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Steps 05–07 · Sales

Understand. Demonstrate. Help the Customer Decide.

Sales is understanding whether the problem is real, showing relevant value and helping the customer make a good business decision.

Customer Meeting Guide ↓

01 / 05 · Contact

Reach the right person, professionally.

Before a meeting

Customer Meeting Guide

Objective Understand the customer's existing FAI workflow.

Ask

  1. Can you walk me through your current FAI process?
  2. Who prepares ballooned drawings?
  3. Which step takes the most time?
  4. Where do corrections or rework occur?
  5. How do you handle drawing revisions?
  6. Who reviews the FAI?
  7. What happens if the report is delayed?

Listen for

  • Time
  • Rework
  • Errors
  • Review effort
  • Revision handling
  • Delivery impact
  • Approval delay

Do not

  • Don't pitch before you understand.
  • Don't ask for drawings or controlled information.
  • Don't criticise their current process.
  • Don't promise savings, compliance or features.

Desired next stepPermission to show a relevant product workflow or conduct a sample evaluation.

After the meeting, record

  • What they said, in their own words
  • Any time, rework or review effort they mentioned
  • Which pain hypotheses were confirmed, unclear or wrong
  • Who else is involved in a decision
  • The agreed next step, with a date

Send a thank-you and the agreed next step within the agreed time.

Write your meeting notes →

Step 05

Learn Sales

Sales means understanding whether the problem is real, demonstrating relevant value and helping the customer make a good business decision.

  1. Contact
  2. Discovery
  3. Validate Pain
  4. Demo
  5. Show Value
  6. Pilot
  7. Proposal
  8. Purchase

Do

  1. Learn the path: Contact → Discovery → Validate Pain → Demo → Show Value → Pilot → Proposal → Purchase.
  2. Find out who else is involved in a decision.
  3. Qualify honestly: is there a real problem, an owner and a reason to act?
  4. Keep a next step and a date for every opportunity.

Avoid

  • Don't push; diagnose.
  • Don't treat interest as a purchase.

ResultYou know where each opportunity stands and what must happen next.

Start Step 5 →
Learn more

  • B2B sales

    Helping a group decide whether a change is worth making.

    Customer-controlled exit criteria · Diagnose, don't push · Disqualify early

  • Qualification

    Problem, impact, urgency, authority, evaluation path, commercial plausibility.

    Seven criteria for pipeline · No raw leads · Defensible ratings

  • Decision-making unit

    Everyone who can say yes or no, and when they enter.

    Multi-thread · Security and procurement early · Champion enablement

  • Pipeline management

    Stage, next action and date for every opportunity — moved by customer commitment.

    Weighted by your own history · Stop / Continue · Lost is learning

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Step 06

Talk to the Customer

Understand before selling: ask about their current work, and listen.

Do

  1. Prepare with the Customer Meeting Guide.
  2. Ask about their last real FAI, not hypotheticals.
  3. Listen far more than you speak; write down their words.
  4. Agree a clear next step before you leave.

Also ask

  • What would make this process easier?
  • Who else would evaluate a new tool?

Avoid

  • Don't pitch in a discovery meeting.
  • Don't ask for drawings or controlled information.
  • Don't promise features or savings.

Don't ask yet

  • Do you want to buy our software?
  • What is your budget?
  • Is your current process bad?
  • Don't you think AI can solve this?
  • Can we replace your existing system?

ResultNotes in the customer's own words, and an agreed next step.

Start Step 6 →
Learn more

  • Discovery

    Learning the customer's situation through past-behaviour questions.

    Listen 70–80% · Said vs inferred · No demo

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Step 07

Demonstrate Value

Show only the product workflow that addresses a pain the customer confirmed — and the evidence for it.

  1. Customer Problem
  2. Relevant Product Workflow
  3. Business Benefit
  4. Evidence

Do

  1. Follow: Customer Problem → Relevant Product Workflow → Business Benefit → Evidence.
  2. Focus on effort saved, review effort, rework, traceability, preparation time and consistency.
  3. Use a fictitious drawing, never a customer's.
  4. Agree what an evaluation should measure.

Avoid

  • Don't demonstrate every feature.
  • Don't guarantee savings before measurement.
  • Don't show roadmap features as available today.

ResultAgreement on what a pilot should measure.

Start Step 7 →
Learn more

  • Consultative selling & demo

    Diagnose before demonstrating; show only what addresses validated pain.

    Honest gaps · 15 minutes · Current product only

  • ROI & business value

    Value from time saved, rework avoided or delay reduced — as ranges, from customer inputs.

    Conservative / expected / optimistic · Measured in pilots · Never guaranteed

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