Sales discovery brief

Discovery Brief

Captures what is actually known about one opportunity before anyone writes a proposal. The brief is the input every later sales skill reads.

Most proposal time is lost to hunting for context, not to writing. A brief that records the buyer's own words, the decision process, and — critically — what is still unknown, is what makes a later proposal fast and specific.

Read First

1. workspace/firm/profile.md — what the firm sells.
2. workspace/firm/services/{slug}.md — the candidate service, its fit and anti-fit criteria.
3. workspace/marketing/icp/{slug}.md and its personas — how this buyer type usually buys.
4. Existing folders in workspace/sales/opportunities/ — do not open a duplicate.

When to Use

• A prospect replied and there is something real to record.
• A fit or discovery call happened and notes exist.
• An RFP or inbound brief arrived.
• Someone wants a proposal and no brief exists yet.

Core Rules

1. One opportunity = one folder. Do not create a folder per conversation.
2. Record only what was said. Everything else goes in ## Open questions. A brief that reads as complete when it is not is how a firm ends up proposing into a decision process it never understood.
3. Never invent budget, timeline, decision makers, or competitors. Absent is unknown, not a guess.
4. Distinguish the buyer's words from your interpretation. Quote the buyer for the problem statement; put your reading under ## Firm assessment.
5. Do not write a proposal in this skill and do not decide bid/no-bid here. Those are sales-proposal and sales-bid-qualification.

Output

Folder: workspace/sales/opportunities/{account}--{service}--{YYYY-MM}/

File: !_discovery.md

The !_ prefix marks it as needing attention until qualification runs, per the repo's naming convention.

Frontmatter:

---
account: acme-industrial
account_public: false
service: platform-migration
icp: mid-market-manufacturing
persona: cto-mid-market
source: inbound | referral | outbound | rfp | existing_client
opened: 2026-07-25
updated: 2026-07-25
budget_signal: unknown          # stated | range_hinted | unknown | no_budget
timeline_signal: unknown        # dated | quarter_hinted | unknown | no_timeline
decision_process: unknown       # mapped | partial | unknown
competitors_known: []
bid_decision: pending           # set by sales-bid-qualification
brief_quality: thin             # thin | workable | strong
---

Body sections:

## Situation
## Problem in the buyer's words
## Impact
## Desired outcome
## Decision process
## Constraints
## Firm assessment
## Open questions
## Next action

Field-by-field rules and a worked example: references/brief-fields.md.

Brief Quality

Set brief_quality honestly, because the Proposal Gate reads it.

Value	Means
thin	Problem is vague, or no impact, decision process, and timeline
workable	Problem and desired outcome are concrete; one or two gaps remain
strong	Problem, impact, outcome, decision process, and constraints all recorded

A thin brief is a normal first state after a short inbound email. Say what is missing and what question would close the gap.

Refuse To Proceed

If the user asks for a proposal from a thin brief, do not write one. Return the three questions that would move the brief to workable and offer to draft the follow-up message that asks them.

This refusal is the point of the skill. A proposal built on a thin brief is where the average firm spends eight hours and loses.

Workflow

1. Identify the opportunity

Slug the account in kebab-case. Pick the service the request most likely maps to; if two services could fit, record both under ## Firm assessment and let qualification decide.

Check for an existing folder for the same account and service. If found, update it instead of creating a second one.

2. Extract from the source

Work through the source material once, and write down only what is present:

• the problem, quoted where possible;
• what it costs them today — money, time, risk, or blocked work;
• what they say they want instead;
• who decides, who influences, and what has to happen for a yes;
• constraints: timing, budget, incumbent vendor, internal capacity, compliance.

For an RFP, also record the submission deadline, required format, and evaluation criteria if stated.

3. Mark the gaps

Everything not stated goes under ## Open questions as a question you would actually ask, not a field name. "Who else has to approve this besides you?" beats "decision process: unknown".

4. Assess fit

Compare against the service's fit and anti-fit criteria and the ICP. Write your reading under ## Firm assessment — including reasons this might not be a good fit. Do not soften anti-fit signals; they are what makes the next step cheap.

5. Set the next action

One concrete next step with an owner. Then hand off to sales-bid-qualification.

Testing Requirements

1. Build a brief from a three-line inbound email; confirm brief_quality: thin and that ## Open questions is the longest section.
2. Ask for a proposal from that brief; confirm the skill refuses and returns questions instead.
3. Build a brief from full call notes; confirm workable or strong.
4. Re-run for the same account and service; confirm it updates rather than creating a second folder.

Reference Files

File	Content
references/brief-fields.md	Section rules, signal vocabularies, worked example

Related Skills

Skill	When
sales-bid-qualification	Next — decides bid or no-bid on this brief
sales-proposal	After a bid or conditional decision
marketing-icp	The ICP or persona for this buyer does not exist yet
firm-context	Firm profile or service definition missing