The call types
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The following is the considered sequence, in separate meetings. In the direct motion it compresses into one 30-minute call, then a short follow-up if needed. The moves are the same; the meetings are fewer.
Say (the offer, whenever you book a first call)"Thirty minutes. We'll show you Holly drafting for someone in your role, on a demo workspace, and you can judge it for yourself."
Before every call, ten minutes. Look at the prospect's LinkedIn and two or three colleagues'; read the SPICED record; pick one real, recent news item in their market; write one ideal next step and two fallbacks; check whether they are regulated and whether there is any conflict (an ALS client, or connected to the founders' other businesses: check with Alex or John). For considered calls, fill a three-column chart before you go in: Problem, Impact, Root cause (Keenan, Gap Selling).
First call (15 to 30 minutes; considered discovery 45 to 60)#
Say (recording consent)"Is it OK if I record this so I don't have to take notes? It's for our team's training and we'll delete it on request."
The up-front contract (Sandler) covers purpose, time, their agenda, ours, and an outcome where "no" is fine, in under 45 seconds.
Say"Thanks for making the time. I've got us down for thirty minutes; does that still work? I'd like to understand how LinkedIn works for you and the team today and what you'd want from it, and if it looks relevant, show you Holly for about nine minutes. What would you want to get out of the half hour? ... By the end we'll either agree a sensible next step or agree it's not a fit, and either is fine. Sound fair?"
Then ask for the negative: "And I'd rather you told me where this falls down than nodded along."
One short insight and a question, not the company history. Discovery and demo holds the default opening. The alternative, with its source said aloud:
Say"Can I share one thing? In July LinkedIn added a button so members can report posts that seem like AI slop, and LinkedIn also says using AI to refine your own words is fine. How do your people write their posts today?"
For even-keel or overconfident buyers add one gap question: "When you look at the people at the firms you lose pitches to, how visible are they compared with yours?" Close with Muir's two questions (see Closing).
Discovery#
- The past, not the hypothetical (The Mom Test): talk about their life, not our idea; ask about specific past events; talk less.
- 11 to 14 well-spread questions, mostly follow-ups, no more than four in the first five minutes (Gong data, vendor correlation).
- Implication before need-payoff, and need-payoff only after a stated need (Huthwaite).
- Always ask the two motion questions.
The questions, copied exactly (the master ladder with follow-ups is in Discovery and demo):
| # | Question | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Q1 | "Take last week. Who at the firm posted on LinkedIn, and roughly how long did each post take them?" | Situation and Impact |
| Q2 | "When did you last ask the team to post more, and how long did it last?" | Pain |
| Q3 | "The last time you meant to post and didn't, what got in the way?" | Pain |
| Q4 | "What do you pay for today to get posts out or keep an eye on your market? A scheduler, a listening tool, an AI writer, an agency, a ghostwriter? And what did you get at the end of last month?" | Situation and Decision |
| Q5 | "How much writing of your own is there? Posts, articles, even emails you'd be happy to sound like. Was any of it written with AI?" | Situation |
| Q6 | "When did anyone last look at your social media policy, and what prompted it?" | Situation and Pain |
| Q7 | "When did you last find out about something at a client, competitor or regulator later than you'd have liked? Which names would you want to hear about first?" | Situation and Pain |
| Q8 | "The last time posting went quiet for a few months, what did you notice in the three months after? Enquiries, introductions, referrals?" | Implication |
| Q9 | "When the last person who posted regularly left, what happened to the enquiries that used to come through them?" | Implication |
| Q10 | "Of the comments on the team's posts last month, how many got a reply within a day? What happens when someone senior comments and hears nothing?" | Implication |
| Q11 | "The last time someone senior wanted to post about something topical, how long did it take to get through review, and was the moment still there when it went out?" | Implication |
| Q12 | Only after a stated want: "If the whole team were posting every week, in their own voices, inside your rules, what would be different in six months? How would you know?" | Need-payoff |
| Q13 | "Is there anything with a date on it driving this? A launch, a new office or practice area, a hiring push, a partner retiring, the new year?" | Critical event |
| Q14 | Always both: "Who else needs to be comfortable before you'd roll this out?" and "Does anyone in compliance, risk or IT sign off tools that publish under the firm's name?" | Decision |
Shortcut three for a 15-minute call: Q2 (the team problem), Q8 (quiet costs money, three months later), Q14 (who decides). Two more tools for considered deals: the 9-block grid (Solution Selling: an open, a control and a confirm question on the reasons for the pain, its impact on others and the capabilities they can picture; read back their capability list in their words, which becomes the demo plan and value card), and Klein's premortem: "Imagine it's next June and the LinkedIn plan has failed again. What went wrong?" Their answer is your onboarding risk list.
