Alakris — Sales Playbook 2026

Version	v1.0
Date	2026-07-12
Status	APPROVED — published 2026-07-12
Contract	MKT-030-4 (PARENT: MKT-030)
Replaces/extends	sales_playbook_pricing_and_qualification_2026.md (SUPERSEDED for the self-service segment — see banner in that file)
References	Pricing Book (pricing-book-2026.md, MKT-030-3), Demo Playbook (MKT-030-5), Qualification Guide (MKT-030-6), Objection Handling (MKT-030-7)

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0. Why this document replaces the old playbook

sales_playbook_pricing_and_qualification_2026.md (Status: Active) targets only the high-ticket ICP: revenue ≥$1M, active paid traffic, CRM in place, marketing budget ≥$10K/mo — the same segment as the old Alakris_Price_List_2026.pdf (Growth/Scale/Performance). At the time it was written, the self-service tiers (Lite $30 / Self-Service $129 / Managed $349) did not exist.

This document covers the full spectrum — Lite → Enterprise. The old document is not deleted, is marked SUPERSEDED, and remains a valid reference specifically for the Enterprise segment (sections 5–14 of the old document — ROI framing, deal qualification matrix, founder call rule — remain relevant for Growth/Scale/Performance discovery calls, see section 6 below).

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1. Sales stages (overview)

First contact → Discovery call → Qualification → Demo → Tier proposal
  → Objection handling → Terms negotiation → Close → Onboarding

Stage	Document in this epic	Owner	Timing
Discovery call	This document, section 2	Sales manager	1st contact, up to 30 min
Qualification	Qualification Guide (MKT-030-6)	Sales manager	During/right after discovery
Demo	Demo Playbook (MKT-030-5)	Sales manager	Within 3 business days after discovery
Tier proposal	Pricing Book (MKT-030-3) + tier decision tree (section 3 below)	Sales manager	Right after demo
Objection handling	Objection Handling Guide (MKT-030-7)	Sales manager	Throughout the conversation
Terms negotiation	Enterprise Pricing Policy (Pricing Book, "Enterprise" section) — Enterprise deals only	Sales manager → Owner (approval matrix)	Up to 5 business days
Close	This document, section 7	Sales manager	—
Onboarding	Customer Journey (MKT-030-10)	Onboarding specialist	From payment

Next-steps rule: after EVERY stage, a concrete action with owner and deadline is recorded in CRM (Marina, AI sales manager — lead card). Wording like "let's discuss later" is forbidden — either a call date or an explicit "on hold, reason X, follow-up date Y" status.

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2. Discovery call — structure of the first meeting

A single linear checklist (don't overload with methodologies): ACE opening → SPICED questions → next steps. The qualification spine is MEDDPICC-lite (section 2.2), but the interviewer asks questions in SPICED logic, not reading MEDDPICC as a survey.

2.1. Call timing (30 minutes)

Block	Time	Goal
ACE opening	3 min	Agenda, Context, Expectations — what we discuss, why the customer is here, what they get out of the call
Situation	5 min	Current situation: sales channels, traffic/lead volume, CRM presence, who currently answers customers
Pain	10 min	Where money/time is lost: night requests unanswered, slow qualification, overloaded support, no SEO traffic
Impact	5 min	Translate pain into money/hours: "how many night leads are lost per month?", "how many hours per week go into manual lead qualification?"
Decision	4 min	Who decides, budget available, timelines
Next steps	3 min	Concrete next action + date

2.2. MEDDPICC-lite (what must be closed by the end of discovery)

Letter	Question	Where it is recorded
Metrics	Which metric does the customer want to improve and by how much (in numbers, not "it would be better")	CRM, Impact field
Economic Buyer	Who actually signs the invoice — not always the person on the call	CRM; if different person — section 2.4
Decision Criteria	By what criteria will the customer compare options (price / speed of implementation / integrations)	CRM
Decision Process	How many steps to signature, who else is involved	CRM
Identify Pain	Specific pain from the Pain section above	CRM
Champion	Who on the customer side will push the deal internally	CRM
Competition	Is the customer considering alternatives (not mandatory to ask directly — if it surfaces, record it)	CRM, optional

2.3. 6–8 open questions (template, skewed toward Pain/Impact)

1. How are requests/customer inquiries currently handled outside business hours?
2. Roughly how many inquiries come through the website/messengers per month?
3. What happens to a request if a manager doesn't respond quickly?
4. What does your funnel look like now — what do you use to manage leads (CRM, spreadsheets, nothing)?
5. If night and "slow" requests didn't get lost — how much would that be worth per month? (quantitative impact question)
6. How much time does the team spend manually qualifying inbound leads?
7. Who in the company decides on tools like this and what budget was allocated?
8. What is the timeline — when would you like to see results?

2.4. Edge case — Economic Buyer is not in the room

If only the Champion is on the discovery call (marketer, manager, but not the person who signs invoices):

1. Do not move to price discussion until the Economic Buyer joins the conversation (verbally or on a follow-up call).
2. Explicitly ask the Champion: "Who in the company finally approves expenses like this?" — record name/role in CRM.
3. Agree on a joint call with the Economic Buyer BEFORE sending a commercial proposal — do not send pricing "into the air" to someone without decision authority.
4. In this case the Champion becomes the "internal seller" — provide materials (Pricing Book, cases) for an internal presentation to the boss if a joint call cannot be arranged immediately.

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3. Decision tree — customer need → tier

Internal manager script (used as a call checklist, not a public web quiz). Value driver of the branches is the number of automatable business processes / AI employees (see ai-employee-catalog-2026.md), not the number of human users.

