Create a repeatable route from a defined customer need to a deliverable agreement.
Your learning outcomes
Map the buying process and procurement evidence
Evaluate direct and partner channels
Design a bounded first sales and onboarding process
CLASS 7.1 / 60 MINUTES
Understand how a purchase happens
Map the decision journey
A business purchase often involves problem recognition, internal sponsorship, technical review, budget approval, procurement and implementation. Ask how similar purchases happened recently. Identify the evidence needed at each step and who can block progress. A helpful user may be a champion without owning the budget. For SignalBox, a maintenance lead might sponsor a trial while IT, operations and purchasing review different aspects. The map prevents the team from mistaking a positive meeting for a completed buying decision or a predictable closing date.
Build a proportionate evidence pack
Prepare materials that answer actual buying questions: intended use, tested performance, installation requirements, security approach, service scope, support responsibilities and commercial terms. Avoid sending a large generic brochure when a buyer needs one specific answer. Keep technical and commercial claims consistent with the tested product. If a requirement cannot be met, say so and decide whether the opportunity remains appropriate. The evidence pack should reduce uncertainty for both sides rather than bury limitations in a document that no one is likely to read.
Qualify without manipulating
Qualification asks whether the problem, authority, resources, timing and delivery fit justify further work. It is not a technique for pressuring an unsuitable customer. Agree a useful next step and clarify what each party needs to decide. Record why an opportunity is delayed or lost, including cases where doing nothing is reasonable. A small team should be willing to decline a contract that requires untested capabilities or disproportionate support. The best sales process protects customer trust and the company's ability to deliver.
PUT IT TO WORK
Your activity
Map a fictional purchase journey and list the evidence required by each role. Identify one condition that would disqualify the opportunity.
Produce this
A buying-process map and qualification checklist.
CLASS 7.2 / 60 MINUTES
Choose and govern a partner channel
Compare access with economics
A distributor, integrator, reseller or service partner may provide relationships and delivery capacity that a young venture lacks. It may also require margin, training, support and a reason to prioritise the offer. Compare the channel's customer access, technical capability, incentives and competing commitments. A logo on a presentation is not evidence of a productive partnership. For SignalBox, a maintenance provider might reach suitable workshops, but the team still needs to test whether the provider can sell, install and support the offer consistently.
Define the division of work
Specify who generates leads, qualifies customers, sets prices, signs agreements, installs, supports, collects payment and manages renewals. Identify what happens when a customer problem crosses organisational boundaries. Address data access, confidentiality, brand use and the permitted claims each party can make. These matters need appropriate commercial and legal review in a real relationship. A clear responsibility map is valuable before a contract is drafted because it reveals conflicts that a vague promise to work together would leave unresolved.
Pilot the channel as well as the product
Test a small number of opportunities with agreed training, evidence and review points. Measure the partner's effort, customer feedback, sales cycle and support load. Do not assume a successful founder-led sale proves that an external team can repeat the process. Include a route for correcting misleading claims and withdrawing access if responsibilities are not met. Review whether the relationship creates value for customers and both parties. Expansion should follow evidence of repeatability, not simply enthusiasm about the size of the partner's contact list.
PUT IT TO WORK
Your activity
Design a partner scorecard and a limited channel pilot. Assign sales, installation, support and customer-data responsibilities.
Produce this
A channel decision and partner operating map.
CLASS 7.3 / 60 MINUTES
Connect the promise to onboarding and renewal
Make the proposal testable
A useful proposal restates the customer's situation, the bounded offer, the evidence supporting it, exclusions, responsibilities, price basis and next steps. Avoid adding capabilities that the product team has not agreed to deliver. State assumptions and dependencies plainly. A proposal should help both parties decide whether the work fits, not merely maximise the chance of a signature. When legal terms or regulated issues arise, use appropriate professional review rather than treating a course template as a ready-to-sign agreement.
Design the handover into service
The sales handover should carry the intended use, agreed scope, customer contacts, technical requirements, acceptance criteria and outstanding risks into delivery. Confirm who owns onboarding and how a customer knows the service is ready. For SignalBox, installation, user training, report interpretation and incident contact may all matter. A repeated failure at handover can destroy the value created by a strong sales conversation. Use a checklist that is short enough to be used and detailed enough to expose missing commitments before work begins.
Learn from adoption and renewal
A first purchase does not prove lasting value. Follow whether users adopt the workflow, what support is required and why customers continue, expand, reduce use or leave. Define metrics consistently and avoid counting free trials as paying customers. Ask for permission before using names, quotations or case studies. Share findings with product and commercial teams so the offer improves. A responsible growth process includes an orderly exit or data return where appropriate, rather than making departure unnecessarily difficult to conceal weak retention.
PUT IT TO WORK
Your activity
Write a proposal outline and onboarding checklist, then choose three adoption signals and a renewal-review question.
Produce this
A first-customer playbook covering promise, handover, acceptance and review.
MODULE ASSIGNMENT / SELF-REVIEW
Build the evidence.
Build a market-entry playbook for one segment. Include its buying process, a direct-versus-partner decision, evidence pack and onboarding responsibilities.
Assignment self-review rubric
Criterion
Points
Realistic buying roles and qualification
25
Channel fit and partner incentives
25
Consistent proposal and delivery scope
30
Adoption feedback and customer trust
20
Use the rubric to evaluate your own work or ask a suitable mentor. Written assignments are not uploaded or automatically marked.