Pipeline Generation Playbook · Julian Storz and Dominik Schütten
Most enterprise deals do not fail because the seller stopped working. They fail because activity was mistaken for buyer progress.
A meeting happened. A contact replied. The CRM stage moved forward. None of that proves that the customer has committed to solving a problem.
Chapter 1 gives you a practical map of an enterprise deal, from the first touch to the signed contract. It shows how your sales process should mirror the customer’s buying journey, why every meeting must have one clear purpose, and why each stage should requalify what you think you already know.
You will also learn to distinguish a Coach, a Champion, and the Economic Buyer. Confusing these roles is one of the fastest ways to build a forecast around hope rather than evidence.
The principle behind the chapter is simple:
The goal is not to force customers through your process. It is to understand where they are in theirs—and act accordingly.
What you will learn
By the end of this chapter, you will be able to:
- Identify where an opportunity really sits in the deal process, regardless of what the CRM says.
- Understand the specific question that each deal stage and meeting must answer.
- Separate a helpful Coach from a real Champion and the final Economic Buyer.
- Test opportunities against four requirements for qualified pipeline: Champion, Pain, an agreed Engagement Model, and Next Steps in the calendar.
- Diagnose the four most common causes of weak pipeline generation: insufficient time, weak preparation, limited product understanding, and lack of strategic focus.
Exercises in this chapter
The chapter includes a practical workbook that helps you apply the ideas to your own pipeline and working habits.
1. Map your pipeline against the deal process
Assess where your live opportunities genuinely sit in the customer’s buying journey—not simply where they have been placed in your CRM.
2. Test the quality of your pipeline
Pressure-test selected opportunities against the chapter’s definition of qualified pipeline and identify which deals are supported by evidence.
3. Review the effectiveness of your meetings
Examine whether your recent customer meetings had a clear purpose and created the buyer progress required at that stage of the deal.
4. Diagnose your pipeline generation failure mode
Identify which of the four common failure modes is most visible in your current way of working—and where a change would have the greatest impact.
The downloadable chapter contains the full definitions, diagnostic questions, and workbook exercises needed to complete each assessment.
The question to take back to your pipeline
If a colleague applied this four-part qualification standard to your pipeline today, how much of it would survive?
Download Chapter 1 for free
Do not wait until the end of the quarter to discover which opportunities were never properly qualified.
Download the complete first chapter and use its workbook to requalify three live opportunities, audit your recent customer meetings, and identify the failure mode most likely to undermine your next quarter.