founder-sales

What this skill does

# Founder Sales

## Scope

**Covers**
- Founder-led sales for early-stage products (typically pre-seed → Series A)
- Getting initial design partners / first customers (incl. first 10–30)
- Outbound + warm intro outreach design (not high-scale automation)
- Diagnostic discovery (problem-first; demo later)
- Decision enablement (your #1 competitor is often “no decision”)
- Closing-to-activation (white-glove onboarding to prevent “yes → silence”)
- Building a simple, repeatable learning loop (message → calls → iteration)

**When to use**
- “Help me get my first customers / first 10 customers.”
- “Create a founder-led sales playbook.”
- “Write a discovery call script (diagnostic, no demo).”
- “Create an outreach sequence for my ICP.”
- “Prospects go dark / end in no decision—help me close with a clear next step.”
- “We close deals but onboarding stalls—create an activation/implementation plan.”

**When NOT to use**
- You need to define the product, ICP, or positioning from scratch (do that first; then return here)
- You’re scaling a full sales org (SDRs, AEs, quotas, forecasting, territories) rather than founder-led learning
- You want scraped lead lists, spammy outreach, or anything deceptive/manipulative
- You need legal/privacy/security advice or contract language (coordinate with qualified experts)

## Inputs

**Minimum required**
- Product: what it does, for whom, and the core “pain → outcome”
- ICP hypothesis: target roles + company type (and who pays vs who uses)
- Stage + goal: “first X customers” and timeframe (e.g., 10 customers in 8 weeks)
- Offer: pricing hypothesis (or pilot structure) + what “success” looks like in 30 days
- Proof: founder credibility and 1–3 proof points (results, prior work, early users)
- Constraints: founder time per week + preferred channels (warm intros, email, LinkedIn, communities)

**Missing-info strategy**
- Ask up to 5 questions from [references/INTAKE.md](references/INTAKE.md).
- If answers aren’t available, proceed with explicit assumptions and label unknowns. Include an **Assumptions & unknowns** section and a short **Validation plan**.

## Outputs (deliverables)

Produce a **Founder Sales Sprint Pack** in Markdown (in-chat; or as files if requested):

1) **Context snapshot** (stage, goal, constraints, time box)
2) **ICP wedge + founder POV** (who, what pain, why now, why you, what you won’t do)
3) **Targeting plan + target list** (criteria + initial list table + next actions)
4) **Outreach kit** (warm intro request + cold message + follow-ups + meeting ask)
5) **Diagnostic discovery kit** (agenda + question bank + call notes template; “no demo first”)
6) **Decision enablement kit** (reduce “no decision”: decision guide + risk reversal + mutual action plan)
7) **White-glove activation plan** (implementation checklist + 30-day success plan + follow-up cadence)
8) **Learning loop** (tracking + weekly review + message iteration plan)
9) **Risks / Open questions / Next steps** (always included)

Templates: [references/TEMPLATES.md](references/TEMPLATES.md)

## Workflow (7 steps)

### 1) Intake + stage gating (founder-led focus)
- **Inputs:** User context; [references/INTAKE.md](references/INTAKE.md).
- **Actions:** Confirm the goal (e.g., first 10 customers), time box, ICP hypothesis, and founder availability. Identify “must-not-do” constraints (ethics, brand, compliance). Decide what a *successful* 30-day customer outcome looks like.
- **Outputs:** Context snapshot + success definition + constraints list.
- **Checks:** The goal is measurable and time-boxed (who/what/by when). Founder involvement is explicit.

### 2) Craft the founder POV + ICP wedge
- **Inputs:** Product + founder credibility + early signals.
- **Actions:** Write a founder POV that leads with insight (not features): the problem, why existing approaches fail, and why now. Tighten to 1 primary ICP wedge (plus 1 secondary) with exclusion criteria.
- **Outputs:** ICP wedge statement + founder POV one-pager.
- **Checks:** A target buyer can self-identify in 10 seconds. The POV is specific enough to *repel* non-ICP prospects.

### 3) Targeting + outreach plan (warm first, then cold)
- **Inputs:** ICP wedge; channel constraints; any existing network.
- **Actions:** Define targeting criteria and build an initial target list. Create a “warm intro ask” and a cold outreach sequence designed for *learning*, not volume. Specify personalization hooks (“budding moments”) to test in messaging.
- **Outputs:** Target list table + outreach kit (warm + cold + follow-ups).
- **Checks:** Each message has a single clear ask and a believable reason for the recipient to respond.

### 4) Run diagnostic discovery (no demo first)
- **Inputs:** Discovery goals; [references/TEMPLATES.md](references/TEMPLATES.md) (Discovery kit).
- **Actions:** Write a diagnostic call script that keeps the first conversation problem-first. Use questions that help the buyer *self-diagnose* and quantify impact. Capture language verbatim for future messaging.
- **Outputs:** Discovery agenda + question bank + call notes template.
- **Checks:** The script does not default to a product demo. The call ends with a concrete next step.

### 5) Beat “no decision” with decision enablement
- **Inputs:** Common objections; buyer risk profile; desired next step.
- **Actions:** Create decision-enablement assets: (a) a short decision guide (options + criteria), (b) a risk-reversal / pilot framing, and (c) a mutual action plan (MAP) that makes the path forward easy and safe.
- **Outputs:** Decision enablement kit (decision guide + risk reversal + MAP).
- **Checks:** The buyer has a low-risk path to try/decide. The “do nothing” option is explicitly contrasted with its cost.

### 6) Close-to-activation (white-glove implementation)
- **Inputs:** What “implemented” means; onboarding steps; resources available.
- **Actions:** Define activation milestones and an onboarding plan. Prevent “yes → silence” by scheduling implementation during the close, assigning owners, and creating a follow-up cadence. Treat the sale as complete only after activation.
- **Outputs:** Activation/implementation checklist + 30-day success plan + follow-up cadence.
- **Checks:** Every “closed” customer has a scheduled kickoff and clear activation criteria.

### 7) Quality gate + finalize (learning loop)
- **Inputs:** Draft pack.
- **Actions:** Run [references/CHECKLISTS.md](references/CHECKLISTS.md) and score with [references/RUBRIC.md](references/RUBRIC.md). Add a lightweight tracking + weekly review loop. Always include **Risks / Open questions / Next steps** and a short validation plan.
- **Outputs:** Final Founder Sales Sprint Pack.
- **Checks:** Assumptions are explicit; next steps are executable; artifacts are copy/paste ready.

## Quality gate (required)
- Use [references/CHECKLISTS.md](references/CHECKLISTS.md) and [references/RUBRIC.md](references/RUBRIC.md).
- Always include: **Risks**, **Open questions**, **Next steps**.

## Examples

**Example 1 (first 10 customers, B2B SaaS):**  
“Use `founder-sales`. We’re building scheduling automation for outpatient clinics. Goal: 10 paying customers in 8 weeks. ICP: clinic ops managers. Offer: $500/mo pilot. Output: a Founder Sales Sprint Pack with outreach sequences, a diagnostic discovery script, a MAP, and a white-glove onboarding plan.”

**Example 2 (design partners, new category):**  
“Use `founder-sales`. We’re a security workflow tool for SOC teams. Goal: 6 design partners in 6 weeks. We have strong founder credibility but no case studies yet. Output: target list criteria + outreach kit + decision enablement assets that reduce buyer risk.”

**Boundary example:**  
“Write a generic cold email that works for any product, and send 10,000 emails.”  
Response: explain this skill is for founder-led learning and ethical, targeted outreach; request an ICP wedge + proof points and produce a small, testable sequence and learning plan instead.