Solution Selling by Keith M. Eades (2003), clearer than Bosworth's original. Pair with The Collaborative Sale (2014) for the modern committee-buying view.

Build your own Solution Selling training pack

Copy these prompts into ChatGPT, Claude, or your AI of choice. Replace [Insert industry] and [insert company name] with your own context before sending, and paste a paragraph into the Context block if you aren't running AUGMENT AIOS yet.

Prompt 1, Ten-page Solution Selling training guide

CONTEXT
[If you aren't using AUGMENT AIOS yet, paste a paragraph here covering: who [insert company name] is, what you sell, your ICP in [Insert industry], the top 3 latent pains your prospects have that they CAN'T yet articulate (this is the heart of Solution Selling, finding buyers who don't know they have a problem), typical deal size, and your competitors. If you are on AUGMENT AIOS, leave this block empty.]

TASK
You are a senior sales trainer with 20+ years experience teaching Solution Selling to B2B sales teams in [Insert industry]. Write a comprehensive ten-page training guide on Solution Selling for the BDMs and account executives at [insert company name].

Cover:
1. Origin and core thesis (1 page), Mike Bosworth, Keith Eades, SPI, why "diagnose before prescribe" remains valid in markets where buyer expertise is low
2. The nine-stage process (1.5 pages), Prospect → Diagnose → Develop Vision → Vision Re-engineering → Justify → Decision Process → Negotiate → Implement → Manage
3. The 9-box Pain Sheet in detail (2 pages), Pain, the three Reasons, the three Impacts on others, the two Capabilities Needed, with the question pattern, an [Insert industry] worked example, and what a strong vs weak box answer looks like
4. Latent vs active need (1 page), how to find buyers who don't yet know they have the problem, and why this category is more profitable
5. Vision Re-engineering when a competitor got there first (1 page), the three moves, with [Insert industry] examples
6. The five most common mistakes Solution Selling reps make and how to avoid each (1 page)
7. Three worked diagnosis-to-vision conversations with [Insert industry] prospects, with the live 9-box filled in (2 pages)
8. A 30-day Solution Selling practice plan with daily 9-box reps (0.5 page)
9. Further reading, 5 books (including *The Collaborative Sale*, *What Great Salespeople Do*), 5 podcast episodes, 3 YouTube videos, each with a one-line summary (1 page)

Write in plain English. Define every term on first use. Use [insert company name]'s [Insert industry] context throughout. Format with H2 section headers, bulleted lists, and call-out boxes. Target reading time: 45 minutes.

Prompt 2, Solution Selling winning diagnosis script

CONTEXT
[If you aren't using AUGMENT AIOS yet, paste a paragraph describing: [insert company name]'s product, your ICP in [Insert industry], the latent pain you uniquely solve, typical deal size, your competitors, and what a SUCCESSFUL diagnosis call looks like, the moment of buyer self-realisation that means the call worked. Leave blank if on AUGMENT AIOS.]

TASK
You are a senior sales coach producing an exemplar, the kind of recorded call you'd play back to a new hire as "this is what great Solution Selling looks like." Write a ~1,200-word example sales script of a SUCCESSFUL Solution Selling diagnosis call where Alex moves Sam from "I don't really have a problem" to "describe your product, this is exactly what we need." Not a tutorial, a demonstration of mastery.

CAST
- Alex, a senior BDM at [insert company name], a [Insert industry] company
- Sam, a senior operational buyer at a COLD target account who agreed to a 30-minute "intro" thinking they're just shopping

STRUCTURE
1. Pre-call (3 lines), Alex's CRM notes: the latent pain Alex believes Sam has but can't yet name, the prepared 9-box Alex will build live, the Capability statement Alex wants Sam to describe by Box 8
2. Opening, agenda-flip: "Before I show you anything, I'd like to map your current state live on this grid. Five minutes. Mind if I drive?"
3. **Live 9-box build**, Alex opens a shared screen with a blank 9-box and fills it live with Sam:
   - Box 1: Surface Pain (Sam names it in one sentence)
   - Boxes 2–4: Three Reasons (Sam lists why the pain happens)
   - Boxes 5–7: Three Impacts on others (Alex pushes Sam past "just me" to colleagues, executives, customers)
   - Boxes 8–9: Capabilities Needed (Sam describes what the solution would have to do, and by Box 8 they are describing [insert company name]'s product unknowingly)
4. Develop Vision, Alex reads the 9-box back to Sam in Sam's own words, asks "is that the picture?" Sam agrees
5. Justify, Alex puts [Insert industry] dollars against the leak ("you said X happens Y times a year at $Z impact = $N/yr current cost")
6. Decision Process, short, sharp: who decides, how, when, by what process
7. Close, concrete next step BOOKED: a 30-day pilot with three operational users, kick-off date set
8. Post-call (3 lines), Alex's CRM notes: the 9-box screenshot reference, the Vision in Sam's words, the Justify number, the pilot kick-off date