The demo (nine minutes, Holly first)#
Full scripts, recovery lines and the reset checklist are in Discovery and demo and the Holly playbook. The method rules:
- Who and where. Until Dom provides a fictional demo workspace, only Alex or John demo, on a Maktura internal workspace with consenting colleagues' profiles, never real client data. Until D3 is decided, an NDA is signed before any demo unless John waives it in writing at booking. A prospect's own voice may be built live from posts they paste in only with their consent on the call, marked test first. Never connect or log into a prospect's LinkedIn in a demo. After every demo, run the reset. Never leave a demo post scheduled.
- Read back the situation (Great Demo!): "You told me the problem is X, it's costing Y, and you want Z by 1 February." Wait for "that's right".
- One AI accusation audit, before you share your screen (Voss; practitioner technique, no controlled evidence):
Say"Before I show you anything: you're probably thinking this will post generic stuff under your name and embarrass you with clients." [Pause.] "That's the right worry. So you decide what Holly can do on its own, and we recommend a person approves every LinkedIn post."
- Finished artefact first: show the three pre-run posts (30 seconds), then Holly doing it live from a real news story in their market.
- Then, in order: the rules check catching a line, with the one-click rewrite, then approval; the team calendar and campaigns; who is engaging (GREEN wording only: "see who's engaging with your posts, and reply from one place"; comment inbox only, names not readable, until Karl confirms, D1); results by person on screen. Reports, share links, scheduled emails and the digest are AMBER until D1: never demoed as a list of named people, and the "New hot leads" digest heading is never shown.
- Stop at nine minutes and ask what they want to see more of. If they are not asking questions, you are presenting too much.
- Agree the first success: "If everyone who opts in has two approved posts out in their own voice within 14 days, would that be a win?"
For a group of three or more, wrap the demo in Dunford's pitch order: insight, alternatives, the perfect world, introduction, differentiated value, proof, objections, the ask. Never demo anything RED, competitor engagement tracking, pushing engagers to a CRM, Watch alert figures as exact (D12), or another customer's data.
The proposal call (20 to 30 minutes)#
Walk through the value card live, on screen, then send it. Never email a proposal cold. Give one recommendation, not a menu (JOLT; Pink):
Say"Here's what I'd do in your seat: all nine of you, Holly at Suggest, you approving the two new starters for a month. Leave Watch and campaigns for later; they don't solve the problem you described."
The price moment: late, plain, then silence.
Say"It's per person, per month, the same for every firm while the band is open. The band open today is [band], at [price] a seat. For nine of you that's [nine x price] a month." [Three seconds of silence.] "How does that sit with you?"
Spark is used in the example only (£69 a seat, £621 a month): check live billing before the call and never assume Spark is open. State £250 Standard only when the buyer asks what happens after 31 December or asks about Standard. Never say "list price", "typical price", "standard price", "discount", "deal" or "special offer".
The close call#
Say"Does it make sense to get you set up this week and book onboarding for Wednesday, so you're running before the new starters arrive on the 2nd?"
On a yes: "When you're ready, we'll set you up and take payment at sign-up," and book onboarding before you hang up. Then: "Are there any other steps we should be thinking about now, like telling the team?"
The handover call (15 minutes, same week as Won)#
Say"I want to hand over properly so you don't have to repeat yourself. You told me [pain, impact, critical event, in their words]. The first success we agreed is [it]. We'll set up Holly at [level], [who] approves posts, and your policy goes in as rules. Anything I've got wrong?"
Confirm onboarding, who attends and the 30-day review date.
Objections: labels and calibrated questions#
Answers are in the Objection handbook. The move (Voss):
- Pause. Do not speed up or talk over them.
- Label, only where there is emotion, and vary the wording so it never sounds like a technique: "It sounds like the worry is compliance, not the price." "It seems like you've been burned by a tool like this before." Wait for "That's right" ("You're right" means you have not got it yet).
- One calibrated question (a "what" or "how" question that hands them the problem): "What would you need to see to be comfortable with that?" "How would your COLP want that to work?"
- Then answer from the Objection handbook, and only with GREEN claims.
When it is unclear what the doubt is about, find out whether it is the product, Maktura as a young company, or the person selling it. If it is the company, use the company question above.