how to improve your sales processBy Evunn August 25, 2026September 16, 2026

How to Improve Your Sales Process: Review, Learn & Improve | EVUNN

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This roadmap is part of the EVUNN business-building journey. Tell us what you’re building and where you are right now, and we’ll point you to the roadmap that’s right for your situation – free.

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THE PROBLEM: I've started selling, but I don't know what's working, what's not working or what I should change

Your Stage 1 access includes all the EVUNN Toolkits you’ll need to do the work. Don’t just read. Use them as you move through each step.

Step 7: Review, Learn & Improve

You have now put your acquisition and sales process into action. You have:

Identified your target customer.
Built your prospect list.
Started conversations.
Diagnosed customer opportunities.
Presented your offer.
Asked for commitments.
Followed up.
Handled resistance.

You may have contacted 30 prospects and made a sale or no sales at all. What does that mean?

Maybe:

Your prospects were poorly selected.
Your message wasn’t relevant.
You weren’t reaching the right people.
You didn’t ask enough questions.
The problem wasn’t urgent.
You diagnosed the wrong opportunity.
Your offer wasn’t compelling.
The price wasn’t justified.
You failed to follow up properly.
Or the market simply isn’t responding to the problem you thought mattered.

If you don’t review what happened, you won’t know. You will simply repeat the same process.

That’s why this final step in stage 1 is about turning your sales activity into learning.

The EVUNN Mindset Shift

Now, you go from I need to sell more → I need to learn what makes the right customers move.

When sales are slow, the natural response is often: I need more leads. So you contact more people. Still no sales.

Then you say: I need a better pitch. So you rewrite the pitch. Still no sales.

Then you say again: I need to post more content. So you create more content and still no sales.

If you don’t understand where the process is breaking, you may simply be increasing activity without improving performance.

The better question is:
What is the evidence telling me?

Your sales process is producing data.Every conversation gives you information. Every rejection gives you information. Every objection gives you information. Every sale gives you information. Every stalled opportunity gives you information.

Your job is to turn that information into better decisions.

What Should you Review?

There are five major areas.

1. Prospect quality

Did you approach the right people?

2. Conversation quality

Did prospects engage?

3. Opportunity quality

Did conversations reveal real problems worth solving?

4. Offer conversation

Did qualified opportunities move toward purchase?

5. Follow up and delivery

Did commitments actually turn into customers and completed engagements?

This gives you a way to identify where the problem actually is.

Your EVUNN Action

REVIEW, LEARN & IMPROVE YOUR SALES PROCESS

Don’t review your sales activity by asking: How many people did I contact?That number matters, but it isn’t enough.

Review the journey from:
Prospect
↓
Conversation
↓
Diagnosed Opportunity
↓
Offer
↓
Commitment
↓
Customer

Follow theae steps:

1. Review your prospects

Start at the beginning. Look at the prospects you approached.

Ask questions under these categories::

Fit: Did they actually match my Best-Fit Customer?
Problem: Did they have the problem I expected?
Situation: Was there a genuine reason for the problem to matter now?
Reachability: Could I realistically reach and engage them?
Priority: Were these actually the right people to approach first?

Look for patterns.

If most prospects weren’t experiencing the problem, your prospect criteria may be wrong.
If most prospects fit but never responded, your approach may be the problem.
If prospects responded but had no meaningful problem, your original problem assumptions may need revisiting.

2. Review your conversations

Now look at the conversations you started.

Ask the following questions:

Did prospects respond?
Did they continue the conversation?
Did they share useful information?
Did they reveal a meaningful problem?
Did they ask questions?
Did they show interest in exploring further?
Where did conversations stop?

You are looking for the point where momentum disappears. For example:

50 prospects
↓
20 conversations
↓
10 meaningful conversations
↓
5 diagnosed opportunities
↓
3 offers
↓
1 customer

That tells you much more than simply: I contacted 50 people.

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EVUNN Mindset Checkpoint

Are you measuring activity, or learning? It is easy to celebrate: I contacted 100 people. But 100 contacts don’t necessarily mean progress.

You need to know:

What happened?
Why did it happen?
What did I learn?
What will I change?

The goal is to become evidence-driven.

Don’t say: People don’t want my offer.
Ask: What evidence do I have?
Don’t say: LinkedIn doesn’t work.
Ask: What happened to the prospects I approached through LinkedIn?
Don’t say: My price is too high.
Ask: What exactly did prospects say, and what happened after they raised the price concern?

Don’t turn one experience into a universal truth. Look for patterns.

THE EVUNN LEARNING LOOP

Your sales process should now become:
PLAN
↓
PROSPECT
↓
CONVERSE
↓
DIAGNOSE
↓
OFFER
↓
FOLLOW UP
↓
MEASURE
↓
LEARN
↓
IMPROVE
↓
TEST AGAIN

This is how a repeatable customer acquisition system begins to emerge.

Your Phase 4 Review

Before leaving Phase 4, review the entire process.

STEP 1: Build your customer acquisition plan

Can I explain:

Who I want to reach?
Where I can find them?
How I will approach them?

STEP 2: build your first prospect list

Do I have:

Real prospects?
Qualification criteria?
Problem signals?
Buying-situation signals?

STEP 3: Start the conversations

Can I:

Approach prospects naturally?
Earn their attention?
Start a relevant conversation?

STEP 4: Diagnose the opportunity

Can I determine:

What problem exists?
Why does it matter?
What happens if it remains unresolved?
What outcome does the customer want?
Is there a genuine opportunity?

STEP 5: Present and close the offer

Can I:

Connect my recommendation to the diagnosed opportunity?
Present the value clearly?
Ask for commitment?
Move the customer toward a decision?

STEP 6: Follow up and handle resistance

Can I:

Understand hesitation?
Investigate resistance?
Respond without becoming defensive?
Create a clear next commitment?
Know when to stop pursuing an opportunity?

STEP 7: Review learn and improve

Can I:

Identify what is working?
Find where opportunities are being lost?
Recognise patterns?
Identify my biggest bottleneck?
Run a focused experiment?
Improve my process based on evidence?

If you can answer yes to these questions, you have moved beyond simply trying to sell.

You are beginning to build a customer acquisition system.

🔓 Use the EVUNN execution Toolkit: Sales Learning & Improvement Dashboard

Don’t rely on memory to improve your sales process.

Use the EVUNN Sales Learning & Improvement Dashboard to capture your sales activity, track movement between stages, identify bottlenecks, record customer feedback and resistance, analyse patterns and decide what to change next.

The toolkit helps you move from:

Sales Activity
↓
Evidence
↓
Patterns
↓
Learning
↓
Experiment
↓
Improvement

Get Sales Improvement Toolkit + every other Stage 1 Toolkit for 12 months, plus access to the EVUNN Doers Community.

₦5,500 today.

Follow the roadmap. Use the tools. Do the work.

What Next?

If you have been implementing and following the eoadmap, you should now have a process for finding the right prospects, starting conversations, diagnosing opportunities, presenting offers, gaining commitments, following up and learning from the results.

You have moved through the complete customer acquisition process:
Find the right people
↓
Start the conversation
↓
Understand the opportunity
↓
Present the right offer
↓
Gain commitment
↓
Handle resistance
↓
Follow up
↓
Learn
↓
Improve

Note: Your first sales process does not need to be perfect. It needs to produce enough evidence for you to improve it because customer acquisition is not something you figure out once.