FRICTION TO HANDLE CLEANLY
- One "we're not really looking at this right now" early in the call, show Alex's response: "OK, that's fair. Can I ask one question and if the answer's no I'll get out of your way?" then ask the question that surfaces latent pain
- One "I'd need to think about this" near the close, show Alex restating the Vision in Sam's own words ("you told me X is costing you $Y a year, has that changed in the last 30 minutes?")

[TURNING POINT]
Mark `[TURNING POINT]` the exact moment Sam fills in Box 8 (Capabilities Needed) and describes [insert company name]'s product without knowing they're describing it. This is the "ahh" moment that makes Solution Selling work.

QUALITY RULES
- Realistic [Insert industry] pain, language, and decision dynamics
- After EVERY Alex line, add a `(coaching note: ...)` naming which 9-box position is being filled AND what would have happened if Alex had pitched the product instead of asking the next 9-box question
- Sam goes from neutral to genuinely interested over the 30 minutes, not because Alex sold them, but because Alex helped them diagnose themselves
- Alex never names the product until Sam has finished Box 8
- Successful outcome by the end of the call: Vision agreed in Sam's own words, Justify case sized in [Insert industry] dollars, 30-day pilot kick-off scheduled within 14 days

FORMAT
Screenplay style, NAME: dialogue + (coaching note). Include the 9-box content inline as it gets filled. Open with the pre-call block. Close with the post-call CRM block. ~1,200 words.

---

6. NEAT Selling

Origin: Richard Harris and Craig Rosenberg at The Harris Consulting Group / TOPO, around 2014. Created explicitly as the modern replacement for BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline), the IBM-era qualification framework that had become obsolete in SaaS-era buying.

Core thesis: BANT was built for a world where the seller had information asymmetry, the buyer had to ask "what does it cost?" In modern SaaS the buyer has more information than the seller and doesn't have a fixed budget to allocate, they have a problem and will find budget if the problem is painful enough. NEAT replaces budget with economic impact, replaces authority with access to the decision-maker, and replaces "need" with proven need.

The acronym

Letter	Element	What you must qualify
N	Need	What's the core business need, not the surface symptom? Why does it matter at the organisational level (not just the user's level)?
E	Economic Impact	What's the quantified cost of not solving this? In dollars, in time, in risk, in opportunity. Crucially, what's the ROI of your solution against that cost?
A	Access to Authority	Not "are they the authority" (BANT), but "do you have a path to the authority?" The user-influencer might not be the decision-maker, but if they will take you to the decision-maker, that's qualified.
T	Timeline	What's the compelling event, the date or trigger that forces the decision? Without a compelling event, the deal floats forever.

Why NEAT works better than BANT in modern B2B

BANT	NEAT
Budget, does the buyer have money allocated?	Need, is there a real organisational need?
Authority, are you talking to the decision-maker?	Economic impact, can we quantify the value?
Need, do they need it?	Access, can we get to the decision-maker?
Timeline, when will they buy?	Timeline, what's the compelling event?

The shift: from "do they have money" to "do they have pain worth money." Modern buyers reallocate budget for the right problem.

Where it shines

• SaaS, especially mid-market and SMB+, where buyers don't have pre-allocated software budgets.
• Categories where the buyer is the user.
• Inside-sales or SDR teams qualifying inbound at speed.

Where it breaks

• Pure enterprise, use MEDDIC, NEAT is too light.
• Heavily regulated procurement (government, healthcare) where budget cycles are immovable.

