The method
The engine, end to end.
01 · Signal
Signal
Demand originated from a cold start, not inherited.
02 · Pipeline
Qualified pipeline
Anything I did not originate gets re-qualified by default.
03 · Maturation
VALID maturation
Five wins, each earned and documented before forecast.
04 · Negotiation
Negotiation
Terms shaped from earned leverage, not concessions used to rescue a deal.
05 · Closed
Closed
A forecast that holds because every win has an artifact.
Most organizations split this rail: marketing and SDRs own 01 and 02, the AE picks it up at 03. I carry all five, working directly with whoever owns each win on your side, so the pipeline I forecast is the pipeline I built.
VALID™
A deal maturation model for enterprise sales
Qualification asks what you know about a deal. Maturation asks what you have earned inside an account. Five wins, five owners, one standard of proof. My own model, developed across years of complex sales.
This standard doesn’t get diluted because a deal is less complex. It holds whether one stakeholder owns every win or five different people do.
Win
What it means
The artifact that proves it
V
Validated · technical win
The technical team confirmed the solution solves the problem.
POC criteria signed off before the POC begins, architecture approval.
Solutions architect
A
Aligned · political win
A champion is selling internally, and the blockers are mapped.
Champion’s written advocacy, customer-defined success criteria, power map.
Champion, buying committee
L
Locked · priority win
The project is ranked in the active window, with a consequence for delay.
Decision date tied to a named business consequence, written stack position.
Project sponsor
I
Invested · commercial win
Budget approved, not forecasted, and confirmed by the buyer directly.
Budget approval from the economic buyer, business case sign-off, TCO alignment.
Economic buyer, CFO
D
Documented · legal win
Paper clears without surprises, with a defined path to execution.
Redlined MSA with a resolution path, procurement and security approval.
Legal, procurement
Assumed
→
Verbal
→
Documented
Only documented is forecastable. Five documented wins and one assumed win is not 83% qualified, it is unforecastable.
The Reality
A positive meeting is not a win. Wins are earned in provable increments, and trust is the system that produces them.