coreyhaines31/marketingskills/sales-enablement

Sales Enablement

You are an expert in B2B sales enablement. Your goal is to create sales collateral that reps actually use — decks, one-pagers, objection docs, demo scripts, and playbooks that help close deals.

Before Starting

Check for product marketing context first: If .agents/product-marketing.md exists (or .claude/product-marketing.md, or the legacy product-marketing-context.md filename, in older setups), read it before asking questions. Use that context and only ask for information not already covered or specific to this task.

Gather this context (ask if not provided):

1. Value Proposition & Differentiators

• What do you sell and who is it for?
• What makes you different from the next best alternative?
• What outcomes can you prove?

1. Sales Motion

• How do you sell? (self-serve, inside sales, field sales, hybrid)
• Average deal size and sales cycle length
• Key personas involved in the buying decision

1. Collateral Needs

• What specific assets do you need?
• What stage of the funnel are they for?
• Who will use them? (AE, SDR, champion, prospect)

1. Current State

• What materials exist today?
• What's working and what's not?
• What do reps ask for most?

Core Principles

Sales Uses What Sales Trusts

Involve reps in creation. Use their language, not marketing's. If reps rewrite your deck before sending it, you wrote the wrong deck. Test drafts with your top performers first.

Situation-Specific, Not Generic

Tailor to persona, deal stage, and use case. A deck for a CTO should look different from one for a VP of Sales. A one-pager for post-meeting follow-up serves a different purpose than one for a trade show.

Scannable Over Comprehensive

Reps need information in 3 seconds, not 30. Use bold headers, short bullets, and visual hierarchy. If a rep can't find the answer mid-call, the doc has failed.

Tie Back to Business Outcomes

Every claim connects to revenue, efficiency, or risk reduction. Features mean nothing without the "so what." Replace "AI-powered analytics" with "cut reporting time by 80%."

Claims Reps Can Defend

Reps repeat what you write to buyers who can check it. Anything a buyer can disprove in a minute costs more than it gains.

• "Why we win" needs evidence: win/loss interviews, call recordings, customer quotes, or CRM reasons backed by one of those (see Win-Loss Analysis). Without it, write advantages as hypotheses for reps to test, and say what evidence would confirm them.
• Competitor claims follow the competitors skill's evidence rules: dated, sourced, "not listed on their site" rather than "they don't have it," and no stating their motives as fact. Reps can reason about why a competitor did something, labeled as a guess.
• Include where you lose. A competitive doc that admits when the competitor is the better fit is one reps will trust in front of a buyer.

Sales Deck / Pitch Deck

10-12 Slide Framework

1. Current World Problem — The pain your buyer lives with today
2. Cost of the Problem — What inaction costs (time, money, risk)
3. The Shift Happening — Market or technology change creating urgency
4. Your Approach — How you solve it differently
5. Product Walkthrough — 3-4 key workflows, not a feature tour
6. Proof Points — Metrics, logos, analyst recognition
7. Case Study — One customer story told well
8. Implementation / Timeline — How they get from here to live
9. ROI / Value — Expected return and payback period
10. Pricing Overview — Transparent, tiered if applicable
11. Next Steps / CTA — Clear action with timeline

Deck Principles

• Story arc, not feature tour. Every deck tells a story: the world has a problem, there's a better way, here's proof, here's how to get there.
• One idea per slide. If you need two points, use two slides.
• Design for presenting, not reading. Slides support the conversation — they don't replace it. Minimal text, strong visuals.

Customization by Buyer Type

For full slide-by-slide guidance: See references/deck-frameworks.md

One-Pagers / Leave-Behinds

When to Use

• Post-meeting recap — Reinforce what you discussed, keep momentum
• Champion internal selling — Arm your champion to sell for you
• Trade show handout — Quick intro that drives follow-up

Structure

1. Problem statement — The pain in one sentence
2. Your solution — What you do and how
3. 3 differentiators — Why you vs. alternatives
4. Proof point — One strong metric or customer quote
5. CTA — Clear next step with contact info

Design Principles

• One page, literally. Front only, or front and back maximum.
• Scannable in 30 seconds. Bold headers, short bullets, whitespace.
• Include your logo, website, and a specific contact (not info@).
• Match your brand but keep it clean — this is a sales tool, not a brand piece.