Best trainers and users

Who	Why they matter
Richard Harris	Co-creator. Founder of The Harris Consulting Group. Active LinkedIn voice. Trains SaaS sales orgs on NEAT and discovery.
Craig Rosenberg	Co-creator. Was Chief Analyst at TOPO (acquired by Gartner 2020). Now consults independently on B2B sales strategy.
TOPO / Gartner	TOPO was the most respected SaaS sales-org analyst firm pre-Gartner acquisition. Their qualification research underpins NEAT.
Bridge Group	US-based, runs SaaS sales-process consulting heavily using NEAT-style frameworks.
John Barrows (JBarrows Sales Training)	The most popular modern SaaS sales trainer. Doesn't formally teach "NEAT" but his discovery framework is NEAT-shaped.
Companies institutionalised on it	Most modern SaaS SDR and AE orgs, Salesloft, Outreach, Gong, ZoomInfo, Drift. Less formally "trained on NEAT" than "built their playbooks from TOPO's research."

Best resource: Richard Harris's The Seller's Journey (2024) and TOPO's archived research at Gartner. Pair with John Barrows's online course Filling the Funnel.

Build your own NEAT training pack

Copy these prompts into ChatGPT, Claude, or your AI of choice. Replace [Insert industry] and [insert company name] with your own context before sending, and paste a paragraph into the Context block if you aren't running AUGMENT AIOS yet.

Prompt 1, Ten-page NEAT training guide

CONTEXT
[If you aren't using AUGMENT AIOS yet, paste a paragraph here covering: who [insert company name] is, what you sell, your ICP in [Insert industry], typical deal size, your inbound lead sources and conversion rate, your SDR-to-AE hand-off process, the qualification threshold that means a lead is worth a senior closer's hour, and your top 2 compelling-event triggers in [Insert industry]. If you are on AUGMENT AIOS, leave this block empty.]

TASK
You are a senior SaaS sales trainer with 20+ years experience teaching modern SaaS qualification methodologies. Write a comprehensive ten-page training guide on NEAT Selling for the SDRs and account executives at [insert company name], a [Insert industry] company.

Cover:
1. Why BANT is dead (1 page), Richard Harris, Craig Rosenberg, TOPO, the shift from "do they have budget" to "do they have pain worth budget"
2. The NEAT elements in detail (3 pages), Need, Economic Impact, Access to Authority, Timeline, for each: definition, the discovery question pattern, the disqualification signal, the 0–10 scoring rubric, an [Insert industry] example, what a strong vs weak answer sounds like
3. Compelling Event hunting (1 page), what counts as a true compelling event in [Insert industry] vs a pseudo-event, with three real examples
4. How to use NEAT as the SDR-to-AE hand-off scorecard (1 page), the template, the threshold for forecasted pipeline, what kicks a deal back to SDR
5. The five most common mistakes new NEAT practitioners make and how to avoid each (1 page), usually skipping Economic Impact or accepting "we don't have budget" as a hard no
6. Three worked 15-minute NEAT qualification calls for inbound [Insert industry] leads, with scorecards and hand-off notes (1.5 pages)
7. A 30-day NEAT practice plan focused on Economic Impact framing and Compelling Event discovery (0.5 page)
8. Further reading, 5 books (including *The Seller's Journey*, *New Sales Simplified*), 5 podcast episodes, 3 YouTube videos, each with a one-line summary (1 page)

Write in plain English. Define every term on first use. Use [insert company name]'s [Insert industry] context throughout. Format with H2 section headers, bulleted lists, and call-out boxes. Target reading time: 45 minutes.

Prompt 2, NEAT winning qualification-call script

CONTEXT
[If you aren't using AUGMENT AIOS yet, paste a paragraph describing: [insert company name]'s product, your ICP in [Insert industry], typical deal size, the inbound asset that prompted Sam's enquiry (calculator, report, demo request, pick one), your top compelling-event triggers, the hand-off threshold for a senior closer, and what a SUCCESSFUL NEAT call looks like, either a qualified hand-up to AE OR a clean walk-away. Leave blank if on AUGMENT AIOS.]

