Lead in on Tuesday. Called on Wednesday. Quote sent on Thursday.
Fast, right? Your manager thinks so too. And still you hear nothing.
Of five steps you did two
1. Introduction
You know who it is before you call. What kind of company, what is going on, why he is looking now. Five minutes of work, and it saves you the whole opening conversation.
2. Connection
The first real conversation. Who you are, who he is. You sell nothing here. You build the oxygen you will draw on later.
3. The baseline
Finding out what is actually going on, so you can establish the stake instead of guessing at it. This is the step you skip.
4. The confirmation
You reflect back what you heard and ask whether it is right. In writing, short, in his language.
5. The agreement
Only when he confirms it is right does the paperwork follow.
Why step 3 always dies
Because it feels like you aren't selling yet. You called, he sounded interested, and now you should have another conversation in which you offer nothing? With your target sitting on your desk?
And something worse is going on, something from the book that hits your own working week:
Every system produces exactly the behaviour it was designed for.
Are you judged on the number of quotes sent? Then you send quotes. That isn't lazy and it isn't stupid, it is precisely what you are paid for. And then the same management complains that conversion is disappointing.
Conversion isn't disappointing. It is exactly what was designed.
What that third step gives you
Think of the surgeon from chapter 8 who knows after thirty seconds. You would run. Now look at your own Thursday. The quote was your treatment plan. You had no diagnosis.
A baseline costs you one conversation of thirty minutes. What you get back: you know what it gives him, in his words, and you know which of the three elements is missing. That turns step four into an email of five sentences instead of a document of six pages.
The exercise
Take your last ten proposals and tick the steps you actually took for each.
Then count how many had a baseline. And look at which of those ten went through.
If the pattern is what I suspect, you have a conversation to schedule this afternoon instead of a quote to write.
The closing question
What does that look like in reality, from first email to agreement?
That is session 9: the real client case, with the four emails.