Define the buyer and outcome
Focus effort on people with a real problem you can solve and a plausible path to action.
The Art of Negotiation
From Stanford Graduate School of Business. Watch here or open it on YouTube .
During the course primer, listen for ideas that change how you approach “Define the buyer and outcome.” Pause once to capture a useful point, then apply it while producing an ideal-opportunity card with target roles, problem signals, disqualifiers, and qualification questions.What this lesson is really solving.
Focus effort on people with a real problem you can solve and a plausible path to action. This is lesson 1 because later decisions depend on an ideal-opportunity card with target roles, problem signals, disqualifiers, and qualification questions. A sales process is a filter: good opportunities move forward and poor fits exit early. Use your own numbers, files, environment, and constraints so the result survives outside the course.
Understand the idea before touching the steps.
A sales process is a filter: good opportunities move forward and poor fits exit early.
Follow these steps in order.
Take the action in each step; then use the deliverable below to prove the lesson is finished.
- 1
Write the specific before-and-after outcome your offer can credibly create.
- 2
Describe who experiences the problem, who benefits, who approves, who pays, and who could block the decision.
- 3
List observable fit signals, disqualifiers, urgent events, and minimum conditions for successful delivery.
- 4
Build five qualification questions that reveal facts without interrogating or manipulating the buyer.
See the standard in context.
A freelance editor targets weekly educational channels with inconsistent postproduction, not every creator who has ever uploaded a video. The learner saves an ideal-opportunity card with target roles, problem signals, disqualifiers, and qualification questions and notes the evidence or assumption behind the choice so it can be reviewed and improved later.
Inspect before you move on.
- The finished work visibly includes an ideal-opportunity card with target roles, problem signals, disqualifiers, and qualification questions.
- You tested the work against this common failure: Calling everyone a prospect because they could theoretically use the offer.
- Another person could verify this mastery standard: You can explain why a specific opportunity is worth pursuing using evidence rather than enthusiasm.
Your deliverable
An ideal-opportunity card with target roles, problem signals, disqualifiers, and qualification questions.
Watch for this
Calling everyone a prospect because they could theoretically use the offer.
Prove it—don’t just recognize it.
You can explain why a specific opportunity is worth pursuing using evidence rather than enthusiasm.
Quick knowledge check
Answer from the lesson—not from confidence alone. Score at least 2 of 3 to unlock completion.
This curriculum-aligned check is scored automatically and stored with your account when signed in. It is an objective learning signal, but it has not yet been independently validated as a standardized assessment.
Tools, templates, and references
Pass the knowledge check above first.
Completion unlocks after a score of 2 out of 3. Then confirm that you produced the lesson deliverable.
Go to the knowledge check