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PLAYBOOK · GTM STRATEGY
✓ APPROVED

Diagnose why you are missing the number

The forecast is soft and the room is guessing. Find the real cause before you cut or spend.

[ SALES OPERATOR ]

Diagnose why you are missing the number

G / Groundthe problem that started all of it
GTM Strategy

The forecast is soft and the room is guessing.

Find the real cause before you cut or spend.

A / Assignthe build, block by block, and who owns each one. Open a step to see it run.
HUMAN + AI, IN THE LOOP
The skills run the work. You stay in the loop on the calls that need judgment.
Salesforce01
Build funnel metrics the meeting will actually trust.
Details
Quantify the funnel stage by stage and name the single worst-converting transition in numbers, the exact stage strike-zone-analyst drills into next.
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AI
Salesforce02
Find where the funnel leaks and what to fix.
Details
Drill only the exact stage funnel-metrics just flagged and diagnose the root cause by channel and scoring gap, not a second pass over the whole funnel.
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AI
Salesforce03
Get a straight verdict on every open deal.
Details
Separate the real deals from the hopeful ones.
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AI
Salesforce04
Find what your wins, losses, and churn share.
Details
See which channel concentrates your closed-lost and churn risk, then hand that channel finding to forecast-call-prep as a named risk scripted into the call, not just color commentary.
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AI + human
Salesforce05
Walk into the forecast call with a number you can defend.
Details
Rebuild a number you can defend, with pattern-analyst's channel finding folded into the named risk and press question for every deal sourced from that channel.
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AI
T / Tie backthe result it drove, and how they know
RESULT · 01

A number the room stopped arguing with

The same forecast discipline that cut deal slippage 50%+, now defending a single quarter's number.

OUTPUT · 01

The leak named

OUTPUT · 02

The deals that are real

OUTPUT · 03

The pattern underneath

OUTPUT · 04

A defensible forecast

The Sales Operator
01 / WHY RUN IT

The number is soft, the room starts guessing, and the loudest voice wins the theory. Someone wants to cut spend, someone wants to cut heads, and nobody has actually named which stage is leaking, why, or which deals are real before the decision gets made.

RUN THIS AND YOU CAN
The single worst-converting stage, named in numbers everyone agrees on
The root cause behind that exact stage, by channel and scoring gap
The deals that are real, separated from the hopeful ones
A defensible commit number with the channel risk scripted into the call
02 / THE RUN, STEP BY STEP

The workflow that solves it, one step at a time.

Each step is the plain question you are already asking. The skills answer them in order, one handing its receipt to the next.

1✓ TESTED
Build funnel metrics the meeting will actually trust.

Conversion by stage, velocity, and win rate with every definition pinned, and the leak named.

YOU GETStage conversion, time-in-stage, win rate, and a definition ledger.
OPEN THE SKILL →
2✓ TESTED
Find where the funnel leaks and what to fix.

Finds the leak, the accounts to work next, and where the scoring model is quietly letting you down.

YOU GETThe funnel-leak diagnosis, the account ranking, and the scoring audit.
OPEN THE SKILL →
3✓ TESTED
Get a straight verdict on every open deal.

Healthy, slipping, stuck, or dead. Checks real activity, whether the rep qualified it, and whether the deal is multi-threaded.

YOU GETThe risk taxonomy, the activity checks, and the per-deal verdict format.
OPEN THE SKILL →
4✓ TESTED
Find what your wins, losses, and churn share.

Reads closed-won, closed-lost, and churned accounts, then hands back a ranked list of lookalike accounts to work.

YOU GETThe won / lost / churn pattern logic and the lookalike ranking.
OPEN THE SKILL →
5✓ TESTED
Walk into the forecast call with a number you can defend.

Sorts each deal into commit, best-case, or pipeline by evidence, flags one risk, and scripts what to press each rep on.

YOU GETThe evidence-based sort, one risk per deal, and the press question.
OPEN THE SKILL →
WHERE YOU LAND

The leak named, the deals that are real, the pattern underneath, and a defensible forecast.

EVERY STEP, TESTED AND PASSED
EVAL RESULTPASS4/4 dimensions
HOW WE EVAL →
Skills resolve
Structure + proof
Example chat
Quality judge
  • All 5 chained skills resolve to real, scored skills.
  • Has a problem, an outcome, 2+ steps, and proof from a real build.
  • Ships an example chat showing the play run in Claude.
  • Reads in plain operator voice, grounded in a real build.
Last eval run 2026-09-12
DEEP EVAL · PASS
THE STANDARD →

We did not just check the structure. A judge read this play against the full text of every skill it chains (composition), then ran it on a real scenario end to end (simulated). It passed both. Test scenario: A Head of Sales is about to miss the quarter and the room is arguing theories instead of facts.

03 / WHO ELSE HAS TO MOVE

This play runs across the org, not inside sales.

Every function below owns a piece of the play. Skip one and it stalls where most GTM plays stall: in the handoff.

REVOPS
Stage definitions and funnel data everyone accepts

Without it: The room argues the numbers instead of the cause.

MARKETING
The truth about the flagged channel's lead quality

Without it: Sales fixes a leak marketing keeps refilling.

FINANCE
The reforecast the board actually sees

Without it: The defensible number and the board number diverge.

CS
Churn context behind the closed-lost pattern

Without it: Half the pattern stays invisible.

04 / SEE IT RUN

Watch the skills answer in order.

