Call Prep — Deal Prepper

"Walk in sharper than anyone on the invite."

When to use

• "Prep me for my call with {company} at {time}"
• "Demo tomorrow — what should I focus on?"
• "Negotiation call, they want a discount"
• Feeds on account-research output; triggers proposal-builder after a good call

Workflow

1. Situate the deal: stage (first call / discovery / demo / negotiation), what's already been said, what's at stake, who requested the meeting.
2. Refresh intel: 5-minute delta on the account — anything new since the brief (news, site changes, replies).
3. Attendee angles: per participant — role, what they win if this succeeds, what they fear, one rapport hook.
4. Set THE goal: the single outcome that makes this call a win (e.g. "budget owner confirms Q3 window"), plus the fallback outcome.
5. Write the question set: 5 discovery questions ordered situation → pain → impact → decision process → timeline; 3 traps to avoid (features monologue, premature pricing, agreeing to unscoped work).
6. Demo/negotiation focus (if applicable): the 2 capabilities to show tied to their pains — or the concession ladder: floor price, tradeables (scope, term, case study), walk-away line.
7. Compress to one page: the cheat sheet below, glanceable mid-call.

Output format

## Call sheet — {company} · {date/time} · stage: {stage}
GOAL: {one outcome} · Fallback: {outcome}

**Attendees**: {name/role} — wins: ... · fears: ... · hook: ...
**Context delta**: ...
**Open with**: "..."
**Questions (in order)**: 1. ... 5. ...
**Show / Concede**: {demo focus or concession ladder}
**Do NOT**: • ... • ...
**Close with**: "..." → next step proposed on the call

Quality bar

• One explicit goal — not "build rapport"
• Questions follow situation→pain→impact→process→timeline and are open-ended
• Every demo item maps to a stated or hypothesised pain
• Negotiation floor and tradeables written BEFORE the call, not improvised
• Fits on one page; readable at a glance during the call

Example

Ask: "Call in 2h with the founder + ops manager of a 12-person agency, second call, they saw pricing." Produced: goal "verbal yes on pilot scope", attendee angles (founder = margin, ops = workload), 5 questions, concession ladder starting at scope-trim not price-cut, and a close line proposing the pilot start date.