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Sales

First PublishedLast UpdatedByAtif Alam

Framework at a glance

Section titled “Framework at a glance”
mindmap
  root((Sales))
    Prospecting & Lead Gen
      Outbound Outreach
        Cold Email
        Cold Calling
        Social Selling
      Inbound Leads
      Referrals
      List Building
    Qualification
      BANT
        Budget
        Authority
        Need
        Timeline
      Lead Scoring
      ICP Fit
    Pipeline & Process
      Stages
        Discovery
        Proposal
        Negotiation
        Close
      CRM Management
      Cadence & Follow-up
    Selling & Engagement
      Needs Discovery
      Demos & Presentations
      Objection Handling
      Negotiation
    Closing
      Contracts & Terms
      Pricing & Approvals
      Signature
    Analytics & Forecasting
      Quota Attainment
      Win Rate
      Deal Velocity
      Forecast Accuracy
      Pipeline Coverage

The minimum core sub-components underneath Sales are:

  • Prospecting & Lead Generation — finding and identifying potential buyers (outreach, inbound leads, referrals, list building).
  • Qualification — determining whether a lead is a real fit and worth pursuing (e.g., BANT: Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline).
  • Pipeline & Process Management — moving deals through defined stages (discovery → proposal → negotiation → close); this is the operational backbone.
  • Selling / Engagement — the actual conversations: needs discovery, demos/presentations, handling objections, and negotiation.
  • Closing — securing commitment and finalizing the deal (contracts, terms, signatures).
  • Sales Analytics & Forecasting — tracking performance and predicting revenue (quota attainment, win rate, deal velocity, forecast accuracy).

Stripped to the bare minimum, Sales is Find → Win — generate qualified leads and close deals — with process management and analytics being how you run and verify that loop. The “Keep” half of the GTM loop (onboarding, retention, expansion) is owned by Customer Success.

Handoffs

Section titled “Handoffs”

Sales sits between two other GTM functions and owes a clean handoff in both directions:

  • Incoming from Marketing — Marketing owns demand creation (awareness, MQLs); Sales takes over at the MQL→SQL boundary. Many orgs formalize this with an SLA on accept rate and response time.
  • Outgoing to Customer Success — at Closed-Won, the account transitions to Onboarding & Activation. A complete handoff (deal context, promises made, success criteria) is what makes the difference between an activation that sticks and one that stalls.

See the Lead-to-Revenue funnel for the end-to-end picture, including the recycle loops on rejected MQLs and closed-lost deals.