It is a system you build, test and improve through real customer interactions.

Phase 4 is Now Complete

You have now built the foundation for acquiring your first customers.

But that is not the end of the journey.The next question is:

How do I turn the customer I acquired into a successful customer, and build a business that can deliver the promised outcome consistently?

We will take care of that in stage 2

Next? Stage 2: from growth to scale

how to follow up with a potential customerBy Evunn August 25, 2026September 16, 2026

How to Follow Up With a Potential Customer & Handle Resistance | EVUNN

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THE PROBLEM: The customer hasn't said yes yet. I don't know whether to follow up, what to say when they hesitate, or how to respond when they raise concerns without becoming pushy.

Understanding how to handle customer resistance and follow up will help you win more sales

Your Stage 1 access includes all the EVUNN Toolkits you’ll need to do the work. Don’t just read. Use them as you move through each step.

Step 6: Follow up and Handle Resistance

In Step 5, you presented your offer and connected your recommendation to the customer’s diagnosed opportunity.

You explained the value, discussed the investment, asked for a decision, but the customer didn’t necessarily say: yes. Let’s do it.

They may have said:

Let me think about it, or

It’s too expensive, or

I need to speak to my partner, or

Can you send me more information? Or

Now isn’t the right time, or

I’ll get back to you.

Or they may have simply stopped responding. This is where a lot of experts get stuck. They either chase the customeror give up too quickly.

They send:
Just checking in.
Then:
Any update?
Then:
I haven’t heard back from you.

Eventually, the opportunity disappears. But the problem isn’t necessarily that the customer said no. The problem is that something remains unresolved.

Your job in Step 6 is to find out what that is. You need to determine what is preventing movement and weather the opportunity is still worth pursuing.

The EVUNN Mindset Shift

This step takes you from I need to overcome their objection → I need to understand what is preventing the decision.

When a customer says it’s too expensive, your instinct may be to defend your price.

When they say, I need to think about it, you may immediately try to persuade them. When they go silent, you may send another message, but you don’t yet know what the resistance actually means.

Too expensive could mean:

They don’t see enough value.
They genuinely don’t have the budget.
They are comparing alternatives.
They don’t trust the expected outcome.
The problem isn’t important enough.
They want a lower price.

Let me think about it could mean:

They need more information.
They need another decision-maker.
They have an unresolved concern.
They aren’t convinced.
They aren’t ready.
They don’t want to say no directly.

You don’t know until you investigate. So don’t rush to overcome resistance. Resistance is information.

Recommended book for this step: Never Split the Difference

Author: Chris Voss

Time Investment: 8+ hours (Audiobook)

Listen to Audiobook with Libro |Buy the Book at the Bookshop

The Big Idea from Never Split the Difference

When a customer hesitates or resists, your first instinct may be to persuade them. The problem is that persuasion before understanding can make resistance worse.

A better approach is to:
Listen
↓
Understand
↓
Label
↓
Ask
↓
Clarify
↓
Discover what is really happening
↓
Determine the appropriate next step

That is where Never Split the Difference comes in. The reason for recommending this book for this step is not to turn you into a professional negotiator.

You will extract the techniques that will help you navigate difficult customer conversations.

The most relevant ideas from Never Split the Difference you are to focus on for this step are:
Tactical empathy
Mirroring
Labelling
Making it safe to say no
Calibrated questions
Summarising
Discovering hidden information
Securing follow-through

What Business Problem Does Never Split the Difference Solve?

It takes care of: The customer is hesitating or resisting, but I don’t know what is really behind the resistance or how to move the conversation forward.

A weak response looks like this:

Customer says: Your price is too high.

Expert in response says: But we’re actually very affordable compared with other providers.

The expert has defended the offer without understanding the concern.

A better response is:

It sounds like the investment is a significant concern.

Then listen. The customer might explain:

It’s not actually the amount. We have already committed this quarter’s budget elsewhere.

Now you know something completely different. The goal is not to have the perfect response to every objection.

The goal is to discover what is actually happening.

Should I read Never Split the Difference now?

Yes, and focus on how to understand resistance, uncover hidden concerns, ask better questions and create clear next steps without becoming defensive or pushy.

Which parts of Never Split the Difference should I focus on for this step? Focus on these:

CHAPTER 2: Be Mirror (IMPORTANT)

Mirroring encourages the other person to continue talking. For example:

Customer:

We’re not ready to move forward yet.

You:

Not ready yet?

Then stop. Let them explain.

The important lesson here isn’t simply the technique. It is the discipline of not rushing to fill silence with your own explanation.

CHAPTER 3: Don’t feel their pain, label it (ESSENTIAL)

This is one of the most useful chapters for Step 6.

Instead of immediately solving the customer’s concern, acknowledge what appears to be happening.

For example:

It sounds like the timing is the main concern, or

It seems like you’re uncertain whether the investment is justified, or

It sounds like you need another person involved before making the decision.

Then allow the customer to respond.

They can:

Confirm
Correct
Clarify

That gives you information.

EVUNN APPLICATION
Resistance → Label → Listen → Understand
Not:
Resistance → Defend → Persuade

CHAPTER 4: Beware Yes, Master No (ESSENTIAL)

A customer saying, “yes, that sounds good”doesn’t necessarily mean they are committed. Sometimes people say yes simply to end a conversation.

A clear no can actually be more useful because it allows the real issue to surface.

Make it safe for the customer to disagree with you.

You want honest information. Not polite agreement.

CHAPTER 5: Trigger the Two Words that Immediately Transform any Negotiation (IMPORTANT)

The two words are that’s right. The principle is simple: summarise before you persuade.

For example:

So, if I’ve understood you correctly, you don’t disagree that the problem needs to be solved. Your concern is whether now is the right time to make the investment.

Then listen. If the customer responds: That’s right, you have evidence that you understand their position.

That creates a stronger foundation for the next step.

CHAPTER 7: Create the Illusion of Control (ESSENTIAL)

Use calibrated questions to help the customer think through the situation rather than telling them what they should do.

For example:

What would need to happen for you to feel comfortable moving forward? Or

How would you like to handle this? Or

What do you think the next step should be? Or

What would make this workable for you? Or

The objective is not manipulation. It is to make the customer an active participant in resolving the decision.

CHAPTER 8: Guarantee Execution (IMPORTANT)

A decision isn’t the same thing as execution.

A customer can say, yes and still never:

Pay
Sign
Schedule
Provide information
Start
Implement

So once a commitment is made, make the next action concrete.

For example:

Great. I’ll send the agreement today. Once it’s signed, we’ll schedule our first session.

Don’t leave commitments vague.

CHAPTER 10: Find the Black Swan (ESSENTIAL)

Sometimes the reason a customer isn’t moving is something you don’t know exists.

You think: The price is too high. But the real issue is: Their budget has been frozen. Or you think: They need more information.But the real issue is: Their partner doesn’t trust the solution.

Don’t assume you know why the customer is hesitating. Investigate.

What parts of never Split the Difference should I skip for Now?

Chapter 1: The New Rules (SKIM)

Useful context, but not essential to completing the execution task.

Chapter 6: Bend Their Reality (SKIM)

Useful for understanding perception, value and fairness.

Chapter 9: Bargain Hard (SKIP FOR NOW)

This is more relevant to formal negotiation and price bargaining.

If yoy later need advanced negotiation skills, you can return to it.