Describe your situation in plain language. The right skill fires on its own and hands its receipt to the next.

EXAMPLE CHATSam, Head of Sales, running the loop in one sitting
S
We are going to miss the quarter and the room is guessing why. I want the real cause before I start cutting spend. Start with the funnel.
S
Step 1· Funnel Metrics
I pinned conversion by stage, velocity, and win rate with every definition spelled out, so the meeting argues about the fix and not the math. One stage is clearly dragging the whole funnel.
Receipt
Demo-to-proposal conversion sits at 22%, down from 41% last quarter.
S
So where is it actually leaking, and is scoring part of the problem?
S
Step 2· Strike Zone Analyst
I traced the leak past that one stage and audited the scoring model behind it. The model is sending reps into a segment that almost never converts, which is where the drop is coming from.
Receipt
38% of demos went to a segment converting at 6%, a scoring escalator set too loose.
S
Now tell me which of the deals still in the forecast are actually real.
S
Step 3· Deal Health Analyst
I gave each open deal a straight verdict and checked real activity and whether it is multi-threaded. A chunk of what is propping up the forecast is single-threaded with no recent buyer activity.
verdictshealthy, slipping, stuck, dead
Receipt
Of $4.2M forecast, $1.5M is stuck or single-threaded and should not be in commit.
S
Is there a pattern under the losses I should know about?
S
Step 4· Pattern Analyst
I read the closed-lost and churned cohorts together by channel. Paid is the weakest performer in both: the highest loss rate and the channel behind 3 of the last 4 churns. I am handing that finding straight to forecast-call-prep as a named risk on every paid-sourced deal still in the forecast.
Receipt
Paid: worst closed-lost rate and 3 of the last 4 churns, flagged as a named risk on the 2 paid-sourced deals in this quarter's pipeline.
S
Rebuild me a forecast number I can defend on Friday.
S
Step 5· Forecast Call Prep
I re-sorted every deal into commit, best-case, or pipeline by evidence, not optimism, folded pattern-analyst's paid-channel finding into the press question for every paid-sourced deal, and scripted what to press each rep on. You walk in with a number and the reasoning behind it.
Receipt
Defensible commit lands at $2.7M, with the press question written for each of the 6 shaky deals, including a named paid-channel check on the 2 sourced from paid.
05 / SEE IT IN PRODUCTION

Before you run it, I ran it for real.

This workflow is genericized from a real build. Here is the number it moved, and what I actually did.

THE BUILD · GTM OPERATING RHYTHM
Reporting That Drove Action
65% → 90%+
forecast accuracy, on a Deal Confidence Score instead of a guess
-50%+
deal slippage, via the Deal Confidence Score
6 motions
one weekly read: leads, deals, expansion, churn, renewals, forecast
2 teams
sales and CS, running the week off one read
WHAT I DID
01
Automate the report itself. The weekly report generated itself from the source of truth, so no one spent a day assembling slides. The time went to the action, not the assembly.
02
Let AI surface what a human read misses. AI read across the whole dataset and pulled the insights a person scanning a dashboard would never see: the account quietly cooling, the team over-consuming its seats, the deal whose activity did not match its stage.
03
Build the sales action layer. The report did not end at a number. It surfaced the hot leads worth working and a deal tracker with every deal risk and next step, each pointed at the rep who could move it.

A report a leader reads and a report a team acts on are different objects. Automate the assembly, let AI surface the insights a human read misses, and build an action layer for every motion, sales and CS, so one weekly read drives hot leads, expansion, churn saves, renewals, and a forecast the team trusts. The report becomes the operating rhythm, not the rear-view mirror.

Dig into the full build
06 / ROLL IT OUT AND INSPECT IT · THE OTHER HALF

The diagnosis is only as good as the call it changes

The five skills hand you the leaking stage, the root cause, the real deals, and a rebuilt forecast; the number recovers only when the next forecast call runs differently because of it. Here is how a sales leader turns a diagnosis into changed behavior instead of a well-argued postmortem.

THE FRAMEWORK BEHIND IT
The named-risk forecast call

Every deal from the flagged channel enters the call with pattern-analyst's risk named and a press question scripted from forecast-call-prep. Managers rehearse the press questions before the call, and the call is not over until every named risk has an owner.

  1. 01
    Train managers on the stage read

    Walk managers through the funnel-metrics transition that leaked and what strike-zone-analyst found underneath it, so they can spot the same pattern forming in their own team before the next miss.

  2. 02
    Separate real from hopeful, weekly

    The deal-health-analyst verdict runs weekly, not just during the postmortem. A hopeful deal caught in week two costs a conversation; caught in week twelve it costs the quarter.

  3. 03
    Script the press questions

    Forecast-call-prep gives every at-risk deal a named risk and a press question. Managers ask it verbatim on the call; vague concern produces vague answers.

  4. 04
    Reinspect the leak next quarter

    Put a date on rerunning funnel-metrics against the same transition. A fix that does not show up in the stage math was a meeting, not a fix.

07 / INSTALL THE WHOLE PLAYBOOK

One plugin. 5 skills, bundled.

The whole playbook installs as a single plugin in Claude Code, no copy-pasting 5 times. Or grab any single step above. It runs on what you paste; connect your stack to go live.

OR KICK IT OFF IN CHAT
Here is my situation: [describe your workflow or account in a sentence or two]. Walk me through Diagnose why you are missing the number step by step, and run each skill as we go.
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