Question	Answer	→ Recommended tier
Q1. Which channels are needed?	Chat on website only	Lite / Self-Service
	Website + chat + e-commerce (CRM, messengers)	Self-Service / Managed
Q2. How many business processes are we automating?	1 process	Self-Service
	2–4 processes	Managed
Q3. Network/franchise/multitenant/complex integrations?	Yes	Enterprise (overrides Q1/Q2 — see priority rule below)

3.1. How to use the tree on a call

1. Ask Q1 → Q2 → Q3 in exactly this order.
2. If the answer to Q3 is "yes" (network, franchise, multitenant, complex custom integration) — this overrides answers to Q1/Q2, even if by channel/process volume the customer looks like Self-Service. Integration complexity matters more than the number of processes.
3. The final tier recommendation is voiced to the customer with an explicit caveat: "This is a guide based on what you've shared — exact limits and pricing we'll review together in the Pricing Book" (do not present the recommendation as final price before section 4).
4. For borderline cases (e.g., exactly on the Managed/Enterprise boundary) — see the Edge case "between Managed and Enterprise" in Pricing Book (MKT-030-3, Enterprise Pricing Policy section).

3.2. Edge case — customer doesn't fit cleanly into any branch

Example: customer wants only chat (Q1 → Lite/Self-Service) but has a network of branches (Q3 → Enterprise). Priority rule: Q3 always wins — integration complexity/multitenancy matters more than the number of processes or channels. Even the smallest functional request from a network/franchise is routed to Enterprise discovery, not a self-serve tier, because multitenant architecture, branch billing, and access separation require individual setup regardless of what branches want to automate right now.

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4. Moving to tier and price

After the decision tree (section 3), move to the specific tier via the Pricing Book (MKT-030-3):

• Tier and price are voiced only AFTER Impact (section 2.1) has been translated into money — not before. The rule from the old playbook still applies: "No pricing discussion without qualification."
• If the recommended tier is Enterprise, move into the Enterprise Pricing Policy discovery process (Pricing Book, corresponding section): discovery questions → custom quote → SLA → implementation. Price is NOT stated as a fixed figure at this stage — only the sub-tier range (Growth/Scale/Performance) and an explanation that the exact figure is the result of separate discovery.
• Anchor on ROI at any price (see section 6 — ROI framing model, retained from the old playbook as a working technique).

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5. Positioning (what we say, what we don't say)

Retained from existing practice (SALES-RUNBOOK-2026.md, updated for tiers):

To the question "what do you do?":

We make sure businesses don't lose leads and increase conversion with AI employees that work 24/7 — from an AI consultant on the website to a full team of digital employees (sales, marketing, analytics, SEO).

Do not say:

• "We make chatbots"
• "We sell AI agents"
• "We automate messages"

Always:

• Sell AI employees with a role and area of responsibility (see ai-employee-catalog-2026.md), not abstract "functionality"
• Tie the conversation to outcomes (lost leads, hours of manual work, conversion), not technical details
• For self-service tiers (Lite/Self-Service) — emphasize speed of launch ("from registration to live widget in one session"), not the ROI calculation from section 6 (that one is for Managed+/Enterprise discovery, where the check is higher and the decision more considered)

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6. ROI Framing Model (for Managed/Enterprise deals)

Retained from sales_playbook_pricing_and_qualification_2026.md (section 6) — a working technique for deals where the check is high enough for an ROI conversation to be appropriate (Managed $349+ and above, especially Enterprise):

Example: customer revenue $1M/year ≈ $83K/mo.

"If we increase your conversion by 5% — what would that mean in money?"

Lead the customer to name the figure themselves (5% uplift ≈ +$4K/mo in this example), then:

"Our system usually costs less than the additional revenue it creates."

Never argue about price directly — return the conversation to ROI. For self-service tiers this technique is excessive (see section 5) — there the customer decides in minutes without complex financial reasoning.

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7. Closing the deal

Deal type	How it closes
Lite / Self-Service	Customer pays independently through conversational onboarding — sales manager is not involved in checkout, only directs the customer and removes objections (Objection Handling, MKT-030-7).
Managed	Demo (MKT-030-5) → proposal → detail alignment (dedicated specialist, integrations) → card payment, like self-serve.
Enterprise	Discovery → custom quote (approval matrix, Pricing Book) → SLA → signing of individual contract → onboarding specialist hands the customer off through Customer Journey (MKT-030-10).

Next step after closing any deal: hand off the customer to onboarding with a fixed owner (onboarding specialist for Managed/Enterprise, automatic flow for Lite/Self-Service) — see Customer Journey (MKT-030-10).

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8. Lead disqualification (retained from old playbook, updated)

Do not book a call with the founder/senior sales if:

• There is clearly no budget at all (do not confuse with "budget below Managed" — that is NOT a reason to refuse; Lite/Self-Service exist for that)
• "We just want a cheap chatbot" with no readiness to engage with business-process automation
• No clear business goals even after the Pain/Impact questions in section 2

Important difference from the old playbook: the revenue ≥$1M threshold is no longer a general disqualification criterion — that was true only for the old high-ticket-only model. Self-serve tiers (Lite/Self-Service/Managed) are specifically designed for customers below that threshold. The revenue ≥$1M threshold remains relevant ONLY as a guide for Enterprise segmentation (the Growth sub-tier starts at $1M, see Pricing Book).

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Document maintained under task MKT-030-4. Changes to the tier tree are made only following updates to the Pricing Book (MKT-030-3), not independently.