YOUR EVUNN ACTION

FOLLOW UP & HANDLE RESISTANCE

Now return to the opportunities from Step 5 that have not yet moved to a clear decision.

Your objective is not to chase them. Your objective is to determine:

Why hasn’t this opportunity moved forward?

Follow these steps to handle resistance and follow up easily:

1. Review the last Commitment

Return to your Step 5 record. What did the customer last agree to?

For example:

Review the proposal
Speak to a partner
Discuss internally
Provide information
Schedule another meeting
Make a decision
Start the engagement

Then ask:

What was supposed to happen next?

Your follow-up should connect to that commitment.

2. Identify the Unresolved Issue

Ask:

What might currently be preventing movement?

Consider:

VALUE – They don’t see enough value.
PRICE – The investment is a concern.
TIMING – The problem isn’t urgent enough.
TRUST – They aren’t confident in you or the solution.
FIT – The offer may not actually be appropriate.
AUTHORITY – Someone else needs to decide.
INFORMATION – They still have unanswered questions.
RISK- They are afraid of making the wrong decision.
PRIORITY – Something else matters more right now.
NO REAL NEED – The opportunity may not actually be strong.

Don’t treat these as conclusions. They are hypotheses to investigate.

EVUNN Mindset Checkpoint

Are you following up, or chasing? There is a difference between chasing and following up.

Example of Chasing are: Have you decided? Any update? Just checking in. I haven’t heard back from you.

Examples of following up:

When we spoke, you mentioned that your main concern was X. Has anything changed? Or

You said you wanted to discuss this with your partner. Were you able to do that? Or

You mentioned that timing was the main issue. Is solving this still a priority?

Follow-up has context. It is connected to something the customer actually said or committed to.

And also ask yourself: Am I trying to overcome resistance, or understand it?

Resistance is not necessarily an obstacle standing between you and the sale. It is information.

It may tell you:

Your offer isn’t clear.
The value isn’t strong enough.
The customer isn’t ready.
The wrong person is involved.
The timing is wrong.
The problem isn’t important enough.
Or the opportunity isn’t real.

If you immediately try to overcome every concern, you may end up selling something the customer doesn’t actually need.

Remember: Don’t fight resistance. Investigate it.

And: A customer saying no is better than a customer saying maybe forever.

Your step 6 output

By the end of this step, you should have an ACTIVE SALES FOLLOW-UP SYSTEM

Your process should now look like:
Presented Offer
↓
Customer Response
↓
Unresolved Concern
↓
Investigation
↓
Response
↓
Next Commitment
↓
Follow-Up
↓
Decision

Your opportunities should now fall into clear categories:

Ready
Active
Nurture
Needs More Information
Decision-Maker Required
Not a Fit
Lost

Your objective is not to create the biggest possible pipeline. Your objective is to know:

Why hasn’t this opportunity moved forward, what needs to happen next, and whether it is still worth pursuing?

It’s time to understand what’s really stopping the sale.

🔓 Use the EVUNN Execution Toolkit: Follow-Up & Resistance Tracker

Don’t send endless: Just checking in.

Use the EVUNN Follow-Up & Resistance Tracker to understand why an opportunity has stalled, identify the customer’s unresolved concern, plan the next conversation, record commitments and decide whether to continue, nurture or close the opportunity.

The toolkit helps you map:
Last Commitment
↓
Current Status
↓
Customer Concern
↓
What the Concern Really Means
↓
Evidence
↓
Response
↓
Next Commitment
↓
Follow-Up Date
↓
Opportunity Decision

Get the Follow up & Resistance Tracker + every other Stage 1 Toolkit for 12 months, plus access to the EVUNN Doers Community.

₦5,500 today.

Follow the roadmap. Use the tools. Do the work.

What next should I do ?

At the beginning of this step you you knew the customer hasn’t decided yet and you didn’t know what to say next.

At the end of step 6, you leave knowing:

I can identify what is preventing movement, investigate the customer’s concern, respond without becoming defensive, establish the next commitment and know when to continue or stop pursuing the opportunity.

You have now moved through:

Prospect
↓
Conversation
↓
Diagnosis
↓
Opportunity
↓
Offer
↓
Commitment
↓
Resistance
↓
Follow-Up
↓
Decision

Making individual sales isn’t enough. You now need to know whether the system itself is working to consistently give you more sales. You need to know:.

Which prospects are converting?
Which conversations are producing opportunities?
Where are customers getting stuck?
Which concerns keep appearing?
Which offers convert?
Which acquisition channels produce the best customers?
What should you change?

That is the final step for stage 1

Next? Step 7: Review, Learn and Improve

What is my sales process teaching me, and what should I change to make it work better?

how to close a saleBy Evunn August 25, 2026September 16, 2026

How to Close a Sale: Present Your Offer & Gain Commitment | EVUNN

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THE PROBLEM: I have spoken to my prospective customer and have discovered a gap but I don't know how to present the offer to get a commitment and a sale

If you discover a gap and present the offer in a way that does not match the gap, you can still lose the sale no matter how good your offer is

Your Stage 1 access includes all the EVUNN Toolkits you’ll need to do the work. Don’t just read. Use them as you move through each step. Learn as you build your business.

Step 5: Present & Close The Offer

In Step 4, you diagnosed the opportunity.

You established:

The customer’s current state
Their desired future state
The gap between the two
What is causing the gap
The impact of the gap
Why the problem matters
Why change may be necessary
Whether the opportunity is worth pursuing

You now have a reason to make a recommendation or to propose your solution

But don’t make this mistake a lot of exlerts make: They uaually jump from:

I understand your problem.

to:

Here is everything I can do for you.

Then they start talking about their expertise, credentials, methodology, services, features, process, experience, price and then they ask: What do you think?

The problem is, that makes the offer become disconnected from the diagnosis. The customer may then be thinking:

How does this actually help me close the gap we just discussed?

Your job in this step is to make that connection clear.

You are moving from:
Diagnosis
↓
Recommendation
↓
Customer Commitment
↓
Decision

The EVUNN Mindset Shift

Now, you Progress from I need to close the sale→ I need to gain the next commitment.

The word closing can make experts uncomfortable. You may think you don’t want to pressure people. So you avoid asking for a decision.

Or you may go in the opposite direction and start trying to persuade the customer. You explain more, add more features, defend your price, offer discount and keep talking.

But closing does not have to mean forcing someone to buy.

Iannarino’s framework is built around gaining commitments throughout the buying process rather than treating the close as one isolated event. The commitments include time, exploration, change, collaboration, consensus, investment, review, resolving concerns, decision and then execution.

Your job is not to force a yes.Your job is to help the customer make the commitments necessary to move forward.

That means asking:

What does the customer need to commit to next?
What information do they need?
Who else needs to be involved?
Are they committed to change?
Are they willing to collaborate?
Are they willing to invest?
Are they ready to decide?

And once they decide, are they ready to execute?

Recommended Book for Step 5: The Lost Art of Closing

Author: Anthony Iannarino

Time Investment: 6+ hours (Audiobook)

Listen to Audiobook with Audible free trial |Buy the Book at Amazon

The Big Idea from The Lost Art of Closing

Closing is not something you do only at the end of a sales conversation.

It is a process of gaining the commitments that move a customer from their current situation toward the outcome they want.

