Sales Playbook

Question 1

What are the criteria for pre-qualifying a lead? 4 things.

Answer 1

• Target industry
• No hard implementation blockers
• Prospect can lead us to Champion or is Champion?
• Impactful problem identified

Question 2

What are the key checks for moving an opp out of qualifying? 8 things.

Answer 2

• No tech or process blockers
• Trigger to change identified
• Pain quantified (metrics)
• Budget considerations discussed
• Competitors identified
• Close date estimated
• Champion validated
• Economic Buyer identified.

Question 3

What are key elements of a proposal? 6 things.

Answer 3

Executive summary (1-page).

Business case (why now?).

Solution details (what?).

Macro-planning (how?).

UpSlide’s credentials (who?).

Pricing (how much?).

Question 4

What is the role of the Mutual Action Plan (MAP)?

Answer 4

Align on key milestones, ensure collaboration with the Champion, and maintain control of the process.

Question 5

What is the goal of proposal validation?

Answer 5

To secure a verbal agreement from the Economic Buyer.

Question 6

What are the stages of the sales cycle?

Answer 6

Pre-qualifying -> Qualifying -> Proposal Building -> Proposal Validation -> Obtaining Go -> Closed

Question 7

What activities are involved in proposal validation? 3 things

Answer 7

Proposal meeting, negotiation (if needed), and sending the business quote.

Question 8

What should be achieved in the proposal meeting?

Answer 8

Confirmation of value proposition, alignment on closing and implementation plan, and financials validation.

Question 9

What is the exit criteria for proposal validation?

Answer 9

Proposal pitched, stakeholders aligned, financials agreed, and quote sent.

Question 10

What is a “trigger to change the current state”?

Answer 10

A time-sensitive, business-specific event creating urgency and prompting immediate action.

Question 11

What are the key components of validating a Champion?

Answer 11

Personal interest in the deal, influence or power within the company, and proactive collaboration.

Question 12

Why is quantifying pain important?

Answer 12

It positions you as a strategic partner, helps with ROI discussions, and builds trust with decision-makers.

Question 13

What is a frequent mistake during proposal validation?

Answer 13

Not aligning the proposal with the Champion and key stakeholders.

Question 14

What are the key characteristics of a valid trigger?

Answer 14

Internal: Executive priorities, RFP deadlines.

External: Regulatory changes, market shifts.

Personal: Career targets, recognition.

Question 15

What are the main decision criteria to uncover from your champion / prospect?

Answer 15

Pricing preferences.

Product features needed.

Credentials and track record.

Implementation success likelihood.

Corporate robustness (e.g., company size, profitability).

Question 16

What are good competitor-related questions to ask?

Answer 16

What did you like about them that you don’t like about us?

What do you like about us that you didn’t like about them?

How would you rate us so far?

Question 17

What questions help validate a Champion?

Answer 17

What’s in it for them if the deal succeeds?

How are they driving internal discussions?

Do they have access to key decision-makers?

Question 18

What should you understand about the prospect during negotiation? 3 things

Answer 18

Their objectives.

Success metrics (e.g., cost savings, productivity gains).

Their purchase process nuances.

Question 19

Why should you let the prospect speak first?

Answer 19

It reveals their priorities and sets the negotiation tone. (“Whoever speaks first loses.”)

Question 20

What are valid gets to request during negotiation if you give them something?

Answer 20

Early close date.

Reference commitments.

Marketing collaborations (e.g., LinkedIn posts, event panelists).

Question 21

Why is the proposal critical in closing?

Answer 21

It connects business objectives to financials, reassures decision-makers, and highlights ROI, making the price a no-brainer.

Question 22

How should financials be presented?

Answer 22

In a single slide with clear ROI estimates and optional scopes.

Question 23

How do you quantify pain effectively? 3 things

Answer 23

Calculate productivity gains (e.g., hours saved per user per month).

Estimate financial impact (e.g., reduced errors, compliance costs).

Include non-core benefits (e.g., employee satisfaction).

Question 24

What’s a common pitfall when quantifying pain?

Answer 24

Framing UpSlide as an expense rather than a cost-saving investment.

Question 25

When does the qualifying end?

Answer 25

In truth, never. You should always be turning up to meetings ready to ask questions.

• have you fully tested your Champion?
• what key objectives of the economic buyer does this align with?
• why are they signing now?

Question 26

What makes up 80% of the sale?

Answer 26

Qualification.

If you have asked impactful questions and got impactful information, then you are 80% of the way there.

It is mostly all about the information you gather.

Question 27

How do you gain trust and credibility during the qualification / questioning process?

Answer 27

By sharing inside knowledge to the industry

e.g., client stories from one of their competitors

stats about the industry they don’t know

Question 28

What are you?

Answer 28

AN EXPERT!!

You do this for a living, day in and day out. Back yourself.

You know that you need to qualify before you show a demo.

You know that having a broken link won’t work for them in the long run.

BE CONFIDENT IN THIS

Question 29

How do you create urgency in a deal?

Answer 29

You must find the trigger.

A good trigger = the objective of the economic buyer.

To find the trigger, start with the pain.

e.g., analysts waste 3/4 hours a week on manual tasks.

Then ask, SO WHAT? Why does this matter? Why does this mean they won’t hit their annual targets/objectives?

Question 30

How to secure a close date?

Answer 30

Your prospects want to know when they will have UpSlide on their laptops, so you must work back from this date, factoring in 10 weeks of setup to get a close date.

Want this for the summer intake in June? Then we need to have this agreed by end of March.

Question 31

How should you be turning up to every call?

Answer 31

SUPER SHARP.

Have it written down:

• what is a good outcome from this?
• what MEDDPICC fields do you need?
• what’s in it for the other person?
• what value are you bringing to the table?

Question 32

When someone is being really positive about the product and loves it, what should you do?

Answer 32

Continue to test them. Ask for the connection to the senior stakeholders straightaway. If they push back, ask why. What haven’t they seen to convince them the seniors would get value from this?

Question 33

Why do you always need to be active listening when a prospect is speaking?

Answer 33

Because you need to latch on to the micro messages they drop. If they mention a tech committee, DIG DEEP.

Who sits on it? Who leads it?
Why has it been setup?
How does it feed into the broader company’s objectives?

Question 34

What should you do before asking about metrics?

Answer 34

Ask about the bigger strategy for the firm and the c-suite’s objectives for the year. Then, using this, ask about metrics that they are tracking.

This will help you shape the UpSlide questions to fit this narrative.

Question 35

What should default next steps be?

Answer 35

It should always be to connect to decision makers. Get to them as soon as possible.

If the decision makers want to hear from analysts, then go to analysts. But don’t go here first. Go to the DM’s first.