TASK
You are a senior SaaS sales coach producing an exemplar, the kind of recorded call you'd play back to a new SDR as "this is what great NEAT qualification looks like in 15 minutes." Write a ~1,000-word example of a SUCCESSFUL 15-minute NEAT qualification call where Alex makes a confident hand-up OR walk-away call with a complete scorecard. Not a tutorial, a demonstration of mastery: fast, sharp, no time wasted, no false positives.

CAST
- Alex, an SDR at [insert company name], a [Insert industry] company
- Sam, an inbound lead who filled out a website form on a low-friction asset (e.g. ROI calculator, industry report, or demo request)

STRUCTURE, surface every NEAT element in 15 minutes flat
1. Pre-call (3 lines), Alex's CRM notes: Sam's form data, the asset they engaged, Alex's hypothesis on Need based on the asset, the qualification threshold (NEAT 7+/10 to hand up)
2. Opening (60 seconds), quick rapport, agenda explicit ("I've got 15 minutes, my goal is to figure out fast whether [insert company name] is right for you. Sound good?")
3. **N (Need)**, Alex pushes past the surface symptom ("we want a chatbot") to the organisational need ("after-hours leads are walking to competitors"). Two questions max.
4. **E (Economic Impact)**, Alex pushes Sam to do the maths live: "How many calls per day go to voicemail? What % convert? What's a typical deal worth? OK so that's $X/month walking out the door." This is the move that separates NEAT from BANT.
5. **A (Access to Authority)**, Alex asks the Harris question: "When it comes to a $X decision like this, is it your call, or does anyone else weigh in?" Names the EB or the path
6. **T (Timeline)**, Alex hunts the compelling event ("what's driving the timing, is there a specific event or date attached?") Anchors the urgency to a real trigger
7. The judgement call, Alex either:
   - Hands UP to the senior closer (NEAT scorecard 7+/10 across, demo booked WITH the senior AE for within 5 business days), OR
   - Walks AWAY cleanly (NEAT scorecard sub-5, no demo, polite email follow-up at 90 days)
8. Post-call (4 lines), the written NEAT scorecard (each element 0–10), the hand-off note to the senior closer (or the disqualification rationale)

FRICTION TO HANDLE CLEANLY
- One "we're just looking, no specific timeline", show Alex testing the Compelling Event: "totally fair, can I ask what would have to be true for this to become a priority?" If the answer is vague, Alex disqualifies politely
- One "we don't have budget allocated", show Alex re-engaging via Economic Impact ("not asking about budget. If I told you the leak is costing you $40k/month, would you find a way to fix that, or is that still in the noise?")

[TURNING POINT]
Mark `[TURNING POINT]` the exact moment Sam quantifies the Economic Impact in dollars themselves (not Alex doing it FOR them). This is the move that makes the hand-up worth the senior AE's hour.

QUALITY RULES
- Tight, fast pacing, this is a 15-minute call, not a deep-dive. Every question earns its place.
- After EVERY Alex line, add a `(coaching note: ...)` naming the NEAT element being qualified AND what would have happened if Alex had defaulted to BANT thinking ("do you have budget?")
- Sam is a real inbound prospect, interested but not pre-sold, slightly defensive about being "sold to"
- Alex never pitches the product, the goal is qualification, full stop
- Successful outcome by the end of the call: either (a) NEAT scorecard 7+/10 with a senior-AE demo booked within 5 business days, or (b) clean disqualification with both parties saving time

FORMAT
Screenplay style, NAME: dialogue + (coaching note). Open with pre-call CRM block. Close with the NEAT scorecard table AND the hand-off note. ~1,000 words.

---

7. GAP Selling

Origin: Keenan (yes, just Keenan, single name), 2018. Gap Selling: Getting the Customer to Yes. Keenan runs A Sales Growth Company.

Core thesis: Most sellers are product-centric ("here's our product, here's its features"). Some are solution-centric ("here's the solution to your problem"). Both lose in modern B2B. The winning seller is problem-centric, they obsess over the gap between the buyer's Current State and Future State and become the world's foremost expert on closing that gap.

The Gap = Future State minus Current State. The bigger the gap, the bigger the deal. The seller's only job is to make the gap visible, urgent, and quantified.

The three states

1. Current State, five dimensions, must all be diagnosed:

• Literal physical situation, what's the actual workflow, stack, process today?
• Problems, what's broken in that current state?
• Impact, what do those problems cost (financially, emotionally, strategically)?
• Root causes, why are those problems happening? This is the dimension most sellers skip.
• Emotion, how does the buyer feel about the current state? Frustrated? Resigned? Embarrassed?