The Lost Art of Closing identifies ten major commitments:
Time
↓
Explore
↓
Change
↓
Collaborate
↓
Build Consensus
↓
Invest
↓
Review
↓
Resolve Concerns
↓
Decide
↓
Execute

These commitments do not have to happen in a perfectly linear sequence. But they give you a useful way to understand what needs to happen before an opportunity can move forward.

This book teachez you how to guide a qualified customer toward a clear decision.

What Business Problem Does The Lost Art of Closing Solve?

It solves: I have a good solution, but my sales conversations stall because the customer doesn’t commit to moving forward.

You may have:

A real problem
A strong diagnosis
A relevant solution
A good offer
A reasonable price

And still fail to make the sale. Why? Because the customer may not yet be committed to:

Changing
Collaborating
Investing
Getting other stakeholders involved
Reviewing the proposal
Resolving concerns
Making a decision

The offer itself is only one part of the process.

Should I Read The Lost Art of Closing Now?

Yes. Your main go here is to:

Find out how to present a recommendation that connects to the customer’s diagnosed opportunity and gain the commitments needed to move that opportunity toward a decision.

Which Parts of The Lost Art of Closing Matter Most for this Step? Focus on these:

Chapter 1: A new Philosophy of Commitment Gaining (ESSENTIAL)

Start here. This chapter establishes the philosophy behind the entire book.

The important shift is: Don’t obsess over the final close. Instead gain the commitment needed to move the process forward.

This changes how you conduct the conversation. Instead of asking:

How do I get this person to buy?

Ask:

What commitment needs to happen next?

Chapter 2: control the commitments and control the process (ESSENTIAL)

This helps you understand why a sales opportunity can appear healthy while actually going nowhere.

A customer saying: Send me the proposal is not necessarily a meaningful commitment.

A stronger process establishes:

What happens next
Who is involved
When it happens
What each person needs to do
What decision will be made

This prevents vague next steps such as: I’ll get back to you.

Chapter 3: Trading Value (ESSENTIAL)

Before asking for a commitment, make sure you are creating value. The customer should receive something useful from the interaction like:

A useful insight
A clearer diagnosis
A better understanding of their situation
A recommendation
A useful framework
A path forward

This reinforces an important EVUNN principle:

Don’t ask for commitment without giving the customer a reason to continue.

Chapter 6: The commitment to change (ESSENTIAL)

This connects directly to Step 4. You already established the gap.

Now determine whether the customer is actually committed to changing the current state. Ask:

Do they agree the current situation needs to change?
Do they believe the gap matters?
Do they want the future state?
Are they willing to do something differently?

If the customer is comfortable with the current situation, don’t rush into presenting your solution.

You may need to return to diagnosis.

Chapter 7: The Commitment to Collaborate (ESSENTIAL)

Your customer should not be treated as a passive recipient of your expertise.

They may need to:

Provide information
Share access
Give feedback
Make decisions
Involve their team
Participate in implementation
Help shape the solution

This is particularly important for coaches, consultants and professionals selling expertise. Your offer is not simply: I will do something to you.

It is: We will work together to achieve a defined outcome.

CHAPTER 8: The Commitment to Build Consensus (IMPORTANT)

This matters especially when more than one person influences the purchase.

For example:

The user of the service

The business owner

A manager
Finance
A procurement team
A partner
A spouse
A board

You need to know who else needs to be involved. For a simple B2C purchase, this may be less important.

For B2B consulting or professional services, it can be critical. Don’t build an entire section of your process around complex consensus if your offer is normally sold to one decision-maker.

Use this chapter according to your business model.

Chapter 9: The Commitment to Invest (ESSENTIAL)

This is where the customer decides whether the expected value justifies the investment. Investment isn’t only money.

It can include:

Money
Time
Attention
Internal resources
People
Access
Political capital
Implementation effort

Your job is to make the relationship between Investment and Expected Value clear.

Don’t immediately respond to price concerns by discounting. First understand what the customer is actually evaluating.

Chapter 10: The Commitment to Review (ESSENTIAL)

A proposal should not simply be emailed into the void. The customer should commit to reviewing it. Ideally say:

Let’s schedule a time to go through the proposal together.

This gives you an opportunity to:

Explain the recommendation
Answer questions
Confirm alignment
Identify concerns
Clarify the investment
Establish the next commitment

The goal is not to send a document. The goal is to move the buying process forward.

Chapter 12: The Commitment to Decide (ESSENTIAL)

This is where you actually ask for the decision. Many experts get uncomfortable here.

They finish the conversation with:

I’ll leave it with you or

Think about it, or

Let me know.

And then wonder why the opportunity disappears. You need to be willing to ask:

Are you ready to move forward?

Or:

What do you need to decide whether to proceed?

A no is also useful. A clear no is better than an opportunity sitting indefinitely in your pipeline.

The goal is not to force a yes. It is to get a clear decision.

Chapter 13: The Commitment to Execute (IMPORTANT)

The sale isn’t truly complete when the customer says yes. They still need to:

Sign
Pay
Schedule
Provide information
Attend
Implement
Begin

The transition from: Decision → Executionshould be clear. Your customer should know exactly what happens after they say yes.

Chapter 14: Guidelines for Closing (ESSENTIAL)

Use this chapter as your practical review. After completing Step 5, return to it and ask:

Am I asking for commitments clearly?
Am I creating value?
Am I avoiding pressure?
Am I establishing specific next steps?
Am I actually asking for the decision?
Am I helping the customer move forward?

What parts of The Lost Art of Closing should I save for step 6?

Chapter 11: The Commitment to Resolve Concerns (SAVE FOR STEP 6)

This is deliberately moved into the next step because when you are done with presenting the offer, concerns will arise.

Step 6 is specifically about following up and handling resistance.

YOUR EVUNN ACTION

PRESENT & CLOSE YOUR OFFER

Now take one of the Qualified Sales Opportunities you created in Step 4. Your task now is to turn that diagnosis into a relevant recommendation and move the customer toward a clear decision.

1. Start with the Customers Diagnosis

Return to Step 4 and record. Look at the :

Current State (Where is the person now?
Future State: Where does the person want to be?
Gap: What is preventing the person from getting there?Impact: What is the gap costing the person?
Why:Why does solving it matter?

Don’t abandon this information when you begin selling. It is the foundation of your offer.

2. Define your Recommendation

Now answer:

Based on everything I have learned, what do I recommend?

Your recommendation should directly address the diagnosed gap.

Avoid:

I offer business consulting.

Instead say:

Based on the challenges you’ve described, I recommend that we work together to build and implement a repeatable customer acquisition process.

The recommendation should feel like a logical response to the diagnosis.

Get the rest of the action steps for this step in EVUNN Premium.
EVUNN Action Steps, Doers Community & Execution Toolkits are for paid users.
Get the Action Steps for this step, plus all Stage 1 Action Steps, access to EVUNN Community and EVUNN Execution Toolkits, with 12 months of access.
GET 12-MONTH ACCESS

EVUNN Mindset Checkpoint

Are you trying to close, or are you helping the customer commit?

You may believe selling means convincing someone to buy. It doesn’t have to.

A better process is:
Understand
↓
Diagnose
↓
Recommend
↓
Create Value
↓
Gain Commitment
↓
Ask for Decision
↓
Execute

The customer should understand why your recommendation makes sense before you ask them to invest. And you should be comfortable accepting:

Yes
No
Not yet
I need more information

All four are useful. A clear decision is better than an indefinite maybe. Ask yourself: have I earned the next commitment?

If not, don’t force the next stage. Go back and determine what is missing.

