sell-the-dream · diff
git:20260814.a128131 to git:20260826.e292751
80 added, 36 removed. Audit A to A.
---
name: sell-the-dream
description: Audits a B2B sales call transcript for future-state vision selling — does the rep name the world change and stakes before pitching product, or lead with features and bolt a "vision" on afterward. Scored against Andy Raskin's publicly published "5 Elements of a Great Sales Narrative," corroborated by Corporate Visions, Force Management, and Challenger's convergent "vision before product" pattern. "Sell the dream" is the colloquial name for this behavior, not a citation to a named methodology. Use when a rep pitches features early and a deal stalls on "not urgent," or when a manager wants to know if a call's vision narrative landed before the product did, not just whether a vision was mentioned at all.
license: MIT
metadata:
zime:category: cross-stage
zime:dimension: initiative
zime:initiative: Vision selling
zime:input-modes: transcript
---
# Sell the Dream: Vision Narrative Sequencing Audit
- Audits whether a sales call builds a future-state vision *before* pitching
- product, using Andy Raskin's "5 Elements of a Great Sales Narrative"
- (<https://medium.com/the-mission/the-greatest-sales-deck-ive-ever-seen-4f4ef3391ba0>)
- as the scoring rubric. "Sell the dream" is an industry idiom, not a named
- framework — no single canonical source defines it as a methodology with
- agreed-upon steps. This skill anchors on Raskin's article because it is
- free, public, and single-authored, and corroborates the same "vision before
- product" pattern independently converged on by Corporate Visions' "Why
- Change" framing, Force Management's "Command of the Message" (Before
- Scenario → After Scenario), and Challenger's "A New Way" step. Unlike
- `challenger`, which scores whether a call taught the buyer something new,
- this skill scores narrative *order* — whether the future-state vision was
- built before any feature was introduced, not whether a teaching moment
- existed.
+ You are a sales-narrative sequencing auditor. Your goal is to tell a rep or
+ manager whether a call built a future-state vision *before* pitching
+ product, or backfilled one after the fact.
+ Scored against Andy Raskin's "5 Elements of a Great Sales Narrative"
+ (<https://medium.com/the-mission/the-greatest-sales-deck-ive-ever-seen-4f4ef3391ba0>).
+ "Sell the dream" is an industry idiom, not a named framework — no single
+ canonical source defines it as a methodology with agreed-upon steps. This
+ skill anchors on Raskin's article because it is free, public, and
+ single-authored, and corroborates the same "vision before product" pattern
+ independently converged on by Corporate Visions' "Why Change" framing,
+ Force Management's "Command of the Message" (Before Scenario → After
+ Scenario), and Challenger's "A New Way" step. Unlike `challenger`, which
+ scores whether a call taught the buyer something new, this skill scores
+ narrative *order* — whether the future-state vision was built before any
+ feature was introduced, not whether a teaching moment existed.
+
## When to use this
- A rep pitches product capabilities early in a call and the deal later
stalls on "not urgent" or "no clear reason to change now."
- Prepping a rep for a call where the buyer already knows the product's
features and needs to be sold on why changing now matters.
- A manager wants to know if a call's "vision" was actually built up front,
or bolted on after a feature pitch to sound more strategic in the recap.
+ ## Before you start
+
+ - If `.agents/gtm-context.md` (or `.claude/gtm-context.md`) exists, read it
+ first and don't ask for anything it already answers.
+ - Run this end to end in one pass. Don't stop to ask which call or how to
+ read an ambiguous moment — apply the rubric, decide, note the assumption
+ once, and move on.
+ - If a call is a pure renewal, negotiation, or technical deep-dive with no
+ attempt at a vision narrative at all, say so in one line and mark the
+ relevant elements Not applicable rather than forcing a Missed on a call
+ that was never structured as a narrative pitch.
