Michael Griego

The prescription: keep the stage list short, set two to five clear exit proofs per stage that a good rep can self-check in seconds, and use those proofs in post-mortems to identify the skipped gate when a deal goes sideways.

• Buy-in is a design problem, not a communication problem: ask top reps for the three things they always do before moving a deal, then write those answers into the exit list.
• The criteria come from the people who have to use them.

The post’s first move: pick one stage, write three exit proofs with your best reps, and bring them to the next pipeline review.

Michael Griego writes that, as a top individual rep, they mostly ignored formal stages.

• They now call that “top sales arrogance”: managing a team and a CRM as a sales vice president changed their view.
• The standards were learned, not always held.

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Rate each account A, B, or C in about thirty seconds, then sort.

• A accounts get real plans; the top ten and twenty get the most attention; C accounts go on a leave-alone list with mailers only.
• The argument: a fast, crude sort beats a considered one that never gets run.
• Protecting time for the highest-value accounts is the exercise’s real output.

After finishing first in a full year on quota at a new company, Michael Griego saw their book cut by 200 accounts and prospects and their quota doubled.

• They built the matrix in response; A accounts floated to the top in the sort, and the following year brought the same number one finish.
• They then taught the matrix to peers and say the company rolled it out across the business.

The manual sheet is a starting point, not the endpoint.

• Michael Griego notes that it dies when the book gets big.
• The strongest companies keep scoring rules in a file, pull live CRM spend into an AI workspace, and re-rank on a cadence using variables a human sheet cannot hold: routes, capacity, and product fit.

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Michael Griego points to MEDDIC and then MEDDPICC to cover what BANT misses: metrics, economic buyer, decision process, decision criteria, paper process, identified pain, competition, and champion.

• In client work, this becomes a custom scorecard in the CRM, with the qualification ask and its impact changing by sales stage so the checklist stays current rather than being filled out once.
• The failure mode is delivery, not the tool: weave qualification into discovery and it sounds like a conversation; fire questions and it sounds like an interrogation.
• Deals that cannot answer the basics should not be promoted.

For every deal past Discover, write one line of proof covering money, authority, need, timing, and the champion. Leave missing lines blank rather than filling gaps to advance the deal.

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The concrete test is next-step discipline: every live deal should have a dated buyer action and a dated seller action, both tied to a real decision or start date—not a vague promise to follow up.

• Deals that sit post-proposal for weeks point to an unclear-next-step problem, not a closing problem.
• That also signals a team that has not learned to qualify or run deeper discovery.
• The remedy is rigor, discipline, and purpose: end every meeting with dates and owners.

Open the pipeline and write the buyer’s next step and date for each deal; blank lines get a call on Monday.

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A cast sheep that rolls onto its back, heavy with its own wool, cannot rise alone and dies within days.

• They compare it to good reps buried under CRM admin and a territory twice the size it should be, who rarely ask for help.
• A CRM can flag a stalled rep before anyone notices, but someone still has to walk over and pull them up.
• Sheep will not lie down while hungry; similarly, a rep worried about comp or a thin pipeline cannot settle into patient discovery.
• Sheep will drink from a dirty puddle yards from a clean stream, like reps chasing a nearby bad-fit deal.
• The shepherd’s staff serves the flock’s welfare—hooking a sheep back onto the path or lifting it out of a thicket.
• That maps to leaders who walk the field with their people, clear obstacles before the team reaches them, and inspect deals up close.
• The leadership behaviors named are guidance, commitment, assistance, encouragement, protection, path-leading, discipline, and deep caring.

The post closes by asking readers whether they are good shepherds or leaders, turning the analogy into a self-assessment.

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The rules cover exit proofs in the CRM, a qualification scorecard that flags deals advanced without evidence, next-step rules that flag opportunities missing a dated buyer action, and cadence-based re-ranking of accounts against live CRM spend.

• Michael Griego calls for calibration both ways—not over-engineered, not underdone—because the failure mode is as often a system nobody maintains as no system at all.
• That priority ties the techniques together: individual judgment is the starting point, and encoding the rule helps it survive a growing book.

The stage post’s prescription: the best companies put exit proofs in the CRM as clear gates that show which deals are real, rather than leaving each rep to remember them.

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Griego writes that, as a top rep, they mostly ignored formal stages—a habit they now call “top sales arrogance.”

• Managing a team and a CRM as a VP of sales changed their view.
• The argument is compact: stages without exit criteria are theater, because anyone can drag a deal forward.
• Keep the stage list short, give each stage two to five clear exit proofs a good rep can self-check in seconds, and use those proofs in the post-mortem when a deal goes sideways to identify the skipped gate.
• To get buy-in, ask top reps which three things they always do before moving a deal, then write those down as the exit list.
• The post closes with a concrete first step: pick one stage, write three exit proofs with your best reps, and use them in the next pipeline review.

