Write down your sales process

What it does

Most founders run every call from memory. There’s no written process, so each rep sells differently, prep is five minutes on LinkedIn, follow-up depends on who remembers, and the CRM gets updated when someone has time.

The result is a win rate stuck around 20%, deals that drift after great demos, and reps who can’t close without you. Write it down once, from the calls you actually win, and every call after it runs the same way.

What you need

• Five to ten recent sales calls, wins and losses, recorded or transcribed
• Every step you take today, from first touch to signed
• A doc, or the free template on this page

How it works

1. 1

   Collect your calls

   Five to ten recent calls, wins and losses, plus every step you take from first touch to signed. Write the process from what works on your calls, not from a template.

   Prompt for Claude or ChatGPT, with the transcripts attached

   I'm attaching transcripts of [NUMBER] of my sales calls, wins and losses.
   
   Draft my sales process from what actually happens on the calls that close:
   1. The stages from booked to signed, with what has to be true to move to the next one.
   2. The hour, minute by minute: what I do in each part, and what I want to leave it with.
   3. The discovery questions I ask on the calls I win, in the order I ask them, quoted.
   4. The fit checks: what has to be true for us to help them, and how I ask about each.
   5. The objections that came up, quoted, with the answers that worked.
   6. How the calls I won ended, quoted: what I said to ask for the decision.
   
   Use only what's in the transcripts. Where wins and losses differ, show me the difference.

2. 2

   Map the stages, with a target for each

   Booked, showed, qualified, pitched and signed, plus follow-up and nurture. Give each stage a target, so you can see where it leaks. With no history yet, start from typical rates: about 75% of booked calls show, 80% of those qualify, and 20% of qualified calls sign. Then swap in your own. Getting people to show up is its own playbook: cut no-shows.

3. 3

   Script the hour

   Minutes	Step	Leave it with
   0–2	Introduction	Control of the call, and who decides
   2–22	Discovery	Their goal, their numbers, the cost of doing nothing, and a yes to “now”
   22–29	Proof and the problem	A reason to listen, and agreement that what they’ve tried won’t get them there
   29–42	The demo	Their own path, on their numbers, with a yes after each step
   42–44	A case study	Proof it worked for someone like them
   44–50	The pitch	The offer, the price, and the guarantee if you have one
   50–58	Objections and the close	A yes, a no, or a decision call in the calendar
   58–60	Next steps	The dates, said back to them

   If a step runs long, take the time from the demo, never from the close. Prep for each call is its own playbook: brief yourself before every call.

4. 4

   Run discovery in seven moves

   In this order, because each one sets up the next:

   1. Connection: “If this works, what would you hope to achieve in the next 6 to 12 months?”
   2. Background: “What have you tried so far? What happened?”
   3. Situation: their numbers, confirmed out loud.
   4. Needs analysis: play it all back in their words, with a number on it. “Is that right?”
   5. Future pace: “Picture six months from now, with this solved. What does it change for you?”
   6. Consequence: “And if nothing changes, what does a year from now look like?”
   7. Timing: “Why solve this now, and not in six months?”

   Skip consequence and nothing happens: a buyer who can’t see what it costs to stay put has no reason to move. Before each next question, repeat their last few words back. The technique is Chris Voss’s: they feel heard, and they keep talking.

5. 5

   Write your fit checks and your objections

   Three to five things that have to be true for you to help them. Ask each one plainly, and if one fails, say so now, not at the end. Then your top objections, each with the answer that has worked. When one comes up, find the root first (“What’s behind that?”), then ask the questions that let them see it isn’t really an objection. Nobody should leave the call feeling pushed.

6. 6

   Close, then follow up the same way every time

   Ask for the decision, then stop talking. A yes: book the next steps before you hang up. A not yet: “What would you need to see or know to decide?”, then a decision call in the calendar, with anyone else who signs. A no: “What’s the main reason?”, and log it. Then follow up for 19 days on everyone who didn’t decide.

7. 7

   Record every call, and change the pitch on the numbers

   Record each call, and log it within the hour: the numbers, the fit checks, their objections in their own words, the outcome and the next step with a date. Judge your close rate against qualified calls, after 20 to 50 pitches. At 20% or more, keep the pitch and fix the stage that leaks most. Under 20%, change the demo and the pitch. Still under 20% after that, go back to who you sell to and your offer, not the script.

What good looks like

Every call runs the same hour, in the same order, whoever takes it. Every open deal has a next step and a date. And a new rep can learn it from the doc and your recorded calls, instead of from you.

Mistakes to skip

• Rewriting the script after every lost deal. One call is an anecdote. Change the pitch on the numbers, after 20 to 50 qualified pitches, one thing at a time.
• Writing the process from a template instead of your own winning calls.
• Judging your close rate against booked calls. No-shows and bad fits aren’t a pitch problem.