Your Step 5 Output

By the end of this step, you should have a PRESENTED OFFER + CLEAR NEXT COMMITMENT

Your process should now look like:
Qualified Sales Opportunity
↓
Customer Diagnosis
↓
Relevant Recommendation
↓
Offer
↓
Customer Commitment
↓
Decision
↓
Execution Plan

The objective is not simply to have sent a proposal. Your objective is to know:

What you recommended

Why it addresses the customer’s gap

What the customer is being asked to invest

What commitment they have made

What decision has been reached

What happens next

Getting a prospect interested is only the beginning. You need to show them how your offer addresses what they need and make it easy for them to decide what to do next.

🔓Use the EVUNN Execution Toolkit: Offer Presentation & Commitment Planner

Don’t create a generic sales pitch.

Use the EVUNN Offer Presentation & Commitment Planner to easily turn a qualified opportunity into a relevant recommendation and identify the commitments needed to move it forward.

The toolkit helps you map:
Customer Diagnosis
↓
Recommended Solution
↓
Value Connection
↓
Offer
↓
Commitment to Change
↓
Commitment to Collaborate
↓
Commitment to Invest
↓
Commitment to Review
↓
Commitment to Decide
↓
Commitment to Execute

Get Offer Presentation and Commitment Planner + every other Stage 1 Toolkit for 12 months, plus access to the EVUNN Doers Community.

₦5,500 today.

Follow the roadmap. Use the tools. Do the work.

What Should I Do Next?

At the beginining of this step, you started with: I understand the customer’s opportunity and I believe I can help.

You should leave this step with:

I can turn that opportunity into a relevant recommendation, gain the commitments needed to move it forward, ask for a decision and establish the path to execution.

You have now moved through:
Prospect
↓
Conversation
↓
Diagnosis
↓
Opportunity
↓
Recommendation
↓
Offer
↓
Commitment
↓
Decision

But not every potential customer will decide to buy immediately. Some will hesitate, raise concerns, ask for more information while some will stop responding or question the price or say, “I need to think about it.”

That does not automatically mean the opportunity is dead.

The next skill you need to master is how to follow up without chasing, understand resistance without becoming defensive, and determine whether an opportunity should continue.

Next: Step 6 – Follow up and Handle Resistance

What do I do when the customer hesitates, raises concerns, asks for more information or stops responding?

sales opportunityBy Evunn August 25, 2026September 15, 2026

How to Diagnose a Sales Opportunity | EVUNN

Make Your EVUNN Journey Personal

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THE PROBLEM: I have spoken to potential customers and heard about their problems, but I don't know which problems represent a real opportunity worth solving.

Your pricing can break your business. Before you launch the offer, work out a pricing strategy

Your Stage 1 access includes all the EVUNN Toolkits you’ll need to do the work. Don’t just read. Use them as you move through each step.

STEP 4: Diagnose The Opportunity

In Step 3, you started real customer conversations and should now have customer evidence.

During customer conversations, you need to diagnose if there is a sales opportunity. A customer having a problem does not automatically mean you have a sales opportunity.

Someone can say: I need more customers or I need better marketing or I need to improve my operations, but these statements are only the beginning.

You still need to understand:

Where are they now?
Where do they want to be?
What is preventing them from getting there?
What is the gap?
What is the gap costing them?
Why does closing the gap matter?
Why do they need to change now?
And most importantly: Is this gap important enough for the customer to invest in closing it?

This is where diagnosis begins. Your goal is to determine whether there is a valuable customer opportunity worth pursuing.

The EVUNN Mindset Shift

Tbis step takes you from they have a problem → I understand the gap.

Most people who want to start expertise based businesses are often very good at recognising problems.

Once they hear:

I can’t get enough clients.

They immediately think:

I know how to fix that.

Your expertise makes this tempting. You may start solving the problem before you have properly diagnosed it.

The customer may have described a symptom and the real problem may be somewhere else. And even if the problem is real, it may not be important enough to solve.

So the better question is not:

Can I solve this problem?

It is:

What is the gap between where this customer is and where they need to be, and is closing that gap important enough for them to act?

That is the thinking behind Gap Selling. You are moving from:
Problem
↓
Diagnosis
↓
Opportunity

Recommended Book for Step 4: Gap Selling

Author: Keenan

Time Investment: 5+ hours (Audiobook)

Listen to Audiobook with Audible free trial |Buy the Book at Amazon

The Big Idea from Gap Selling

Customers do not buy simply because they have problems.

They buy when the difference between their current state and their desired future state creates enough value, pain or urgency to justify change. That difference is the gap.

Your job is not to rush into presenting your solution. Your job is to understand the customer’s:
Current State
↓
Future State
↓
Gap
↓
Impact
↓
Why
↓
Need for Change

This makes Gap Selling the natural primary book for Step 4. You are not reading it simply to learn sales techniques.

You are learning how to diagnose a customer’s situation well enough to determine whether a genuine sales opportunity exists. This makes getting a yes much easier.

What Business Problem Does Gap Selling Solve?

It takes care of: I can identify a customer’s problem, but I don’t know how to determine how serious it is, what is causing it, what it is costing them or whether they have enough reason to act.

A weak sales conversation often looks like this:

Customer:

We need more customers.

Expert:

I can help you with that.

Offer is then presented. But the expert still doesn’t know:

How many customers the business currently has
How many it needs
Why the current number is insufficient
What is causing the shortfall
What the shortfall is costing
What the desired situation looks like
What happens if nothing changes
Whether solving it is a priority

A diagnostic conversation goes much deeper. You are trying to understand the business reality behind the statement.

Should I Read Gap Selling Now?

Yes, and while at it, your main objective should be to: learn how to diagnose a customer’s current state, future state, the gap between them, the impact of that gap and whether the customer has a compelling reason to change.

Which Parts of Gap Selling Matter for this Step?

Chapter Three: The Current State (ESSENTIAL)

This is where you establish where the customer actually is today.

Go beyond the customer’s first description of the problem and ask:

What is happening now?
How are they currently operating?
What have they already tried?
What is working?
What isn’t working?
Who is affected?
How frequently does the problem occur?
What resources are involved?
What happens if they continue operating this way?

The objective is to create a specific picture of reality.

Instead of: My business isn’t growing. You want something closer to: Revenue has remained at approximately ₦5 million per year for the last two years despite increasing marketing activity.

Specificity makes diagnosis possible.

Chapter Four: The Future State (ESSENTIAL)

Now understand where the customer wants to go. Ask:

What are they trying to achieve?
What would they like to change?
What would success look like?
What result do they actually want?
What would improve if the problem were solved?
What would they be able to do that they cannot do now?
Do not substitute your preferred outcome for the customer’s desired outcome.

Your customer may not want better marketing. They may want a predictable flow of qualified clients every month.

The future state must matter to them.

Chapter Six: The Gap Define (ESSENTIAL)

This is the heart of Step 4. Place the customer’s: Current State beside their: Future State. Then ask:

What is preventing them from getting from where they are now to where they want to be?

That difference is the gap.

For example:
Current State:
The consultant relies almost entirely on referrals and has unpredictable monthly revenue.
Future State:
She wants a predictable flow of qualified clients each month.
Gap:
She does not have a repeatable customer acquisition system that consistently generates qualified prospects.

This is much more useful than simply recording: She needs more customers.

You are beginning to understand the actual opportunity.