+
## Modes
### Transcript mode (`.txt`, `.vtt`, `.json`, `.md`)
```
claude "run sell-the-dream on ./calls/acme-call.txt"
```
- Read the transcript, then score it against `references/rubric.md`'s five
- elements, in Raskin's required order:
+ 1. Read the whole transcript before scoring anything — sequencing can only
+ be judged once you know where every element actually landed.
+ 2. Score the call against `references/rubric.md`'s five elements, in
+ Raskin's required order: (1) Name a Big, Relevant Change in the World,
+ (2) Show There'll Be Winners and Losers, (3) Tease the Promised Land,
+ (4) Introduce Features as "Magic Gifts," (5) Present Evidence.
+ 3. Check sequencing explicitly: did element 4 (features) appear before
+ elements 1–3 were established? If so, this is a **sequencing
+ violation** — a rep who pitched product first and backfilled a vision
+ afterward — even if all five elements individually score Covered. This
+ is the failure mode `challenger` doesn't catch: this skill fails a call
+ on order, not just presence or absence of each element.
+ 4. Write the output in the exact shape under `## Output format`.
- 1. Name a Big, Relevant Change in the World
- 2. Show There'll Be Winners and Losers
- 3. Tease the Promised Land
- 4. Introduce Features as "Magic Gifts" for Overcoming Obstacles to the
- Promised Land
- 5. Present Evidence that You Can Make the Story Come True
+ ## Output format
- For each element, output:
+ For each of the five elements, in order:
- - **Status** — Covered / Partial / Missed / Not applicable to this call
- - **Evidence** — a direct quote from the transcript
- - **Note** — one line, only if Partial or Missed
+ ```
+ **1. Name a Big, Relevant Change in the World** — Covered
+ Evidence: "the whole industry's moving from annual underwriting reviews to
+ continuous, real-time risk scoring"
+ ```
- Then check **sequencing** explicitly: did element 4 (features) appear
- before elements 1–3 (change, stakes, promised land) were established? If
- so, flag it as a **sequencing violation** — a rep who pitched product first
- and backfilled a "vision" afterward — even if all five elements
- individually score Covered. This is the failure mode `challenger` doesn't
- catch: this skill fails a call on order, not just presence or absence of
- each element.
+ Then, as a separate, named finding — not folded into any element's line:
- Close with the **single sequencing observation**: either "vision led,
- features followed" (the pattern this skill is designed to reward) or a
- named quote showing where the order broke.
+ ```
+ **Sequencing** — No violation found. Vision led, features followed.
+ ```
+
+ or
+
+ ```
+ **Sequencing violation** — features (real-time scoring engine, data
+ unification layer) were introduced before any change-in-the-world or
+ promised-land framing; the closest thing to element 1 was a one-line aside
+ after the feature pitch, not an established narrative.
+ ```
+
+ ## Do not
+
+ - Don't quote or reproduce Corporate Visions' or Force Management's step
+ names and scoring definitions as if they were this skill's own — they're
+ cited for corroboration only in `references/rubric.md`, not reused here.
+ - Don't let a Covered score on all five elements stand in for the
+ sequencing finding — always state sequencing as its own named line, even
+ when there's no violation.
+ - Don't add a suggested rewrite of the call's narrative unless asked —
+ this skill audits the sequencing that happened, it doesn't script the
+ one that should have.
+
+ ## Related skills
+
+ - **`challenger`** — for whether the call taught the buyer something new
+ (Teach/Tailor/Take-control); use this skill instead when the question is
+ narrative order, not teaching quality. A call can score identically on
+ both with no sequencing violation and no missed teaching moment.
## Sample data
`assets/sample-transcript.txt` is a synthetic transcript with two calls:
one that leads with the future-state vision before any feature (scores
well across all five elements and sequencing), and one where the rep jumps
to a feature pitch first and bolts a vision statement on afterward (should
score Missed/Partial on elements 1–2 and trigger the sequencing-violation
flag). Run the skill against it first.
## What this does not do
No CRM connection, no API calls, no telemetry, no data retention beyond the
current session. It reads the file you point it at and nothing else.