2. Future State, same five dimensions, but for the desired future:

• What does the workflow look like when the problem is solved?
• What's no longer broken?
• What's the upside impact?
• What capabilities are now in place to prevent the root causes returning?
• How does the buyer feel in this future?

3. The Gap, the explicit, quantified delta between Current State and Future State.

What separates GAP from Solution Selling and SPIN

	SPIN	Solution Selling	GAP Selling
Discovery focus	Pain via questions	Pain via the 9-box	The full Current State across five dimensions
Vision-building	"Need-Payoff" surfaces the future implicitly	Explicit shared vision (Stage 3)	Explicit Future State, quantified
Root causes	Not formalised	Mentioned, not central	Central, root causes are the heart of GAP
Emotion	Implicit	Implicit	Explicitly named as a discovery dimension
Posture	Consultative diagnoser	Diagnoser	Domain expert who owns the gap

Keenan's signature moves

• Truth Bombs. Direct, unflattering truths the buyer needs to hear ("Your current state is killing you and you're not even tracking it"). Very Challenger-adjacent.
• The Cardinal Rule. "He who finds the most problems wins." Discovery isn't a step, it's the whole game.
• Anti-discount stance. If you have to discount, your gap isn't clear. Price objections are gap-clarity problems.

Where it shines

• Mid-market and enterprise B2B with under-aware buyers.
• Categories where the root causes of buyer problems are misunderstood by the buyer.
• Sales orgs that have over-rotated on rapport and lost the discovery muscle.

Where it breaks

• Transactional sales, no time for five-dimension diagnosis.
• Buyers who already know the gap and just want a quote.
• Sellers without the domain depth to actually own a problem-centric posture.

Best trainers and users

Who	Why they matter
Keenan	The author. Founder of A Sales Growth Company. Trains via the A Sales Growth Cohort program. Loud, polarising voice on LinkedIn and YouTube, buyers love him or hate him.
A Sales Growth Company	His training arm. Offers Gap Selling Bootcamps, Sales Leadership Cohorts, and Not Taught follow-up content.
Gap Selling Community (Slack)	Free community of 5,000+ sellers who've read the book. Best free resource for live application Q&A.
John Barrows	Often pairs his discovery training with Gap Selling principles.
Companies institutionalised on it	A Sales Growth Company doesn't publish a customer list, but the book is the most-recommended sales book on r/sales since 2020. Adoption is highest in mid-market SaaS, manufacturing, and professional services.

Best book to hand a BDM: Gap Selling by Keenan (2018). Pair with Not Taught (2015, written before Gap Selling but underrated). Listen to Keenan's Sales Gravy and 30 Minutes to President's Club podcast appearances.

Build your own Gap Selling training pack

Copy these prompts into ChatGPT, Claude, or your AI of choice. Replace [Insert industry] and [insert company name] with your own context before sending, and paste a paragraph into the Context block if you aren't running AUGMENT AIOS yet.

Prompt 1, Ten-page Gap Selling training guide

CONTEXT
[If you aren't using AUGMENT AIOS yet, paste a paragraph here covering: who [insert company name] is, what you sell, your ICP in [Insert industry], the top 3 problems your buyers experience but typically misdiagnose the ROOT CAUSE of (this is Gap Selling's edge, finding the real cause beneath the surface symptom), typical deal size, your competitors, and the kind of emotional pain your buyers carry (frustrated, embarrassed, exhausted, trapped). If you are on AUGMENT AIOS, leave this block empty.]

TASK
You are a senior sales trainer with 20+ years experience teaching Gap Selling to B2B sales teams in [Insert industry]. Write a comprehensive ten-page training guide on Gap Selling for the BDMs and account executives at [insert company name].