Chaptet Eight- Discovery: Know Yout Clients Better Than They Know Themselves (ESSENTIAL)

This chapter reinforces the need to keep investigating because the prospect’s first answer is not necessarily the complete diagnosis.

They may describe:

A symptom
An assumption
A consequence
A visible problem
Or something they believe is causing the problem

Your job is to investigate and ask:

What happened?
Why is that happening?
What have you tried?
What changed?
Who is affected?
What happens next?
What is causing the situation?

The goal is not to prove that the prospect is wrong. It is to understand the situation more deeply than the initial problem statement.

Chapter Nine: Is The Gap Worth It? (ESSENTIAL)

A gap can be real without being commercially valuable. Ask:

How significant is the gap?
What is it costing the customer?
What happens if nothing changes?
How much does solving it matter?
What would closing the gap make possible?

Why should they act now?

This is where you begin separating:
A problem someone has
from:
An opportunity someone is motivated to solve.

Chapter Ten: Know Your Customer’s Why (ESSENTIAL)

The customer needs a reason to change. You need to understand:

Why does this matter?
Why now?
Why is the current situation no longer acceptable?
What happens if they don’t change?
What will improve if they do?

The customer’s why gives context to the gap. Two customers can have the same problem but completely different levels of motivation.

You need to understand what makes the opportunity important to this particular customer.

Chapter Seven: Get Them To Let You Help (IMPORTANT)

This becomes relevant after you have developed enough understanding of the customer’s situation.

You are not trying to force your way into the conversation. You are earning permission to help by demonstrating that you understand the customer’s situation.

The deeper your diagnosis, the more naturally you can move toward a discussion about whether you can help close the gap.

This becomes the bridge into Step 5.

What Parts of Gap Selling Should I Read Later?

Chapter Eleven: How to do a Kickass Demo (SAVE FOR STEP 5)

This becomes more relevant when you are presenting your solution.

Chapter Thirteen: Troubleshooting (SAVE FOR LATER)

Useful when deals begin encountering problems or stalls.

Chapter Twelve: Move Your Deals Through The Pipeline (SAVE FOR LATER)

This is more relevant once you have opportunities moving through your sales process.

PART III: GAP PROSPECTING (SAVE FOR STEP 2 / REVIEW LATER)

Chapters 14–17 deal with prospecting, which we have already addressed in Step 2.

Your EVUNN Action

DIAGNOSE YOUR BEST SALES OPPORTUNITIES

Now return to the prospects you spoke with in Step 3.

You are going to turn your customer evidence into qualified sales opportunities. Do not diagnose every person on your original prospect list.

Start with the prospects who gave you the strongest evidence.

Your objective is:
Evidence → Diagnosis → Qualified Opportunity

Follow the steps below:

1. Select Your Strongest Prospects

Review your Step 3 conversation records. Identify prospects who demonstrated:

A real problem
A meaningful impact
Evidence they have tried to solve it
A clear desired outcome
Some level of urgency
Willingness to continue the conversation

Select your strongest opportunities first.

2. Document The Current State

For each prospect, answer:

Where are they now?
What is happening?
How are they currently handling the situation?
What have they already tried?
What is not working?
Who is affected?
How often does the problem occur?
What resources are involved?
What happens if nothing changes?

Be specific. Do not write: Their business is struggling. Write what is actually happening. For example:

The business generates approximately 80 leads per month but converts fewer than five into paying customers.

Your diagnosis should be based on evidence from the customer, not assumptions.

Get the rest of the action steps for this step in EVUNN Premium.
EVUNN Action Steps, Doers Community & Execution Toolkits are for paid users.
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EVUNN Mindset Checkpoint

Are you willing to walk away when the gap isn’t worth solving?

You may want the prospect to become a customer because you may have spent time researching them.

You may also believe strongly in your solution, but if:

The impact is small
The customer isn’t motivated
The urgency is weak
The desired outcome is unclear
The customer is satisfied with the current state
or the gap simply isn’t valuable enough to close,

then you may not have a real sales opportunity. Do not manufacture urgency or exaggerate pain or try to convince someone that a problem matters when it doesn’t matter to them.

Remember:

Your job is not to turn every problem into a sale. Your job is to identify the problems where the gap is valuable enough for the customer to want change.

If you find yourself struggling to accept that some prospects are not worth pursuing, return to the folowing chapters in Gap Selling:

Chapter 9: Is the Gap Worth It? and Chapter 10: Know Your Customers’ Why

The important thing is learning to diagnose honestly.

Your Step 4 Output

By the end of this step, you should have a QUALIFIED SALES OPPORTUNITIES

Your process should now look like:
Customer Conversations
↓
Customer Evidence
↓
Current State
↓
Future State
↓
The Gap
↓
Root Cause
↓
Impact
↓
Customer’s Why
↓
Urgency
↓
Value of Change
↓
Opportunity Status
↓
Qualified Sales Opportunity

Your objective is not to turn every prospect into an opportunity., but to identify the prospects where:

Its time to diagnose if there is a sales opportunity.

🔓 Use the EVUNN Execution Toolkit: Opportunity Diagnosis Canvas

Don’t move from: The customer has a problem. straight to: Here is my solution.

Use the EVUNN Opportunity Diagnosis Canvas to map:

Current State
↓
Future State
↓
The Gap
↓
Root Cause
↓
Impact
↓
Customer’s Why
↓
Urgency
↓
Value of Change
↓
Opportunity Status

The toolkit helps you determine which customer situations represent genuine sales opportunities and which should be investigated further, paused or disqualified.

Get the Opportunity Diagnosis Canvas + every other Stage 1 Toolkit for 12 months, plus access to the EVUNN Doers Community.

₦5,500 today.

Follow the roadmap. Use the tools. Do the work.

What Should you Do Next?

You entered this step with:

This prospect has a problem I may be able to solve.

You arw now leaveing knowing:

I understand where this customer is, where they want to be, the gap between those two states, what is causing it, what it is costing them, why it matters and whether there is a reason to act.

The next question is if the opportunity is real, valuable and worth solving, how do you present your solution so the customer can see how it closes the gap, and make it easy for them to decide?

Next: Step 5: Present & Close The Offer

How do I connect my solution to the customer’s opportunity and move them toward a decision?

customer conversationsBy Evunn August 25, 2026September 14, 2026

Customer Conversations: How to Talk to Potential Customers | EVUNN

Make Your EVUNN Journey Personal

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THE PROBLEM: I have identified the right prospects, but I don't know how to approach them and start a conversation that leads to something useful.”

Speak to your prospects to see if there is a sales opportunity

Your Stage 1 access includes all the EVUNN Toolkits you’ll need to do the work. Don’t just read. Use them as you move through each step.

STEP 3: START CUSTOMER CONVERSATIONS

In Step 2, you built your First Prospect List.

You identified:

Your Best-Fit Customer
Your prospect qualification criteria
Problem signals
Buying-situation signals
Real prospects
Your highest-priority prospects

You now know who you want to approach.

Its time to start a conversation, but before you start, you neeed to understand the how.

You may have 25–50 qualified prospects sitting on your list and still find yourself asking:

What should I say?
How do I approach them without sounding like I’m selling?
How do I get them to respond?
What questions should I ask?
How do I keep the conversation natural?
When should I introduce what I do?
How do I know whether the conversation is worth continuing?

This is where customer conversations begin.

Your goal is not to contact as many people as possible.

