Red Thread Project — Building your sales approach — from prospecting to loyalty
- Goal: build, for a real or fictional offer (yours, a school case), a complete sales approach — from prospect targeting to loyalty and steering.
- Materials: the Sales & Negotiation cheat sheet below (methods, reflexes and benchmarks) to keep at hand. Reminder: ethical selling serves both parties — you help decide, you don't manipulate.
- Method: one step per level. You produce concrete tools (list, script, pitch, objection answers) and keep the red thread “listen first, help decide”.
⬇️ Download the Sales & Negotiation cheat sheet (TXT)
Step 0 · Level 0 — Lay the foundations (L0)
Clarify your offer (benefits), your market (competition), your personas; map your sales cycle and funnel; adopt the advisory stance.
Step 1 · Level 1 — Prospect (L1)
Target and build a qualified prospect list (GDPR/local rules); prepare a call script, a prospecting email and a LinkedIn approach; plan regular prospecting.
Step 2 · Level 2 — Run the meeting (L2)
Prepare a standard appointment (goal, framework); work on first contact, discovery through questioning, a CAB/SONCAS pitch and value-backed price presentation.
Step 3 · Level 3 — Objections & closing (L3)
List your offer's common objections and prepare how to handle them (dig deeper/restate/answer/check), price defense, closing techniques and follow-up with the undecided.
Step 4 · Level 4 — Negotiate & retain (L4)
Prepare a negotiation (goals, limits, trade-offs, BATNA) the win-win way; define your customer follow-up, upsell/cross-sell opportunities and referral approach.
Step 5 · Level 5 — Steer (L5)
Structure your follow-up in a CRM, choose your KPIs and a forecasting logic, adapt your approach to the context (B2B/B2C), and bring in digital/AI tools without losing the human touch.
Success criteria
- Clear foundations: offer (benefits), personas, sales cycle/funnel, advisory stance.
- Concrete prospecting tools (targeted, qualified list; call script; email; LinkedIn approach) and a regular prospecting plan.
- A mastered meeting: discovery through questioning, CAB/SONCAS pitch, value-backed price, objection answers and closing techniques.
- A win-win negotiation, loyalty (follow-up, upsell/cross-sell, referrals) and steering (CRM, KPIs, context adaptation) approach.