For brands planning a campaign

A useful opening exercise for a pipeline-discipline workshop: participants leave with one stage and three written exit proofs, giving the session a testable artifact rather than just discussion.

After finishing number one in a first full year on quota at a new company, Griego says they lost 200 accounts and prospects while their quota doubled.

• That prompted them to build a matrix: a spreadsheet with two columns—what a customer spent last year and what they could spend next year—with each account rated A, B, or C in about thirty seconds, then sorted.
• AAs floated to the top; CCs went on a “leave them alone” list with mailers only; real plans went to the top ten and twenty.
• Griego reports finishing number one again the following year, teaching the matrix to peers, and seeing it rolled out across the business.
• They also note walking into billion-dollar shops since that still do not use it.
• The suggested starting exercise is to score your top 40 accounts on last-year spend and next-year upside, sort them, and put A time on the AAs before touching the rest.

For brands planning a campaign

A ready-made workshop segment on account prioritization, with a rule participants can apply to their own books in the room and an origin story about using it under a heavier quota.

Griego calls BANT a starting point—better than nothing, but not enough by itself—and points to MEDDIC and MEDDPICC for what BANT misses: metrics, economic buyer, decision process, decision criteria, paper process, identified pain, competition, and champion.

• In client work, they turn this into a custom scorecard in the CRM, a living checklist rather than a one-call quiz.
• Qualification is woven into discovery so it does not sound like an interrogation.
• The qualification ask and its impact change by sales stage, and the checklist needs to stay current across early stages so deals that cannot answer the basics are not promoted.
• The starting exercise is to write one line of proof for money, authority, need, timing, and champion on every deal past Discover, and leave missing lines where they are.

For brands planning a campaign

Supports a workshop module on qualification scorecards, especially for teams that use BANT loosely or advance deals on call notes without evidence.

Griego argues that sales motions without rigor, discipline, and purpose produce stalled deals and blown forecasts, and that most sales activity is motion without progress.

• Their example is next-step discipline: every live deal should carry a dated buyer action and a dated seller action, both pointing to a real decision or start date, with no vague follow-up promises.
• Deals that sit post-proposal for weeks signal an unclear-next-step problem, not a closing problem, and a team that never learned to qualify or conduct deeper discovery.
• Griego says this is fixable if every meeting ends with dates and owners and every opportunity missing a dated buyer action is exposed.
• The exercise: open your pipeline, write the buyer’s next step and date for each deal, and call out the blank lines on Monday.

For brands planning a campaign

Works as a live pipeline-review exercise in a workshop and shows that Griego’s material is built for application, not just inspiration.

Griego draws on a book by someone who worked as a shepherd in East Africa, reading it as a sales leadership manual.

• A sheep that rolls onto its back, heavy with its own wool, cannot get up alone; shepherds call it a cast sheep, and it dies within days if left.
• Griego compares this to good reps buried under CRM admin and a territory twice the size it should be, who rarely ask for help.
• A CRM can flag a stalled rep before anyone else notices, but someone still has to walk over and pull them up.
• Further comparisons: sheep will not lie down while hungry, so a rep worried about comp or a thin pipeline will not settle into patient discovery; sheep will drink from a dirty puddle a few yards from a clean stream, just as reps chase a bad-fit deal because it is close; the shepherd uses the staff mainly for the flock’s welfare, hooking a sheep back onto the path or lifting it out of a thicket.
• Griego maps this onto leaders who walk the field with their people, clear obstacles, and inspect deals up close.
• The post closes by asking whether the reader is a good shepherd or leader.

For brands planning a campaign

The strongest fit for a sales leadership workshop opening or closing segment: it addresses coaching, capacity, and leader presence rather than process mechanics alone.

The prescription is a short stage list, two to five clear exit proofs per stage that a rep can self-check in seconds, and use of those proofs as the post-mortem when a deal goes sideways, so the skipped gate is identifiable. The argument arrives with an admission: as a top individual rep they mostly ignored formal stages, and managing a team and a CRM as a VP of sales changed that view, which they now call "top sales arrogance."

Ask the top reps for the three things they always do before moving a deal. Write down their answers and turn them into the exit list; sourcing criteria from the people who will use them is presented as the route to buy-in.

For brands planning a campaign

A workshop segment in which sales leaders draft exit proofs for one real stage, then use them in a live pipeline review. The self-check framing makes it a working session, not a theory talk, and maps directly to the sales-leadership workshop brief.

Examples: Source 1

Michael Griego names MEDDIC, then MEDDPICC, to cover what BANT misses: metrics, economic buyer, decision process, decision criteria, paper process, identified pain, competition, and champion. The practice: keep a custom scorecard in the CRM as a living checklist, tailor the qualification ask and its impact to each sales stage, and do not promote a deal that cannot answer the basics.

