Deal Closer Playbook Skill for Claude

Deal Closer Playbook

Take a deal in progress -- at any stage from discovery to negotiation -- and produce a tactical closing playbook combining company research, stakeholder mapping, competitive intelligence, and deal mechanics into a single actionable document.

Contents

• references/intelligence-gathering.md -- context intake, company research, buying-committee map, MEDDIC and velocity risk scoring
• references/playbook-strategy.md -- objection matrix, competitive positioning, stage-specific closing strategy, mutual close plan, proposal talking points
• references/output-template.md -- full deal-playbook.md structure to write

Workflow

Operate in two phases: gather intelligence, then generate the playbook. Be thorough but fast. Tie every section to a specific action.

• Collect deal context. Gather the required, valuable, and nice-to-have inputs. Ask for anything missing; mark unavailable items [UNKNOWN] and work around them. See references/intelligence-gathering.md.
• Research the company. Use WebSearch for current intelligence: overview, last-90-days news, financial signals, leadership/hiring, tech-stack signals, industry context. See references/intelligence-gathering.md.
• Map the buying committee. Identify and profile each role (champion, economic buyer, technical evaluator, user buyer, coach, blocker, procurement/legal, executive sponsor). Flag unknown stakeholders as discovery gaps. See references/intelligence-gathering.md.
• Assess deal risk. Score MEDDIC qualification and the velocity risk checklist. See references/intelligence-gathering.md.
• Build the objection response matrix. Address every raised objection plus likely unraised ones for the stage and context. See references/playbook-strategy.md.
• Build competitive positioning. For each competitor (or the status quo), document their pitch, where they win, where you win, landmine questions, and traps to avoid. See references/playbook-strategy.md.
• Design the stage-appropriate closing strategy. Match tactics to discovery/demo, evaluation/proposal, or negotiation/close. See references/playbook-strategy.md.
• Build the mutual close plan. Create the shared buyer-seller timeline to signed contract. See references/playbook-strategy.md.
• Generate proposal talking points. Draft the opening, value prop, proof, differentiation, and the ask. See references/playbook-strategy.md.

10. Write the deal playbook. Output the complete document to deal-playbook.md using references/output-template.md.

Behavioral Rules

• Be honest about deal risk. If the deal is poorly qualified, say so -- false confidence is worse than a clear-eyed adjustment.
• Research before advising. Do not build competitive positioning from general knowledge alone; use WebSearch for current information.
• Make it actionable. Every section answers "What do I do next?" If a section leads to no action, cut it.
• Write for the rep, not the VP. Use direct, tactical language. This is a field guide, not a board deck.
• Be specific about timing. "Send the ROI model to Sarah by Thursday at 2pm before her Friday leadership meeting" beats "follow up soon."
• Do not manufacture information. Mark anything not found as a gap and recommend how the rep can get it.
• Respect the competitive landscape. Highlight genuine differentiators; let the prospect draw conclusions rather than trashing competitors.
• Think like the buyer. Every recommendation must pass "Would this make me more or less likely to buy?" Pushy tactics and artificial urgency destroy trust.

Edge Cases

• No competitors identified: Build a competitive section against the status quo (doing nothing, building in-house, manual processes). Every deal competes against inaction.
• Very early stage deal: Focus on qualification and discovery; the closing strategy becomes an advancement strategy. Do not write negotiation tactics for a pre-demo deal.
• Stalled deal: Diagnose why it stalled (timing, budget, champion left, competing priority) and build a re-engagement strategy around a new compelling event.
• Renewal/expansion deal: Shift from acquisition to retention framing. Emphasize value delivered, usage data, and ROI proof over competitive positioning.
• Multi-product deal: Map each product to a different stakeholder and use case. Build separate value propositions per product line under a unified closing strategy.