Your goal is to start genuine conversations with the right prospects and learn enough about their situation to determine whether there is a real opportunity worth pursuing.

The EVUNN Mindset Shift

Now, you go from I need to sell them → I need to understand them.

When experts approach potential customers, they often feel pressure to prove their expertise. So they immediately:

Explain what they do
Describe their service
Talk about their credentials
Present their solution
Send their offer
Tell the prospect why they need it
Ask whether they would buy

But this creates a problem. You are having a conversation based on your assumptions rather than the prospect’s reality. A better approach is to become curious.

You already have a hypothesis about the problem you solve. Now you need to find out what is actually happening in the prospect’s world.

The better question is not:

How do I convince this person to buy?

It is:

What can I learn from this person that will help me understand whether there is a problem worth solving?

This is the principle behind The Mom Test. A customer conversation is not an opportunity to collect compliments about your idea. It is an opportunity to collect evidence.

Recommended Book for Step 3 - The Mom Test

Author: Rob Fitzpatrick

Time Investment: 5+ hours (Audiobook)

Listen to Audiobook with Libro | Buy the Book at the Bookshop

The Big Idea from The Mom Test

People can give you positive feedback about your business idea without ever becoming customers.

They may say:

“That sounds great.”
“I would definitely use that.”
“I know someone who needs this.”
“That is a really good idea.”

But these statements are not strong evidence.

The Mom Test teaches you how to have conversations that reveal real problems, real behaviour and real commitment instead of relying on opinions, compliments and hypothetical promises.

You are not reading it to become a better salesperson. You are learning how to have better conversations with potential customers.

What Business Problem Does The Mom Test Solve?

It solves: I am talking to prospects, but I don’t know whether the information I’m getting is actually useful.

A conversation can feel successful while giving you very little useful information. A prospect may be polite, agree with everything you say, like your idea, say they would buy, but what matters is what they actually experience and do.

The Mom Test teaches you to look for evidence in:

Their current situation
Their past behaviour
Problems they have already experienced
Solutions they have already tried
What the problem has cost them
What they are doing about it now
What they are willing to do next

This helps you move from:

They said they like my idea.
to:
I have evidence that this problem exists and matters to them enough to need the offer.

Should I Read Mom Test Now?

Yes. Your objective is to:

Learn how to start and conduct customer conversations that reveal real problems, behaviour and buying signals rather than opinions and polite interest.

Which Part of Mom Test Matter Most for this Step?

Introduction: The Mom Test (ESSENTIAL)

Start here. Understand the central problem the book is trying to solve which is: How do you talk to people about your idea without accidentally getting misleading feedback?

The key lesson is simple:

Don’t ask people to predict what they will do. Learn what they have already done.

This principle should guide your conversations throughout this step.

Avoiding Bad Data (ESSENTIAL)

This is one of the most important sections for you. Learn to recognise the difference between:

Compliments
Opinions
Hypothetical statements
Real evidence

For example: ‘I think that’s a great service,” is an opinion. “I paid a consultant ₦200,000 last month because I couldn’t solve this problem myself,”is evidence of behaviour.

The first may be encouraging. The second tells you much more.

As you conduct conversations, become suspicious of information that costs the prospect nothing to give you.

Look for what they have actually experienced, tried, spent, changed or committed to.

Asking Important Questions (ESSENTIAL)

This section helps you move from vague conversation to useful discovery.

Your questions should uncover:

What they are trying to accomplish
What is preventing them from doing it
What they have already tried
How they currently handle the problem
How often it occurs
What happens when it is not solved
What the problem costs them
How important solving it is

The goal is not to ask every question on a script. The goal is to learn how to ask questions that lead to specific stories and real examples.

Keeping It Casual (ESSENTIAL)

Customer conversations do not need to feel like formal research interviews.

The more natural the conversation, the more likely the prospect is to talk openly about what is actually happening.

Don’t turn the conversation into:
Question.
Answer.
Question.
Answer.
Question.
Answer.
Instead, Listen.
Follow interesting details.
Ask for examples.
Ask what happened next.
Let the conversation develop naturally.

You are trying to understand the prospect, not complete a questionnaire.

Commitment and Advancement (ESSENTIAL)

Not every interested prospect is a serious prospect. Someone saying: Keep me posted, is different from someone who:

Introduces you to the person responsible or,
Agrees to another conversation or,
Shares relevant information or,
Provides access to their process or,
Agrees to review a potential solution or
Commits time to exploring the problem

The lesson is:

Interest is not commitment.

As conversations develop, pay attention to what prospects are willing to do, not simply what they are willing to say.

Finding Conversations (IMPORTANT)

You already created your prospect list in Step 2.

Now use this section to think about how you will actually create opportunities to talk to those people.

Depending on your acquisition channel, this could involve:

LinkedIn messages
Email
Phone calls
Referrals
Professional networks
Communities
Events
Existing relationships
Introductions

The objective is not to send a generic sales message to everyone. It is to create a reason for the right person to engage.

Choosing Your Customers (IMPORTANT)

Not every conversation should become a customer relationship. Use what you learn from conversations to become more selective.

You may discover that some prospects:

Are not experiencing the problem
Have a different problem
Do not consider the problem important
Have already solved it another way
Are not ready to act
Are not a good fit for your offer
That’s useful information.

A conversation can be successful even when it tells you:
This person is not my customer.

Running The Process (IMPORTANT)

Customer conversations should become a process rather than isolated events.

Track:

Who you contacted
Who responded
Who you spoke with
What you learned
What problems appeared repeatedly
What assumptions were challenged
Who showed genuine interest
What next step was agreed

This will allow you to identify patterns across multiple conversations.

Supporting Book for Step 3: To Sell Is Human

Author: Daniel Pink

Listen to the Audiobook with Libro | Buy the book at the Bookshop.

Read To Sell is Human to develop the human side of selling.

You are not trying to manipulate prospects. You are trying to understand them, communicate clearly and help them move toward a useful outcome.

What Parts of To Sell is Human Matter Most for this Step? Focus on these:

Chapter 1: We’re All in Sales Now (ESSENTIAL)

Understand the broader idea that selling is not simply a transactional activity.

When you run an expert-based business, you are constantly helping people understand:

A problem
An opportunity
A possible solution
A reason to act

This helps remove the idea that selling is something you should feel uncomfortable about.

Chapter 4: Attunement (ESSENTIAL)

This is particularly relevant to customer conversations because you need to understand the situation from the prospect’s perspective.

Don’t approach the conversation thinking:
What do I want to tell them?
Think:
What is happening from their point of view?

Chapter 6: Clarity (IMPORTANT)

Your job is not simply to collect information. Sometimes people know they are struggling but cannot clearly explain what is happening.

Good conversations can help them articulate:

What they want
What is stopping them
Why it matters
What they have tried
What they need to change

This becomes increasingly valuable when you move into opportunity diagnosis.

Chapter 9: Serve (IMPORTANT)

Use this chapter to reinforce the principle that selling should ultimately be about creating value.

If you discover that your offer is not appropriate for the prospect, you do not need to force the sale.
The objective is to help the right people move toward the right solution.

What Should I Skip for Now?

Chapters 2–3 (SKIM)

Useful context for understanding the changing nature of selling, but not necessary for completing this execution step.

Chapter 5: Buoyancy (SKIM)

Useful when dealing with rejection and maintaining outreach activity.

You can return to it as you begin doing more prospecting.

