Start with the deal your team keeps debating.
The one that should have closed by now. The demo went well, the champion's enthusiastic — and it still won't move. Somewhere between your team and their CFO, the reason to buy stopped being obvious.
Selling is hard. The business case has to travel.Start with one deal. Two ways in, one honest read.
We inspect it using the iS Value Framework. If the deal is live, start with VT Proof. If it already stalled, slipped, discounted, or created debate, start with Guided Deal Replay. Either way, the output is a VT Snapshot of where the business case stands.
Use a recently stalled, slipped, discounted, or controversial deal to reconstruct where buyer-readiness broke.
Use one live deal to inspect and improve the next buyer conversation while it still counts.
Three honest starting points. Climb only if the signal is real.
No retainer to begin. You buy the smallest test that answers the question in front of you.
No buyer participation required. We use what the team can provide: summary, stage history, objections, champion notes.
Inspect the buyer's reason to change, where the case is thin, and what the next conversation must clarify.
When repeated patterns are visible, find where the team sits and the next useful level-jump.
VT Proof applies the work to one real deal.
The goal isn't to admire the framework. It's to see whether better translation changes the business case, the next buyer conversation, and your confidence in what to do next.
Thirteen years translating value inside revenue teams that had to hit the number.
I spent 13 years inside three revenue organizations — Rackspace, LogicMonitor, Zscaler — building value practices without a playbook. Close enough to the deals to know exactly where the business case thins out, and why champions go quiet.
One deal tells us where to look. Repeated patterns tell us what to build.
A VT Snapshot reads one deal. Find Your Level is a directional self-check. VT Profile is the formal team baseline built from repeated observations in real deal motion.
Baseline the team against the Maturity Curve using observed behaviors, then identify the next useful level-jump.
Install the checkpoints, manager rhythms, and tools that make buyer-owned cases repeatable.
This works for a specific person, at a specific moment.
CROs and VPs of Sales whose best reps carry the number, while everyone else runs a playbook the buyer doesn't feel.
If you want the team fixed without looking at your own forecast process, or there's no one to carry it after I leave, the work won't take. I'd rather say that now than take the engagement.
Bring the deal your team keeps debating.
We use the first conversation to check fit. If there's signal, we choose the cleanest path: replay what happened, test a live deal, or wait.
Steven Bechtol · Founder · Informed Simplicity · No deck, no discovery script.