Weave qualification into discovery so it sounds like a real conversation, not an interrogation. For every deal past Discover, write one line of proof for money, authority, need, timing, and the champion; missing lines stay put.

The named failure mode is the one-call quiz and interrogation style, not the checklist itself: the tool is defended, the delivery style corrected.

For brands planning a campaign

A scorecard build session in which teams construct a stage-by-stage qualification checklist for one real deal flow and test it against open opportunities. The five-line proof drill works as pre-work because participants can complete it before the room meets.

Examples: Source 1

Deals sitting post-proposal for weeks point to an unclear next step, not a closing problem, and signal a team that never learned to qualify or conduct deeper discovery. The remedy is rigor, discipline, and purpose: end every meeting with dates and owners, and expose every opportunity missing a buyer or seller step.

Open the pipeline, write the buyer's next step and its date for each deal, and treat blank lines as a call on Monday.

For brands planning a campaign

A pipeline review exercise workshop participants can run on their own deals the same day. It pairs with the qualification module, where Michael Griego links stalled next steps to qualification and discovery gaps.

Examples: Source 1

They built a spreadsheet with two columns—what a customer spent last year and what they could spend next year—rated each account A, B, or C in about thirty seconds, then sorted the results.

• AA accounts floated to the top; CC accounts went on a leave-alone list with mailers only, while real plans went to the top ten and twenty.
• They taught the matrix to peers and rolled it out across the business.
• The following year, they finished number one again.

Score a top-40 list on last-year spend and next-year upside, sort it, and put A-time on the AAs before touching anything else.

The manual sheet is a starting move, not the endpoint. Michael Griego says the sheet fails when the book gets big; the strongest companies keep scoring rules in a markdown file, pull live CRM spend into an AI workspace, and re-rank on a cadence using variables a human sheet cannot hold: routes, capacity, and product fit.

For brands planning a campaign

A prioritization module for account allocation and territory questions, built around a two-variable sort. The worked example—a territory cut, quota doubled, ranking rebuilt—gives the workshop a concrete case to discuss.

Examples: Source 1

The rules: exit proofs in the CRM; a qualification scorecard that flags deals advanced without evidence; next-step rules that flag opportunities missing a dated buyer action; and cadence-based account re-ranking against live CRM spend. The guidance is to avoid both over-engineering and underdoing it.

For brands planning a campaign

This recurring modernization argument ties the individual techniques together and makes a natural closing module for a workshop: take the manual tools participants built and decide which ones become standing CRM checks.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2 · Source 3 · Source 4

A cast sheep that rolls onto its back, heavy with its own wool, cannot rise alone and dies within days.

• Griego likens this to good reps buckling under CRM admin and territories twice the size they should be, who rarely ask for help.
• Sheep that will not lie down while hungry resemble reps worried about comp or a thin pipeline, unable to settle into patient discovery.
• Sheep drinking from a dirty puddle a few yards from a clean stream resemble reps chasing the nearby bad-fit deal.
• The shepherd uses a staff for the flock's welfare, hooking a sheep back onto the path or lifting it out of a thicket.
• That becomes a model for leaders who walk the field with their people, clear obstacles before the team reaches them, and inspect deals up close.

The leadership behaviors named are guidance, commitment, assistance, encouragement, protection, path-leading, discipline, and deep caring.

For brands planning a campaign

A leadership coaching module with diagnosable conditions—admin overload, comp anxiety, thin pipeline—that precede performance drops, plus field-walking behaviors to counter them. The analogy structure gives facilitators strong opening material.

Examples: Source 1

Several close with instructions for a specific next meeting: call Monday about blank pipeline lines, write three exit proofs for one stage and use them in the next pipeline review, or score a top 40.

• Personal track record opens several posts, including two number-one finishes after a territory cut and a matrix rolled out across an entire business.
• A team-and-CRM management role is cited as what changed their view of stage discipline.

For brands planning a campaign

The material is exercise-first, making it easy to adapt for workshop pre-work and in-room application. Its short-form, drill-driven style also offers a useful model for collaboration briefs: the audience expects a concrete takeaway.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2 · Source 3 · Source 4 · Source 5

Santa Elena names the same failure conditions Griego addresses: stage definitions no one understands, forecast categories that mean different things to different managers, and close dates that keep slipping.

• They prescribe a limited number of stages, aligned exit criteria, and required fields that gate stage movement.
• Both connect clean stage data to a defensible forecast.

Santa Elena writes from the revenue-operations side, covering forecasting cadence, category definitions, historical conversion rates, and early-warning systems across an organization. Griego writes from the sales-leadership side, focusing on what a rep or front-line manager should do on a specific deal, with drills for the pipeline review.

