Your scope is never the problem. The conversation before it is.
A prospect names a framework, SOC 2 or HIPAA or CMMC, and a technical firm starts scoping, because scoping is the thing you are good at. Forty minutes later you have a number and no idea what is driving the purchase. So you price a scope instead of a problem, and the record keeps the scope.
Managed service and security providers who added compliance to what they sell
Usually alongside a platform partner. The platform gave you a product, a console and some co-marketing. It did not give you a way to sell it, and it was never going to.
- You scope a readiness engagement accurately and deliver it well. That is not the gap.
- Compliance deals are a bigger number and a longer conversation than the contracts you built the business on.
- The owner or a technical lead is still the person running sales calls.
- Most of your compliance work arrived by referral, and you would struggle to say where the next five come from.
- You have lost a deal you should have won, and you are not certain why.
Good at delivery, learning the sale.
Somebody names a framework and you start solving it out loud. That instinct built your business and it costs you compliance deals. Pick the framework, then flip the call.
They name a framework.
A prospect says they need SOC 2, by when they are not sure, and asks what it would cost. Same opening on both calls.
You start scoping.
It is the thing you are good at. Evidence collection, policies, the platform, the auditor, a task list. Forty minutes later you have a number and no idea what is driving the purchase.
Four questions before a number.
Ten more minutes out of the scope without sounding evasive, and you know what the deal is worth to them before you say what it costs.
A task list, priced to your hours.
Fourteen tasks and a total. They read it beside two other quotes, and the cheapest one wins.
An outcome with a date on it.
Priced to the deadline and the consequence, not to your hours. Nothing else on the desk compares to it, because nobody else asked.
The scope.
Fourteen tasks and a number. Nothing about why they called, what date they are held to, or who decides. A deal review is an opinion.
The four answers, beside the call they came from.
Written into the record without anyone typing them, so a deal review is a measurement: which of the four is missing, and on which call it went missing.
Same call, same firm, same scope at the end of it. The four questions are the only difference.
The three things
Discovery first, because it is the only one that can still rescue a deal you are in the middle of. The other two decide next quarter.
- 01Discovery.
Worked on your live deals, not in the abstract. The four answers that have to exist before a number is quoted, how to stay out of the scope for another ten minutes without sounding evasive, and a written review on each live deal inside a day, against a scorecard that does not move.
- 02The offer.
What you are selling, said so a stranger can accept or decline it. The work unbundled into three decisions instead of one intimidating one, pricing anchored to the deadline and the consequence, not to your hours, and what goes in writing afterward.
- 03Lead flow, and the handover.
Where the next ones come from when referrals are thin: a fit filter you can score against, the list itself with a reason to call on every row. Then your team runs the reviews and I correct them until the corrections stop being needed.
Six questions most firms cannot answer today
Outcomes worth stating are the ones you can check. On day 91 you answer all six without me.
Why did you lose the last deal you should have won?
The review names which row was missing and on which call it went.
What is driving the deal you are in right now?
The trigger, the date they are held to, the cost of missing it, and who signs.
Why is your number that number?
An answer that survives being asked twice, and that does not live only in your head.
What can somebody buy from you on a first call?
A paid first step small enough to say yes to and still worth delivering.
Where do the next five deals come from?
A scored list against a written filter, not a hope that referrals continue.
Can somebody other than you run a deal review?
They already did, for thirty days, with me correcting them.
Not promised: a close rate, a number of deals, or a revenue figure. I do not control your market, your capacity or who picks up. Anyone quoting you those numbers is quoting you a feeling. What is promised is the process and the instruments, because those are the parts that are mine to deliver.
Six instruments, running, in your hands
Whether or not we keep going. There is no license and nothing switches off.
The discovery guide
The questions that get asked before a scope exists, in order, with the follow up that gets a real answer, not a polite one.
The offer sheet
Your work packaged into decisions a buyer can make, priced, with the reasoning behind each number written down so anyone on your team can defend it.
The fit filter
What a good lead looks like for you specifically, as criteria you can score against, plus the tells that a deal is going to stall before you have spent three weeks on it.
The target list
Firms that match the filter, scored, with the reason to call attached to each row and a file you load into whatever you already send from.
The reply playbook
The answer to what does this cost, to we already have somebody, and to the two others that kill deals. Every one of them says when not to send it.
The deal scorecard
The same questions on every deal, and only the ones due at that stage, so a review is a measurement, not an opinion. Stacked, it shows what is improving.
Both ways out of it, written down now
A program whose ending is vague is a subscription wearing a costume. Both branches are drawn at the same weight because both are real outcomes.
The ninety days
Thirty minutes, one live deal, and a straight answer on whether it is worth it. The sales calls are out, reviews run off the recording or the record. The outreach tool is out, you get the filter, the list and the messages. None of it touches the compliance work.
You keep the whole thing
The discovery guide, the offer sheet, the fit filter, the target list, the reply playbook and the deal scorecard stay where they are, filled in with your deals, running. No license, no exit fee, nothing switches off.
$1,500 a month, plus 3%
The month buys the standing work: reviews, building deals after calls, and me on email when a live one needs an answer today. The 3% is only on deals I sat in on, at project value, paid once at close. Not on renewals, not on ongoing management, and not on anything you closed without me.
Why it is built this way. A retainer pays me the same whether you get better or not. Ninety days that end with you not needing me is the only shape where the handover is my problem, not a nice idea, and the 3% afterward puts me in the room when it counts.
Not for you if
- ·You want somebody to run the calls for you.
This makes the person already running them better at it. It does not replace them, and after ninety days it is not supposed to be me either.
- ·You have no compliance deals in flight and none close behind.
The first thirty days work on live deals. With nothing live there is nothing to review, and you should come back when there is.
- ·Compliance is a side line you are not sure you want.
Ninety days of this pays off only if compliance is a lane you intend to stay in. If you are still deciding, decide that first.
- ·You want a document.
Playbooks are cheap and there are good ones. This is your deals, your pricing and your CRM, the part a document cannot do.
Bring one live deal.
Thirty minutes. Walk me through a compliance deal you are in the middle of and I will tell you what I would do next with it. If that is worth nothing to you, neither is the ninety days, and you will know inside the half hour.
Kesey is an independent practice. It is not a partner, reseller, affiliate or agent of Vanta, Drata, Secureframe or any compliance platform, and nothing here is endorsed by or associated with them. They are named only to describe the firms this is built for.