Score Your Sales System

Before the seven steps. The steps below move prospects through a pipeline. The Edge is what makes the right prospect want to move. It comes down to two things: exactly who you serve, and what makes you the only credible choice for them, in the words your buyer would use. Get this right and every step below gets easier. Get it wrong and even a strong pipeline just sends a message that sounds like everyone else.

E1. We can name the specific buyer we are the only credible choice for, narrowly enough that it clearly is not everyone.

We aim broadly, roughly anyone with the problem We have a target, but it is loose Yes, a specific, narrow best-fit buyer

E2. We can say what makes us the only credible choice in the words our buyers use about their own problem, not in our product or feature terms.

We mostly describe what we do or our features We can say what is different, but in our own terms Yes, in the buyer's own language

1. We use a written guide to identify our best-fit customers and skip the businesses we shouldn’t pursue.

No Sometimes Yes, consistently

2. We can describe in one clear sentence the specific problem we solve for the type of buyer we target most.

Vague / Product-focused Mostly clear Perfectly clear

3. The buyer's actions trigger every stage of our sales process, not our internal tasks.

Seller-centric stages Mixed approach Buyer-centric milestones

4. Every deal has a clear next step and a firm date attached to it.

Rarely / Manual Some deals All deals, updated weekly

5. We can produce a reliable sales projection in five minutes.

Impossible Would take an hour Yes, data is live

6. We record exactly why we lose every deal, and we review those reasons on a regular schedule.

No / Anecdotal Inconsistently Yes, with data reviews

7. We follow a written, step-by-step follow-up plan that uses email, LinkedIn, and phone in a defined order.

Single attempts Inconsistent follow-up Complete, multi-step system

8. Our process guarantees that no new prospect waits longer than 24 hours for a first response.

Hit or miss Most of the time Guaranteed by system

9. Our system tracks our emails and meetings automatically so we rarely enter data by hand.

Heavy manual entry Basic syncing Highly automated sync

10. We use a ranking system that automatically tells us which prospects to contact first.

We don't rank leads We rank them ourselves The system ranks them for us

11. We hold a weekly review to breathe life into quiet deals and move them forward.

No review We just chat about it Strict weekly schedule

12. We identify where we lose the most deals and track that stage every month.

We don't know We have a hunch We track it monthly

13. A new hire could start selling on day one using only our written sales guide.

It's all in our heads It's scattered It's all in one place

14. Our sales process runs on a system that doesn't depend on any one person.

It would stop It would slow down It would keep running

15. Which of these best describes your biggest sales system gap right now?

We lose deals but do not know exactly why Deals stall and we have no reliable way to revive them We cannot consistently reach the right people in the first place

16. When a deal is lost, what most commonly happens next?

We move on without any review We discuss it briefly but record nothing We assume price or timing without digging deeper

17. If you had to guess, where do most deals die for you?

Early stage (first contact or discovery) Mid stage (demo or proposal) Late stage (closing)

One more thing (optional)

Generate Your Performance Report

Calculate My Scores →