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They urge readers to look for observable behavior — a close date pushed twice, a late-stage deal with nothing on the calendar, a buyer who stopped replying — rather than a rep's own risk flag. Both also note that adding headcount or slicing territories can hurt reps who were already producing.

Aleman writes about the planning and finance side of the number: ramp curves relative to sales-cycle length, pipeline spread across too many reps, and what a board can and cannot absorb. Griego focuses on deals and teams, with checklists and exit proofs for reps and managers to use in the next pipeline review.

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Bornancin says automating all twelve CRM fields only scales friction if just four drive forecasting, and that the companies that win use AI on the right things. Griego makes the parallel point that the strongest companies encode only the rules that matter — exit proofs, qualification evidence, dated next steps — and calibrate them to avoid over-engineering or underdoing it.

Bornancin's material centers on AI adoption, market positioning, and hiring at scale at a software company. Griego's posts focus on deal-level discipline and how a leader can help a stuck rep.

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The posts lay out a full diagnostic: forecasting treated as art when reps enter data inconsistently; stage definitions nobody understands; gut feel as the method; close dates that keep slipping or sit in the past; commit categories that mean different things to different managers; lightweight deal inspection; and no historical visibility.

• The fixes are equally concrete: define forecast categories in writing; align stage definitions and simple yes/no exit criteria across the whole organization at five or six stages; gate stage movement with required fields; run the same cadence on the same day every week; track forecast accuracy by rep, manager, and segment; pressure-test numbers with historical stage conversion rates; and build an early-warning system that surfaces at-risk deals before the pipeline call.
• A second post offers a ready-made escalation exercise: the same Salesforce license request written three ways, from order taker to business partner, ending with a recommendation and an offer to contact the account executive.
• That makes a workshop block on presenting ops work upward.

The tradeoff is altitude.

• Michael Griego's posts work at the process and governance layer, so a room leaves with a forecast redesign, not rep-level coaching tools.
• They lack the practitioner detail in their posts: finishing first after a 200-account cut and a doubled quota, the stalled-rep metaphor, and the two-column prioritization matrix rolled out company-wide.
• A forecast redesign also tends to take longer to implement than a half-day, exercise-driven workshop.
• Ask for details of any delivered program and engagement terms.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2

The work argues that assuming ten new reps add ten quotas is the fastest way to miss next year's target, and shows the operational friction a finance model ignores: if the plan assumes a rep is productive in 90 days but the sales cycle runs five months, the ramp curve is impossible; doubling headcount without more inbound or outbound slices the same pipeline smaller; adding reps without a front-line manager kills deal inspection and win rates; and newer reps' territories too often come out of the patches of the people who built them.

• The second post gives a risk framework a workshop can run on real deals right away: a board can live with a miss but not a surprise; the CRM is the last place a rep will admit a deal is dying, so read behavior instead of sentiment.
• A close date pushed twice in a month means the deal leaves commit; a late-stage deal with nothing on the calendar gets inspected today; a buyer who went quiet after same-day replies gets executive outreach; and a deal two weeks out with legal not engaged is not closing in two weeks.
• Choose this alternative when attendees are planning next year's number or the workshop needs a board-communication and early-warning segment.

This is operator analysis written as argument, not as an exercise.

• Michael Griego's posts contain no stage-by-stage gate list, qualification scorecard, or account-ranking method, so a facilitator would need to turn the planning narrative and behavior signals into hands-on workshop artifacts.
• The material also sits above the day-to-day rep, making it a complement rather than a replacement for a pipeline-discipline curriculum.
• Ask for details of any delivered program, audience figures, and engagement terms.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2

The post makes one sharp, usable argument: do not automate everything; delete work that exists only because that is how it has always been done.

• Twelve CRM fields after every demo, when only four drive forecasting, means eight are friction.
• Automating all twelve skips the real question of whether they are needed at all: AI does not fix a bad process; it scales it.
• The order of questions is portable into a room: does this need to happen, can we delete it, can we make it faster, and only then, automate it.
• The hiring post adds context on the organization behind that view, with open inbound and outbound SDR, account executive, and marketing roles.
• Pick this alternative if the training company wants a session on rollout discipline before tooling, or if an AI or CRM vendor is sponsoring the engagement and the need is to do AI on the right things.

The reviewed base is thin for this section's task: two posts, one a hiring announcement, and neither lays out a stage, qualification, or next-step method.

• There is no exercise-ready pipeline framework to build the workshop from, so a facilitator would have to extend the delete-then-automate argument from scratch.
• Ask for follower, engagement, and audience-composition figures, along with details of past sponsored work and published terms, to assess reach and campaign fit.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2