The pipeline rulebook
Why strictness is the whole point
Section titled “Why strictness is the whole point”A pipeline is a forecasting instrument. It only works if a stage name means exactly one thing, forever. The moment “met” sometimes means met and sometimes means “sent a connection request,” the board stops telling you the truth, and you’re back to steering by mood. WPH has already lived the failure case: the last system’s metrics drifted into counting output — posts shipped, tasks done — and reporting died within three weeks because the numbers stopped predicting anything. The audit called it plainly. So this rulebook has one design principle, inherited from Bev Burgess’s coverage model: a stage records what the buyer did, never what we sent. Their behavior can’t be inflated by us working harder on the wrong thing. Ours can.
One more reason strictness pays: the stages are how Claude and Richard coordinate without meetings. Claude preps follow-ups, digests, and briefs from the board. If the board lies, the prep is wrong, and the two hours a day get spent on the wrong accounts.
The two ladders
Section titled “The two ladders”The pipeline has two connected ladders. The coverage ladder is marketing’s territory: it measures how close a relationship is to producing a conversation. The deal ladder is sales’ territory: it starts the moment a qualified conversation happens and ends at a signature. One account is always on exactly one rung.
The coverage ladder (before the conversation)
Section titled “The coverage ladder (before the conversation)”| Stage | Definition — earned when THEY… | NOT earned by |
|---|---|---|
| Unaware | (Default) No evidence anyone senior there knows WPH exists | — |
| Aware | Accepted a connection, followed, reacted/commented, or referenced WPH in any form | Us sending a request, an email, or a like |
| Met | A named senior contact had a real-time exchange with Richard — in person, on a call, or a genuine two-way DM thread | Handshakes at a booth, one-way messages, webinar attendance |
| Consumed research | Requested the benchmark/scorecard, asked a question about it, or brought it up themselves | Us sending the report; an email open; a link click |
| Multi-threaded | Two or more senior contacts at the account have each independently earned “met” or better | One champion who “knows everyone”; a second contact who only accepted a request |
The deal ladder (after the conversation)
Section titled “The deal ladder (after the conversation)”| Stage | Definition — earned when… | Exit forward when… |
|---|---|---|
| Qualified conversation | A conversation happened that passes ALL FOUR qualification tests below | They agree to a diagnostic discussion |
| Diagnostic | They committed to the paid assessment — verbal yes with a date, or paid | Findings presented and a build conversation requested |
| Proposal | The three-option, high-anchored proposal has been presented live (never emailed cold) | Verbal selection of an option |
| Won | Signature + first payment | Hands to delivery; account re-enters coverage for expansion |
| Nurture (side rail) | A real “not now” with a reason and a revisit date | The trigger date or a new signal arrives |
The four qualification tests. A conversation is “qualified” only if all four hold — this is the strictest rule in the book, because “two a month” only predicts revenue if every counted conversation is real:
- Right account — one of the 80 (or a named Ring-2 account), not a random inbound.
- Right person — economic buyer or genuine champion (Marco- or Jason-level), not a vendor manager collecting quotes.
- About their situation — the conversation examined their problem (diagnosis posture), not our services (pitch posture).
- A concrete next step — a date, an intro, a scorecard request, a diagnostic discussion. “Great chat, stay in touch” fails this test.
Three out of four is not qualified. Log it as the coverage stage it earned and keep working.
Movement rules
Section titled “Movement rules”- Evidence or no move. Every stage change is logged with one line of evidence: what they did, and when. If you can’t write the line, the move didn’t happen.
- Friday is the only move day. Stages change during the Friday review, not in the excitement of the moment. This kills wishful mid-week promotions and makes the weekly delta meaningful.
- Demotions are honest and normal. Champion left? Multi-threaded drops to met. Diagnostic ghosted for 30 days? Back to nurture with a note. A board that only moves right is lying.
- Staleness is visible. Any deal-ladder account with no buyer-side activity for 30 days gets flagged; 60 days on the coverage ladder’s upper rungs triggers a signal-check. Flags don’t force action — they force a decision.
- One owner. Richard moves stages; Claude proposes moves with evidence in the Friday brief. Nobody else touches the board.
- The board is finite. Eighty accounts plus named Ring-2 additions. Adding an account requires naming it and tiering it; “misc leads” don’t exist here.
- No stage skipping upward on the deal ladder. Every deal passes through a qualified conversation and a diagnostic. A buyer demanding a proposal without a diagnostic is asking WPH to pitch — Lesson 1.2 explains why the answer is a respectful redirect, and Lesson 2.8 gives the words.
Why each boundary sits where it does
Section titled “Why each boundary sits where it does”Why “aware” requires their action: the 95:5 physics. Sent messages measure our activity; accepted connections measure their memory. Only the second predicts anything.
Why “met” requires real-time exchange: trust in PH enterprise culture is built in conversation, not correspondence. A two-way exchange is the smallest unit of relationship that survives.
Why “consumed research” requires a request or reaction: the benchmark’s entire strategic value is that buyers pull it. The pull is the signal that authority is working; a push proves nothing except that we own their email address.
Why multi-threading is a coverage stage, not a nice-to-have: committee purchases with a single thread die when that one person changes jobs or loses an internal fight — and on $50k+ deals, multi-threaded pursuits win dramatically more often. At two contacts, an account can survive one departure.
Why the diagnostic gate is absolute: it’s the power mechanism from Lesson 1.2 (never think for free), the qualification filter (unserious buyers won’t pay), and the price anchor for the proposal that follows. Skipping it doesn’t speed the deal up; it converts WPH from physician back into vendor at the exact moment power gets set.
Why proposals are presented, never sent: a document argues alone in a room; Enns’s whole method depends on the options conversation happening live, with the anchor landing before the recommendation.
The receipts (evidence, if you want it)
- Coverage model and “their behavior, not your sends”: Bev Burgess, ITSMA — the tiny-TAM evidence, §3.
- Multi-threading win-rate lift on $50k+ deals (~130%, vendor-graded) and single-thread enterprise reply rates (~0.22%): the industry map, §5.
- Metric drift and the Week-3 reporting collapse: the honest audit, §4.
- Paid diagnostic as power-preserving entry: Enns/Baker — the tiny-TAM evidence, §7.
- Presented-not-sent proposals and three-option anchoring: Blair Enns, Pricing Creativity — taught in Lesson 3.2.
Related: The signal explains why conversations are the only metric that matters; Lesson 1.7 teaches the scoreboard; Lesson 0.3 installs the Friday review this rulebook lives in.