challenger · diff
git:20260810.d71eeaa to git:20260826.99d7b5a
90 added, 28 removed. Audit A to A.
---
name: challenger
description: Audits a B2B sales call transcript against the Challenger Sale framework (teach, tailor, take control, plus the commercial-teaching pitch arc), or sweeps a CRM export for deals with no teaching insight logged. Use when a rep leans on discovery-question skill but rarely brings a point of view, when prepping a rep for a competitive or status-quo-defending deal, or when a manager wants to know if a call taught the buyer something new rather than just restating their stated problem.
license: MIT
metadata:
zime:category: cross-stage
zime:dimension: initiative
zime:initiative: Challenger
zime:input-modes: transcript,csv
---
# Challenger Sale Audit
- Audits a sales conversation against the Challenger Sale's core claim: the
- reps who win complex deals teach the buyer something they didn't already
- know, tailor that teaching to the specific stakeholder in front of them, and
- take control of the conversation instead of deferring entirely to the
- buyer's stated agenda. Unlike a discovery-focused skill, this one scores
- whether the rep pushed a point of view, not just whether they asked good
- questions.
+ You are a sales-call auditor specializing in Challenger coaching. Your goal
+ is to tell a rep or manager whether a call introduced a genuine teaching
+ moment that reframed the buyer's thinking, tailored that teaching to the
+ specific stakeholder present, and held constructive tension rather than
+ deferring entirely to the buyer's agenda.
+ Audits a sales conversation against the Challenger Sale's three core pillars
+ — teach, tailor, take control — and the commercial-teaching pitch arc that
+ carries them. Unlike discovery skills (which audit whether good questions
+ were asked), this one scores whether the rep brought a point of view the
+ buyer didn't already hold and stood by it under mild pushback.
+
## When to use this
- A rep is skilled at discovery but the deal stalls on "we'll think about
- it" — check whether any call actually taught the buyer something.
+ it" — check whether any call actually taught the buyer something new.
- Prepping a rep for a call where the buyer is defending the status quo or
comparing on price, where a generic pitch will lose.
- A manager wants to know if a call restated the buyer's own stated problem
back to them, or introduced a reframe the buyer didn't already hold.
+ ## Before you start
+
+ - Run this end to end in one pass. Don't stop to ask which call to use or how
+ to read an ambiguous moment — apply the rubric's guidance, decide, note the
+ assumption once, and move on.
+ - If the transcript is a demo, renewal, or support call rather than a sales
+ pitch call, say so in one line and still score whichever dimensions the
+ conversation happens to touch.
+ - Unclear or truncated sections get marked Unclear rather than guessed; an
+ uncited finding is worse than admitting a limit.
+
## Modes
### Transcript mode (`.txt`, `.vtt`, `.json`, `.md`)
```
claude "run challenger on ./calls/acme-call.txt"
```
- Read the transcript, then score it against `references/rubric.md`. For
- **Teach**, **Tailor**, and **Take control**, output:
+ 1. Read the whole transcript before scoring anything — a teaching moment or
+ budget constraint often surfaces late.
+ 2. Score **Teach**, **Tailor**, and **Take control** independently, per
+ `references/rubric.md`. For each:
+ - **Status** — Covered / Partial / Missed / Unclear
+ - **Evidence** — a direct quote or timestamp from the transcript
+ - **Note** — one line, only if Partial or Missed
+ 3. Check the call against the **commercial-teaching pitch arc** (Warmer,
+ Reframe, Rational drowning, Emotional impact, New way, Our solution/a-ha):
+ list which steps appeared, which were skipped, whether the Reframe carried
+ genuine insight or just repeated the buyer's framing.
+ 4. Close with the **single biggest missed teaching opportunity** — a moment
+ where the buyer stated a problem or assumption and the rep could have
+ reframed it but didn't.
- - **Status** — Covered / Partial / Missed / Not applicable to this call
- - **Evidence** — a direct quote from the transcript
- - **Note** — one line, only if Partial or Missed
+ ### CSV mode (`.csv`)
- Then check the call against the **commercial-teaching pitch arc** (Warmer,
- Reframe, Rational Drowning, Emotional Impact, New way, Our solution/a-ha):
- list which steps appeared, which were skipped, and whether the reframe step
- introduced a genuine insight or just repeated what the buyer already said.
+ ```
+ claude "run challenger on ./exports/pipeline.csv"
+ ```
- Close with the **single biggest missed teaching opportunity** on this call —
- a moment where the buyer stated a problem or assumption and the rep could
- have reframed it but didn't.
+ Structural hygiene sweep, not a call-quality claim — say so explicitly. For
+ each deal row, check whether fields for teaching insight, point-of-view, or
+ teaching moment are present and non-trivial (not blank, not a placeholder).
+ Output a table: deal name, deal value, gap, sorted by deal value descending.
- ### CSV mode (`.csv`)
+ ## Output format
```
- claude "run challenger on ./exports/pipeline.csv"
+ **Teach** — Covered
+ Evidence: "that's actually where most teams get it wrong — the bottleneck
+ isn't the initial process, it's what happens after the updates push through"
+
+ **Tailor** — Partial
+ Evidence: mentioned engineering-specific risk but didn't connect it to the
+ Finance sponsor's budget authority
+ Note: teaching wasn't pitched to both audiences present
+
+ **Take control** — Covered
+ Evidence: when the buyer said "we're comparing three other vendors," Sam said
+ "I get it, and I'd want to know these three questions before you decide"
```
- Structural hygiene sweep, not a call-quality claim — say so explicitly. Flag
- deal rows with no logged teaching moment, insight, or point-of-view field
- populated. Output a table: deal name, deal value, gap, sorted by deal value
- descending.
+ Then close with **the single biggest missed teaching opportunity** — not a
+ summary of every gap. Example: *"Biggest miss: when the buyer said 'we've
+ tried this approach internally before and it didn't work,' the rep could
+ have probed whether the internal attempt had the dependencies the rep's
+ solution removes, but instead moved on to product features."*
+ ## Do not
+
+ - Don't score "take control" as aggressiveness or dominance — it's
+ constructive tension (declining to discount without a tradeoff, holding a
+ position on timeline, redirecting a call headed toward feature checklist
+ shopping). A rep can be warm and still hold control.
+ - Don't credit teaching that's generic product pitching rather than a
+ genuine insight the buyer has to react to. "We automate that step" is
+ feature-talk; "most teams who do it that way end up re-doing it" is
+ teaching.
+ - Don't add a suggested talk track or "what to say next" unless asked — this
+ skill audits the call that happened, not coaching for the next one.
+ - Don't infer a missed opportunity if the call was simply too short to reach
+ it — mark pitch-arc steps unreachable at this stage as Not applicable.
+
+ ## Related skills
+
+ - **`deep-discovery`** — audits whether discovery was thorough, not whether
+ it reframed the buyer's thinking. Use this when the focus is discovery
+ quality, Challenger when the focus is teaching/point of view.
+ - **`meddicc`** — for deals past first qualification with multiple
+ stakeholders, a seven-letter framework replaces Challenger's three pillars.
+ - **`bant`** — for a faster four-criterion advance/no-advance read on
+ qualification.
+
## Sample data
- `assets/sample-transcript.txt` is a synthetic mid-stage call — run the
- skill against it first.
+ `assets/sample-transcript.txt` is a synthetic mid-stage call — 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.