Hi Moaters,

I've been mumbling the same 4 words to myself for weeks. In the car. Seconds before a client call starts.

Buyers want to be led.

That line belongs to Skip Miller. Skip trained our sales team at Mercatus. Big voice. Bigger personality. He passed away recently, and I think about him a lot. I still hear his voice in my head.

I hadn't thought about that line in years. Then a client recently reminded me of it.

Here's what they said, and the 12 things I want to operationalize for Allenix.

We ran our first client win interview a few weeks ago. Most of it was good.

One part wasn't. Before the signature we were sharp, they told us. After it, there were places we could have been more thoughtful. The workshops. The onboarding. The setup of the tools we work in.

I have spent years telling teams to lead the buyer. The feedback said we needed to improve. A gentle reminder it’s so much easier to give advice then live it.

So I sat down recently to see all areas in the business I can internalize “buyers want to be led” in day to day operations.

The mental model I use to see any B2B company, including Allenix, is in 3 parts: activate, acquire, ascend.

The above makes up the revenue architecture for any business, including yours.

12 changes came out of that interview. 4 in each phase.

Everything before the client signature.

1. Ask permission to lead.

Not permission to check in. On the first call we agree neither of us gets ghosted. I call when something's unclear and never chase you for updates. You tell me straight if this isn't a fit. Last 5 minutes of every call, we set what happens next or we walk.

2. Help clients make a decision, not a sale.

In B2B, nobody buys the best solution. They buy the least risky one. Nothing moves until standing still feels more dangerous than changing. Map current state versus future state, and document every risk the client mentions along the way.

3. Ask the robots.

Open two AI tools. Ask each one who your company is for, what it costs, who shouldn't buy it, and who your alternatives are. Whatever comes back is your positioning now, whether you wrote it or not. If something is off, that belongs in your content strategy.

4. Red-team your own proposal.

Paste your proposal into an AI tool. Tell it to be a skeptical CEO and CFO and find every reason to say no. Your buyer is actually doing this today. Beat them to it.

The first 90 days after signing. Jason Lemkin (SaaStr) calls it the highest churn window in B2B software.

5. Kill the doubt at signature.

The signature is the scariest moment for your client. Your champion just spent political capital on you. The implementers inherited a decision they never made. So call within 24 hours with the plan already built. They're bracing for a welcome email. Give them certainty instead.

6. Own their delay.

Their delay is your delay. If the client is slow, that's a constraint you failed to plan for. At kickoff, name the 3 things most likely to stall them. Security review. Data access. The approver who's out next month. Date and owner on each. Surprised means you didn't ask.

7. Kill the assumed communication.

The greatest miscommunication is assuming the communication happened. End every call the same way. Decision, owner, date, in their inbox within ten minutes. AI didn't make this easier. It made it inexcusable.

8. Pre-mortem the rollout.

One question at kickoff, whole room on the call, client included. It's 90 days from now and this didn't work. What happened? Write down the 3 answers and go prevent them. People will tell you exactly how they plan to fail if you give them permission to say it out loud.

Everything after they're live.

9. Show their number, quarterly.

Week one, understand how you're getting measured. What number are we moving. What is it today. Who else has to believe it moved. That number goes in front of them every quarter, whether it moved or not, in their words and not your dashboard's.

10. Date the impact review.

Book the outcome conversation at kickoff, on a calendar, before anyone needs anything. A review you schedule when you need something is a sales call. They can tell the difference every time.

11. Plan for the empty chair.

Champions leave. When yours takes a new job the renewal dies quietly and nobody tells you until the notice arrives. Know who else believes in this. Get the second person on the quarterly review from day one. One champion isn't a relationship, it's a single point of failure.

12. Green to bright green.

Here's the one I'm still working out. Most companies show up when a client slips from green to amber. The biggest growth opportunities are the clients already sitting at green. Nothing broken, no reason to call. Call anyway.

Skip gave me those four words years ago. It took a client handing them back for me to check whether we were living them.

Think about the last thing you bought for your business. Count how many of those vendors led you after you signed. Now ask what your clients would say about you.

'Til next time,

--Ali

About Me: I'm Ali Mamujee. I run Allenix, for B2B growth stage founders and sales leaders who just wants a team obsessed about their revenue growth and has the skills, desire, and experience to make it happen.