Call pull diagnosis

Purpose

Most lost deals are explained after the event by the seller's effort, or by the buyer's budget. This skill asks a sharper question: did the buyer have a pull, meaning a real project that had to happen now, with existing options that failed on a specific limitation? If not, no pitch fixes the call. If yes, the call shows whether the seller found it, tested it, and fitted the pitch to it.

When to use

• A sales, discovery, or demo call did not move forward, and the team wants to know why.
• A deal is stalled and the team needs to know whether a real project exists.
• A transcript needs a post-mortem with specific changes to make.

Route elsewhere when:

• The question is scoring the call against a rubric. Use call-scoring.
• The question is the follow-up after the call. Use call-followup-sweep.
• The question is the whole deal's qualification. Use deal-qualification-gates.

Inputs

• The full transcript, or the notes if no transcript exists.
• The deal stage and the outcome of the call.
• Any prior call transcripts on the same deal, for context.

Procedure

1. Read the whole transcript before writing anything. Analyze once, with the full context in mind.
2. Layer 1: did the buyer pull? Give a yes or no, with the quote that decides it. This comes first, because the rest depends on it.
3. Layer 2: was the buyer's pull visible in the call? List every project the buyer raised, even briefly, in the buyer's own words. Select the one that best fits the three tests: a project the buyer is trying to do (P), why it is unavoidable right now (U), and the options they have tried or considered, each with the limitation that made it fail (L and L). Write the pull as bullets, with a quote on every claim. Then state the smallest supply that would have resolved the named limitation, in terms that do not name the seller.
4. Layer 3: how did the seller perform? Check whether the seller tested the pull, whether the pitch addressed the buyer's named project, whether it resolved the named limitations, and whether it was small enough to fit the situation. Quote each point, or flag the absence.
5. Layer 4: what should change? Branch the advice on Layers 2 and 3. If there was no pull, say so and recommend the deal is not pursued on this basis. If the pull was there and the seller missed it, recommend the question or the proof that would have surfaced it. If the pull was there and the pitch missed it, recommend the change to the pitch.
6. Check the reading back. Restate the project, the unavoidability, and the limitations in the buyer's words, for the seller to confirm or correct.

Output

• The attribution line naming the framework and its author.
• The Layer 1 verdict, with the quote.
• The selected project, and the pull as bullets with quotes or flagged absences.
• The seller assessment, with each point quoted or flagged.
• The change to make, branched on the findings.
• The restated pull, for the seller to confirm.

Quality bar

Every claim about the buyer has a quote or a flagged absence. The verdict comes before the advice. Advice follows from the layers, not from general sales principles. Watch for a diagnosis built on the seller's summary rather than the transcript, a pitch critique with no buyer pull behind it, and an ideal customer described by demographics rather than by the situation.

Rules

• Read the whole transcript before writing.
• Every claim carries a quote or is flagged as an absence.
• Decide the buyer's pull before judging the seller.
• Do not give general sales advice in place of the diagnosis.
• Describe the ideal customer as a situation, not as a demographic.