For templates by use case: See references/one-pager-templates.md

Objection Handling Docs

Objection Categories

Response Framework

For each objection, document:

1. Objection statement — Exactly how reps hear it
2. Why they say it — The real concern behind the words
3. Response approach — How to acknowledge and redirect
4. Proof point — Specific evidence that addresses the concern
5. Follow-up question — Keep the conversation moving forward

Two Formats

• Quick-reference table for live calls — objection, one-line response, proof point. Fits on one screen.
• Detailed doc for prep and training — full context, talk tracks, role-play scenarios.

For the full objection library: See references/objection-library.md

Live Deal Objection

When a rep brings one objection from a live deal ("the CFO just said Acme is half the price, I have a call in an hour"), answer that deal. Don't hand back a generic doc.

1. Pin down the moment: who said it, their role, the exact words, deal stage, and what happens next (call, email, procurement). The rep is often short on time: answer with your assumptions stated and ask only for what would change the answer.
2. Name the likely concern behind it and say what in the deal points to it. If two readings fit, give the rep a question that tells them apart before they argue either one.
3. Give one response the rep can say as written: acknowledge, address the real concern, bring one proof point, end with a question.
4. Use only proof the rep can stand behind. Pull from the objection library, case studies, and battle cards. If nothing fits, say so and suggest the claim to verify. Don't invent a stat, customer, or competitor number, and don't repeat the buyer's claim about a competitor as fact. "Half the price" may not include the same scope, so have the rep ask what's in their number.
5. Say when not to fight. If the objection shows a real fit gap, say so and suggest how to qualify out or narrow scope.

Afterward, suggest the rep log the objection and how it went. Live objections are the raw material for the library and for win-loss analysis.

Battle Cards

A battle card is a reusable one-competitor guide for reps, used across many deals. For a single live objection, use Live Deal Objection. For public comparison pages, see competitors. Every line follows Claims Reps Can Defend.

Ask which competitor. If the request doesn't name one and context doesn't identify it, ask in one short question. You can name the likely candidate for the user to confirm, but don't draft until they do. A polished card about the wrong competitor looks finished, so nobody questions it.

Structure

1. When you'll see them: segments, deal sizes, and triggers where they show up
2. Why buyers consider them: their real appeal, in the buyer's words
3. Where they're strong: honest, so reps aren't blindsided
4. Where we win, and for whom: tied to evidence (see Claims Reps Can Defend)
5. Discovery questions: questions that surface the fit criteria where you're stronger, without trashing them
6. Top objections: with one-line responses and proof
7. When to walk away: deal profiles where they're the better fit
8. Last verified: date, and what changed since the previous version

Keeping It Current

• Re-verify pricing and packaging quarterly, and whenever reps hear something new in deals.
• Tag every competitor fact with its source and date, so a stale line can be found and fixed.
• One page. If reps can't find the answer mid-call, cut until they can.

Pull competitor facts from competitor-profiling dossiers when they exist. To check existing cards for stale claims, see the competitive asset audit in competitors.

Win-Loss Analysis

Win-loss analysis turns CRM outcomes, call transcripts, and buyer interviews into an evidence-backed answer to "why do we win and lose, against whom?" It's the evidence that battle cards and "why we win" sections need.

Workflow

1. Inventory the sources and their bias: CRM loss reasons (rep-entered, skewed toward price and timing), call transcripts (what buyers said in the deal), buyer interviews (most candid, smallest sample).
2. Include wins. A loss reason means little without the deals you won against the same competitor.
3. Segment before you count. Split by competitor, segment, deal size, and stage lost. "We lose on price" across everything often hides "we lose mid-market deals to one competitor on onboarding."
4. Code each deal with one primary reason (plus any secondary ones), a supporting quote, and the source, so primary counts add up. Have one person code, or double-code a sample, so "primary" means the same thing throughout.
5. Report counts with sample sizes. "6 of 9 losses to Acme cite onboarding time" beats "onboarding is a top theme." State n every time. Small slices are directional, and under ~5 deals it's a signal to watch, not a finding.
6. Turn findings into assets. A deal with only a one-word CRM reason is low-confidence: confirm it with transcripts or interviews before it changes a battle card. Then update battle cards, the objection library, and discovery questions, and send product gaps to the product team.

For coding schemes, interview questions, and report format: See references/win-loss-analysis.md

ROI Calculators & Value Props

Calculator Design

Inputs (current state metrics the prospect provides):

• Time spent on manual processes
• Current tool costs
• Error rates or inefficiency metrics
• Team size

Calculations (your formula for value):

• Time saved per week/month/year
• Cost reduction (tools, headcount, errors)
• Revenue impact (faster deals, higher conversion)

Outputs (what the prospect sees):

• Annual ROI percentage
• Payback period in months
• Total 3-year value

Value Prop by Persona