Patterns
Failure Modes
| Failure Mode | Frequency | Deals | Trend / Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rapport Trap | 7 (78%) | 3 of 5 qualified | SYSTEMIC. Deal #10: ~15 min of OD stories before discovery. Deal #7: 130 min across 2 calls. Deal #8: half the call was RingCentral help. Now appears in qualified deals (#2, #7, #10) and unqualified (#8). |
| Deferred Revenue | 4 (44%) | 4 of 5 qualified | ESCALATING. Deals #4, #5, #7, #10. Every qualified deal except ShuttleBee has deferred pricing. Deal #10: first pricing mention in corpus ($5K/month) but stated, not proposed — no scope, no timeline. Progress from zero to "mentioned" but still not "offered." |
| Wrong Room | 3 (38%) | 0 of 4 qualified | Deals #1, #3, #6. Only unqualified. |
| Tourist Prospect | 2 (25%) | 0 | Deals #1, #8. Unqualified only. Deal #8: no pain, no SOPs, no scaling pressure, "no real ask." |
| Premature Pitch / Monologue Death | 1 (13%) | 0 | Deal #6 only. |
| Missed Reframe | 2 (25%) | 1 of 4 qualified | Deals #2, #6. |
| Ghost Process | 1 (13%) | 0 | Unqualified only. |
SDCA Root Causes
| Root Cause | Frequency | Deals | Trend / Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Decision Deferral (Cat 9) | 4 | #4, #5, #7, #10 | **#1 ROOT CAUSE for qualified deals (4/5 — 80%).** All qualified, all active, all free or underpriced. Deal #10: Giancarlo mentioned $5K/month but proposed nothing — no scope, no deliverable, no timeline. Patrick had nothing to say yes to. The pattern evolves: from "no pricing" to "pricing mentioned but not offered." Progress, but still no decision point. |
| Process Failure (Cat 6) | 5 | #2*, #3, #6, #7†, #10‡ | *#2 is SELLER process failure (rep didn't pitch). #3/#6 wrong-stakeholder. †#7: seller never introduced product in 130 min. ‡#10: mentioned $5K but didn't propose with scope — seller-side process failure (same pattern as #2, #7). |
| No Real Pain (Cat 1) | 4 | #1, #3*, #6, #8 | *#3 had pain but not as buyer. #6 conditional. #8: 5-person team with no pain, no SOPs, no scaling. Only in unqualified. |
| Solution Fixation (Cat 8) | 1 | #6 | Paul fixated on "bots" (method) without articulating outcome. |
| Weak Future Vision (Cat 2) | 1 | #1 | Brendan couldn't describe "solved." |
Questions That Work
"How do you automate something you don't understand?"
**"How do you automate something you don't understand?"** — Used at @2:00 in Deal #7 as the opening thesis. Justin built on it organically.
Sunfish / IVF analogy (Deal #7). Teaching the prospect about their own business by showing a parallel. Challenger Teach at its best.
**Sunfish / IVF analogy (Deal #7).** Teaching the prospect about their own business by showing a parallel. Challenger Teach at its best.
"How does Magiq take a founding team of two to five people and make sure it's never a 150-person company?"
**"How does Magiq take a founding team of two to five people and make sure it's never a 150-person company?"** — Cost avoidance framing.
Letting the champion sell. Deal #4.
**Letting the champion sell.** Deal #4.
Live OD demo with specific metrics. Effective when paired with prospect's context.
**Live OD demo with specific metrics.** Effective when paired with prospect's context.
OD/Coverwell case study with numbers (Deal #10). 11,000 tickets → 9,000, 20-23% output increase, $80K/person doing data entry, woman spending 45 minutes in Excel. Best case study deployment in corpus
**OD/Coverwell case study with numbers (Deal #10).** 11,000 tickets → 9,000, 20-23% output increase, $80K/person doing data entry, woman spending 45 minutes in Excel. Best case study deployment in corpus — specific, relevant, emotionally resonant.
Questions That Fail
"We need to charge something, but..."
**"We need to charge something, but..."** — Acknowledging the need for pricing then undermining it in the same sentence. Deal #7.
"Let me know what the best path is."
**"Let me know what the best path is."** — Ceding control of next steps to the prospect. Deal #7.
Open-ended "how can I help?"
**Open-ended "how can I help?"** — Converts to nothing.
"I'm happy to eat the time."
**"I'm happy to eat the time."** — Signals zero cost = zero urgency.
"I'm not currently super concerned with the economic portion."
**"I'm not currently super concerned with the economic portion."** — Deal #10: deflects the pricing conversation before it starts. Same pattern as "I'm happy to eat the time" — signals zero cost. Now two variants of the same deflection.
Not probing competitive evaluations. Deals #3, #6, #7: competitors mentioned or implied but never explored.
**Not probing competitive evaluations.** Deals #3, #6, #7: competitors mentioned or implied but never explored.
"I don't have any real discreet ask for you right now."
**"I don't have any real discreet ask for you right now."** — Removes commercial intent. Deal #8: 24 minutes with zero progression because neither party had a reason to progress.
Coaching Priorities
PROPOSE, don't inform.
Compress philosophy, expand action.
Get in the room with evaluators.
Ask implication questions.
Qualify before investing time — period.
Don't open with "no real ask."
Fix the positioning gap.