Decide what’s worth chasing
The Pursue foundation installs one discovery and qualification standard and a scored go/no-go gate, so somebody owns the decision not to bid.
Sold as Precision Discovery & Qualification Foundation.
Why this exists
Discovery changes rep to rep, so two deals at the same stage are not the same deal.
Every inbound RFP gets answered, because declining one is a decision nobody is named to make. The cost is invisible: it shows up as a busy quarter with a thin pipeline.
What you get
- One shared discovery and qualification standard, with an explicit completion bar per element, tuned to deal size
- A structured discovery call framework — question sequencing, evidence bars, and the triggers that disqualify
- The Pursuit Gate — a scored go/no-go across nine elements on two axes, run before response work starts, with a named decision owner
- A delivery scoping read: an honest position on timeline, scope, complexity and resources
- Your internal delivery owner named as a participant in that scoping — so what gets sold is what your own team can deliver
- CRM fields and stage gates that make the standard the path of least resistance
- A rep and manager calibration session, so the standard survives contact with the team
How it runs
Scoped at kickoff — typically four to six weeks. We start by reading 10–15 of your real deals — won, lost and open — because a standard written from best practice describes somebody else’s company. Then we build the standard, the Pursuit Gate and the delivery-scoping read, and configure the CRM fields and stage gates. It closes with a calibration session for reps and managers.
Done means
The standard document, the CRM configuration and the Pursuit Gate are delivered, the calibration session has run, and the Deliverables Checklist is walked line by line with whoever signed the SOW and recorded in writing.
What this is not
Named here rather than discovered in week two:
- Territory design, quota setting or comp modeling. Different discipline, different vendor — and if that is your actual problem I will say so.
- Lead scoring and routing. This foundation starts once a real opportunity exists.
The Pursuit Gate’s scoring thresholds are calibrated to your deals, not to an industry benchmark dataset — there is no such dataset behind them and the delivery standard forbids presenting one. What makes the gate work is that a named person owns the call and the reasoning is recorded, not that the number came from somewhere authoritative.
The fee
Fixed fee, inside the published Silver band of $4,000–$10,000 per foundation.
Set by scope, agreed in writing before any work starts — and the acceptance definition above is written before the number is. Fifty percent on signature, the balance on recorded acceptance. The delivery clock starts when the deposit lands, not when the SOW is signed.
Next along the deal’s path: Respond · Measure. Or start with the Deal Velocity Diagnosis if you would rather have the read before the build.