Cover:
1. Origin and core thesis (1 page), Keenan, A Sales Growth Company, the shift from product-centric to solution-centric to problem-centric selling
2. The three states in detail (3 pages), Current State (5 dimensions), Future State (5 dimensions), the quantified Gap, for each dimension: the question to ask, the trap to avoid, an [Insert industry] example, what a strong vs weak answer sounds like
3. Root cause analysis (1 page), the dimension most sellers skip, why it is the heart of Gap Selling, the "5 Whys" pattern applied to [Insert industry] problems
4. Emotion as a discovery dimension (1 page), when and how to ask "how does this make you feel, " the language patterns that surface emotional pain
5. Keenan's signature moves (1 page), Truth Bombs, the Cardinal Rule, the anti-discount stance, with [Insert industry] phrasing
6. The five most common mistakes new Gap Selling reps make and how to avoid each (1 page), usually skipping Root Cause or rushing to Future State
7. Three worked 60-minute Gap discovery calls with [Insert industry] prospects, with the full 5-dimension Current State and Future State mapped (1.5 pages)
8. A 30-day Gap Selling practice plan with daily problem-finding drills (0.5 page)
9. Further reading, 5 books (including *Not Taught*), 5 podcast episodes (Sales Gravy, 30MPC), 3 YouTube videos, each with a one-line summary (1 page)

Write in plain English. Define every term on first use. Use [insert company name]'s [Insert industry] context throughout. Format with H2 section headers, bulleted lists, and call-out boxes. Target reading time: 45 minutes.

Prompt 2, Gap Selling winning 60-minute discovery script

CONTEXT
[If you aren't using AUGMENT AIOS yet, paste a paragraph describing: [insert company name]'s product, your ICP in [Insert industry], the top problem your buyers misdiagnose the root cause of, the emotional pain they carry, typical deal size, your competitors, and what a SUCCESSFUL Gap call looks like, the dollar-quantified Gap statement the buyer will agree to by the end of the call. Leave blank if on AUGMENT AIOS.]

TASK
You are a senior sales coach producing an exemplar, the kind of recorded call you'd play back to a new hire as "this is what great Gap Selling looks like." Write a ~1,400-word example sales script of a SUCCESSFUL 60-minute Gap Selling discovery call where Alex moves Sam from "we have things under control" to "we have a $X/year gap we didn't see, and we have to close it now." Not a tutorial, a demonstration of mastery: deep discovery, named root cause, and a Truth Bomb that lands.

CAST
- Alex, a senior BDM at [insert company name], a [Insert industry] company
- Sam, a principal or senior operations leader at a high-value target account who thinks their operation is "fine"

STRUCTURE, walk all five Current State dimensions, then all five Future State dimensions, then the Gap
1. Pre-call (3 lines), Alex's CRM notes: Sam's likely surface pain, the deeper Root Cause Alex hypothesises (the one Sam has never named), the emotional language Alex expects to hear
2. Opening (90 seconds), agenda framing: "Sixty minutes. I'm going to walk you through five questions about how things work today, then five about how you'd want them to work. By the end we'll have your gap in numbers."
3. **Current State, Dimension 1: Literal Physical Situation** (5 min), Alex asks Sam to walk through Monday morning, the actual workflow, who does what, where information lives
4. **Current State, Dimension 2: Problems** (8 min), Alex asks for at least EIGHT named problems, pushing past the obvious to the eighth/ninth which is always the most valuable
5. **Current State, Dimension 3: Impact** (10 min), Alex puts dollar/time/risk figures against each named problem
6. **Current State, Dimension 4: Root Causes** (10 min), Alex pushes past "we just need more headcount" to the actual root cause (usually a system architecture or process gap that Sam has never articulated)
7. **Current State, Dimension 5: Emotion** (4 min), Alex asks "how does this make you feel, not the agency, you personally" and waits in the silence
8. **Future State, all 5 dimensions** (12 min), same shape, but for the desired future, Sam describes it in their own words
9. **The Gap** (3 min), Alex restates the dollar gap and the emotional gap in one sentence
10. **The Truth Bomb** (1 min), Alex names the uncomfortable truth: "The reason you haven't fixed this isn't budget. It's that nobody mapped the gap for you in numbers. Today we did. Now the question is timing, not whether."
11. Close, concrete next step BOOKED: implementation kick-off date set
12. Post-call (4 lines), Alex's CRM notes: the full Gap summary, the Root Cause, the emotional anchor, the kick-off date

FRICTION TO HANDLE CLEANLY
- One "we're already doing X, we don't have this problem" early in the Problems dimension, show Alex's response: "OK, walk me through how X works today, specifically." That always surfaces the real problem
- One discount request near the close, show Alex refusing with a GAP-CLARITY argument: "the gap is $420k a year. The price is $12k. We're not negotiating against a $420k gap." NOT a price defence, a gap-clarity defence

[TURNING POINT]
Mark `[TURNING POINT]` the exact moment Alex names a Root Cause Sam has never previously articulated, usually a system-architecture insight, not a headcount one. Sam goes quiet, then says "that's exactly it."

