WHO IT IS FOR
You are not stuck because you are bad at this. You are stuck because nobody told you what the next move is.
The deal went quiet. You have sent two follow-ups. You do not want to sound desperate, and you do not want to walk away. So you wait — and waiting is the one move that is definitely wrong.
WHAT IS REALLY HAPPENING
Your manager inspects the deal. Your enablement stocked the shelf. Your CRM wants the stage updated. None of that tells you what to do on Tuesday.
THE WORK
Work the deal in front of you: what changed, who has gone quiet and what that usually means.
Test whether your champion is a champion, or simply managing you.
Name the next decision and the move that follows it — instead of adding another follow-up.
Use opt-in support, not assessment. Sales Bugle does not report on you.
WHAT CHANGES
MEDDIC can feel like an interrogation, so sellers stop using it properly. A nine-step motion built on buyer milestones is a conversation, and you get more out of discovery than you ever did from a scorecard.
THE NEXT MOVE
Do not start with a programme. Start with the one live deal, account or operating problem that tells you where the motion is missing.
PRINCIPLES TO APPLY
The thinking behind the move.
09
Play the person, not your hand.
Someone will always be cheaper, bigger or first. The best player at the table wins with worse cards by reading what the person across from them needs, fears and has to defend upstairs.
Read in the manifesto10
Every complex deal has a next decision.
The sales job is not to generate activity. It is to identify the one decision that must happen now and choose the move that makes it more likely.
Read in the manifesto11
Measure Buyer Activity, not seller activity
Whether the buyer articulated their problem back to you, gave you access to power or sent the first message after reaching the product. One hundred emails that produce one qualified conversation count as one.
Read in the manifesto