The Sales Foundation toolkit: the files your team installs

You finished the Foundation module with three documents: a value-narrative.md, an icp.md + qualification rubric, and a battlecards.md for your product. This toolkit makes them infrastructure. A file you wrote once helps you once; a file your team installs — that Claude reads on every task — helps every deal, forever.

Everything here is copy-able. Replace the Mizan placeholders (the GCC bookkeeping brand whose sales team runs through the module) with your own, save the files in the folder your team works in, and open it in Claude Desktop. From then on, every sales task in that folder starts from your real value story, your real definition of a good deal, and your real objection answers — instead of each rep’s guess.

The whole pack is four files and a handful of prompts. That’s the point — a foundation small enough to actually get installed beats a beautiful one that lives in a deck nobody opens. Keep customer data out of it: this folder holds your selling infrastructure, never a single lead’s record.

The sales CLAUDE.md

This is the standing context Claude reads automatically when it opens your project folder, so nobody has to re-explain the product every chat. Keep it short and current — it points at the three foundation docs rather than repeating them.

# CLAUDE.md — [Product] sales

## What we sell
[Product] is [one-line value — pull the core line from value-narrative.md].
We sell to [ICP] in [markets, e.g. the GCC], in [English and Arabic].

## The three source-of-truth files — read these first
- value-narrative.md  → WHAT we sell on (problem, pillars, proof, cost of nothing)
- icp.md              → WHO we sell to (fit signals, disqualifiers, the rubric)
- battlecards.md      → HOW we handle pushback (objections + honest reframes)
- value-narrative-ar.md → the Arabic value story (authored, not translated)
Always read the relevant ones before drafting. If a draft conflicts with
them, the files win — flag the conflict, don't quietly override it.

## How we work with you
- You draft; a person decides. Fact-check every claim, number, price, date,
  and named customer — state nothing as fact you can't source.
- On value and qualification, follow the three files above, not your own take.
- Bilingual work is adapted, not translated. Ask which language leads.

## The commercial gate (never skip)
- Pricing, discounts, contract terms, and the expansion ask are NEVER a rep's
  to commit solo. Draft them, then route past deal-desk or a manager BEFORE
  they reach the buyer. You draft the quote; a person agrees the terms.

## What's safe in this folder
- Safe: our value/ICP/battlecard docs, public pricing, anonymized win stories,
  aggregate pipeline numbers, public competitor material.
- Never here: customer lists, lead-level PII, call recordings with private
  details, contracts, signed terms. Tell me if a file looks like it has them.

On Desktop you create and edit this in the file pane — no commands. Anthropic’s docs call the “Ask permissions” mode the one recommended for new users; leave it on, and the first time Claude reads this file you’ll approve it in the prompt.

The value-narrative.md template

The narrative every rep sells from — what you sell on, kept separate from who you sell to. The proof column is the discipline: a claim without it doesn’t get repeated on a call.

# value-narrative.md — [Product]

## The problem we kill
[2–3 sentences in the BUYER's words — the pain of the status quo, not your
features. A prospect should read this and think "that's my Tuesday."]

## Value pillars (benefit · capability · PROOF)
1. [Benefit in the customer's words] · [the capability that delivers it]
   · Proof: [the single hardest real proof point — metric/outcome/reference]
2. ...
3. ...
(Flag any pillar whose proof is thin or missing — fix or cut. No wishes.)

## Cost of doing nothing (the "why now")
[Quantify the status quo: the penalty, the wasted hours, the stale-data
decision. The number that creates urgency without a discount.]

## Differentiator (must survive a 30-second Google)
Unlike [main alternative], we [the one thing a competitor can't equally
claim and a buyer can't immediately disprove].

## Words we use / words we avoid
Use: [5–10 words your buyer uses]   Avoid: [jargon, hype, internal acronyms]

The icp.md + qualification template

The definition of a good-fit deal, scoreable. Built from your won AND lost deals — your closed list is the most honest ICP you own.

# icp.md + qualification — [Product]

## Ideal customer (from won deals)
[size · industry · region · who runs it · what they use today · the trigger]

## Fit signals (check each — yes/no, from real account data)
[ ] [signal 1]   [ ] [signal 2]   [ ] [signal 3]
[ ] [signal 4]   [ ] [signal 5]   [ ] [signal 6]

## Disqualifiers (walk away early — each one costs a quarter)
- [the tempting-but-wrong buyer 1]
- [the tempting-but-wrong buyer 2]
- [the "wants a different product" tell]

## The qualification frame (plain language Claude can score)
Economic buyer: [who signs]
Metric:         [the number they'd judge success on]
Pain:           [the real, named problem — not "efficiency"]
Champion:       [is there one, and do they have the buyer's ear?]
Score:          STRONG / WORTH A CALL / DISQUALIFY — and why, in one line.

The battlecards.md template

The pushback, pre-answered. Each card is an honest reframe tied to the narrative’s proof — never a defensive dodge.

# battlecards.md — [Product]

For each of your 5 hardest objections:

## "[the objection, in the buyer's exact words]"
Reframe:  [the honest answer that meets it head-on — not a deflection]
Anchor:   [the cost-of-doing-nothing or proof point it leans on]
Don't:    [the defensive line reps reach for that loses the trust]

(Order them by how often they actually stall deals. For bilingual teams, the
Arabic set may LEAD with a different card — see the prompt below.)

The saved-prompt library (Foundation)

The recurring foundation jobs, as prompts you reuse. Paste them in the chat with the right files open; on the Terminal & Automation track these become slash commands so they’re one keystroke, but you need none of that to use them today.

Pressure-test the proof
  "Read value-narrative.md. For each value pillar, name the single strongest
   proof point and rate it: solid / thin / missing. For anything thin or
   missing, tell me exactly what evidence would fix it. Don't soften — a rep
   is about to repeat these to a skeptical CFO."

Score a lead against the rubric
  "Read icp.md. Here's a lead: [paste the account facts — no PII]. Score it
   against the fit signals and disqualifiers, give me STRONG / WORTH A CALL /
   DISQUALIFY, and name the one signal that decided it. Be strict; a bad-fit
   deal costs us a quarter."

Sharpen a battle-card
  "Read value-narrative.md and battlecards.md. For the objection '[objection]',
   draft an honest reframe that meets it head-on and anchors on our proof or
   the cost of doing nothing — not a defensive dodge. Then tell me the line a
   rep reaches for that would LOSE the trust."

Localize, don't translate
  "Read value-narrative-ar.md and value-narrative.md. Adapt this English value
   story into Arabic for a Gulf buyer — match the Arabic narrative's register,
   localize the proof and the references, and reorder the objections if the
   Gulf owner raises a different one first. This is an adaptation, not a
   translation."

Refresh the foundation
  "The product/pricing/competition changed: [what changed]. Read
   value-narrative.md, icp.md, and battlecards.md and tell me which claims,
   signals, or cards are now stale, what to update, and what proof I need to
   re-confirm. Propose a versioned diff, don't rewrite silently."

Installing it (Desktop, no setup)

1. Save the four files — CLAUDE.md, value-narrative.md, icp.md, battlecards.md (plus value-narrative-ar.md for bilingual teams) — in the folder your sales team works in.
2. Open that folder in Claude Desktop and approve the read in the “Ask permissions” prompt.
3. Start any task by opening the relevant docs; the prompts above do the rest.

That’s the whole install. The foundation you built in the module is now shared infrastructure — and Module 2 of the track extends this same pack with the outreach templates that build on it. If you’re standing this up across a team rather than for yourself, read the operating guide for the data, deal-desk, and rollout layer that belongs underneath.