QUALITY RULES
- Realistic [Insert industry] operational reality and language throughout
- After EVERY Alex line, add a `(coaching note: ...)` naming which CS/FS dimension is being filled AND what would have happened if Alex had rushed to the Future State instead of staying in the Current State for the full diagnostic
- Sam is genuinely intelligent and slightly resistant at the start, they think they have things handled. By the end they see what they didn't see.
- Alex never pitches the product. The product is what closes the Gap, named only at the end.
- Successful outcome by the end of the call: Sam agrees verbally to the dollar Gap, the Root Cause, AND the emotional cost. Implementation kick-off date booked within 14 days.

FORMAT
Screenplay style, NAME: dialogue + (coaching note). Open with pre-call CRM block. Close with the Gap summary table (Current State → Future State → quantified Gap in dollars) and the post-call CRM block. ~1,400 words.

---

Comparison table, which framework for which motion?

Framework	Best when...	Risk if misapplied
SPIN	Mid-market B2B, lived experience of pain, needs guidance not teaching	Burns rapport if it becomes an interrogation
Challenger	Buyer thinks they're shopping for a small fix, needs reframe to see the bigger problem	Comes across arrogant if the rep doesn't have the data to back the reframe
Sandler	Referral or warm intro where you need to filter tyre-kickers fast, comfortable walking away	Reads as rude in deferential cultures or with insecure buyers
MEDDIC	Enterprise deals over $50k ACV, multi-stakeholder, 6+ month cycle	Overhead-heavy for SMB single-decision-maker deals
Solution Selling	Cold outreach to a buyer with latent need who hasn't shopped the category yet	Patronising to sophisticated buyers who already know the market
NEAT	Inbound SDR-stage qualification, 30-minute window to decide if it's worth a senior rep's time	Too light for true enterprise, pair with MEDDIC for the closer
GAP Selling	High-stakes calls where you have 60+ minutes and the buyer has many problems they haven't connected	Falls apart in under 30 minutes, no time for five-dimension Current State / Future State

How they layer

A modern hybrid playbook for any B2B sales org looks roughly like:

1. SDR qualification (NEAT), 15-min discovery, scorecard, hand-off.
2. Senior discovery call (GAP or Solution Selling), 60 min, five-dimension current state, explicit gap.
3. Demo and reframe (Challenger), bring the "this is what most buyers in your seat miss" insight to the demo.
4. Enterprise or committee deals (MEDDIC overlay), used by the closer in CRM scoring and pipeline reviews.
5. Close discipline (Sandler), up-front contracts on every meeting, no chasing, no discount.

SPIN sits underneath all of them as the question-shape hygiene, even a Challenger rep needs the Situation, Problem, Implication, Need-Payoff cadence inside the discovery moment.

---

Reading list, if you read five books this year

1. SPIN Selling Fieldbook, Rackham (the workbook, not the original).
2. The Challenger Sale, Dixon and Adamson.
3. The Sandler Rules, Mattson.
4. MEDDICC, Andy Whyte.
5. Gap Selling, Keenan.

The other two (Solution Selling, NEAT) are absorbed into the five above, read Eades's The New Solution Selling and Harris's The Seller's Journey only if you're going deeper.

---

The Anaboo take

Methodology is half the equation. The other half is whether your team actually runs it consistently, and that's what kills most sales orgs. The world's best discovery framework is useless if reps revert to product pitches under quota pressure.

At Anaboo, we treat sales methodology the same way we treat any other process inside a business: pick the right shape for the seat, embed it in your CRM and your AI tooling so it becomes the default path of least resistance, and use AI to keep the discipline alive when the manager is in another meeting. The frameworks above are the raw material. The AI Operating System is what makes the framework stick.