Chapters 7–8 Pitch & Improvise (SAVE FOR LATER)

These become more relevant when you are ready to present and communicate your offer.

That belongs primarily in the later selling stages of the roadmap.

Your EVUNN Action

Start Your First Customer Conversations

Now take the prospects you identified in Step 2 and turn them into real conversations.

This is where prospecting becomes customer acquisition. Your objective is not to get everyone to buy.

Your objective is to: Approach → Engage → Listen → Learn → Identify Evidence → Decide What Happens Next

Follow the steps below:

1. Select Your First Prospect Batch

Go back to your First Prospect List.

Start with your High Priority Prospects. Select an initial group of 10 prospects. Don’t start with your entire 25–50 prospect list.

You are testing your approach. Choose people who have:

Strong customer fit
A relevant problem signal
A relevant buying-situation signal
A realistic way for you to reach them

2. Prepare Yoir Reason For Contacting Them

Before contacting each prospect, answer:

Why am I contacting this person?
What makes them relevant to the problem I am investigating?
What do I already know?
What do I still need to learn?

Your reason for contact should be based on their situation, not simply: I want to sell my service.

You need a genuine reason for starting the conversation.

Get the rest of the action steps for this step in EVUNN Premium.
EVUNN Action Steps, Doers Community & Execution Toolkits are for paid users.
Get the Action Steps for this step, plus all Stage 1 Action Steps, access to EVUNN Community and EVUNN Execution Toolkits, with 12 months of access.
GET 12-MONTH ACCESS

EVUNN Mindset Checkpoint

Are you trying to prove your idea instead of testing it?

This is one of the biggest dangers when speaking to potential customers.

You have spent time developing your expertise.
You have identified a problem.
You have created an offer.
You naturally want people to confirm that you are right.

But your customer conversations are not designed to make you feel right. They are designed to help you find out what is true.
If a prospect tells you: I don’t have this problem. That is useful.
If they tell you: I have the problem, but it isn’t important enough to solve. That is useful.
If they tell you: I already pay someone to solve it. That is also useful.
If they tell you: This is a major problem and I’ve tried three different solutions. That is useful.

Your job is not to make the evidence fit your idea. Your job is to follow the evidence.

Remember:

A conversation that disproves your assumption can be more valuable than a conversation that confirms it.

Optional Mindset Reading: To Sell Is Human by Daniel Pink

If you need help becoming more comfortable with the human side of selling, return to:

Chapter 4: Attunement

Chapter 5: Buoyancy

Chapter 9: Serve

This is optional. You do not need to complete additional reading before starting your conversations.

The most important thing now is to talk to real people.

Stop guessing and start listening. A conversation with a potential customer is only useful if you learn something you can act on.

🔓 EVUNN Execution Toolkit

Customer Conversation & Evidence Tracker

Don’t approach prospects with a generic pitch and hope someone responds.

Use the EVUNN Customer Conversation & Evidence Tracker to plan your first conversations, record what prospects actually say and do, capture problem and buying signals, identify recurring patterns and determine which conversations deserve further investigation. This heps you find:

↓
Problem & Behaviour Patterns
↓
Buying & Commitment Signals
↓
Next-Step Decisions

Your objective is not to close 10 customers.

Your objective is to have 5–10 meaningful conversations that give you evidence about the problem, the prospect’s current situation and whether there is a reason to continue the conversation.

Get the Customer Conversations & Evidence tracker + every other Stage 1 Toolkit for 12 months, plus access to the EVUNN Doers Community.

₦5,500 today.

Follow the roadmap. Use the tools. Do the work.

What Should You Do Next?

You startef this step with:

I know who I want to approach.

You leave knowing:

I have spoken to real prospects, I understand more about what is happening in their world, and I know which conversations deserve deeper investigation.

You have now moved from assumption to evidence. However, there is still a critical question.

You have heard problems.
You have collected stories.
You have identified patterns.
You may have found prospects who appear interested, but is there actually a valuable sales opportunity here?

A prospect having a problem does not automatically mean they have a problem worth paying to solve.

Now you need to understand the gap between where they are and where they want to be, how significant that gap is, what is causing it, and why solving it matters.

Next: Step 4 – Diagnose The Opportunity

Is this a real opportunity, or just a problem that someone happens to have?

how to build a prospect listBy Evunn August 25, 2026September 13, 2026

How to Build a Prospect List | EVUNN

Make Your EVUNN Journey Personal

Not sure which step is right for your business?

Free |Takes 1 minute

THE PROBLEM: I have a plan in place on the steps to take to get my first customers, but I don't know the specific people to reach out to first

Having a list of your best fit customer prospects makes achieving your first sales easier

Your Stage 1 access includes all the EVUNN Toolkits you’ll need to do the work. Don’t just read. Use them as you move through each step.

STEP 2: Build Your First Prospect List

In Step 1, you created your First-Customer Acquisition Plan.

You identified:

Your Best-Fit Customer

⬇️
Where they may be found

⬇️
Your initial acquisition channel

⬇️
Your customer entry point

⬇️
How you intend to move prospects toward a sale

Knowing your target market is not the same as having actual prospects.

You need to know the specific people you should approach?
This is where prospecting begins.

Your goal is not to build the biggest possible database. Your goal is to identify a focused group of real prospects who are likely to fit your customer profile and have a relevant problem or buying situation.

The EVUNN Mindset Shift

Now you move from I need more leads → I need the right buyers.
Traditional prospecting most easily become a numbers game like:

Contact more people.
Send more messages.
Build a bigger list.

But more prospects do not automatically mean more customers.

If you are approaching people who:
Don’t fit your customer profile
Don’t have the problem
Aren’t in the relevant situation
Don’t have a reason to act
Aren’t appropriate for your offer
then increasing your outreach simply increases wasted effort.

The better question is: Who is most likely to have the problem I solve and have a reason to engage with me?

This is the buyer-first approach that is covered in Gap Prospecting.

Recommended Book for this step - Gap Prospecting

Author: Keenan & Will Aitken

Time Investment: 5+ hours (Audiobook)

Listen to Audiobook with Audible free trial |Buy the Book at the Bookshop

The Big Idea from Gap Prospecting

Effective prospecting starts with the buyer, not with your product, your pitch or the number of people you can contact.

Gap Prospecting challenges traditional prospecting approaches and moves toward a more buyer-centred approach like:

Understand the buyer
↓
Understand the problem
↓
Target the right buyer
↓
Create a relevant reason to engage

You are not reading Gap Prospecting simply to learn how to find leads. You are learning how to identify better prospects.

What Business Problem Does Gap Prospecting Solve?

It handles: I’m contacting people, but I don’t know whether I’m actually targeting the right buyers.

A prospect list can look impressive while being commercially useless. You can have 500 names and still have no meaningful prospects.

The book’s Part II, Put the Buyer First, focuses on understanding the buyer, mapping the problem and targeting the buyer.

Should I Read Gap Prospecting Now?

Yes, but only the relevant chapters.

Your objective is to:
Learn how to identify and target prospects based on their situation and problem rather than simply their demographic or job title.

Which Parts of Gap Prospecting Matter Most for this Step?

PART II: PUT THE BUYER FIRST

Chapter 7: Get to Know Your Buyer (ESSENTIAL)

This is where you deepen your understanding of the person you are trying to reach.

Connect it to the Best-Fit Customer you created earlier.

You should be able to answer:
Who is this buyer?
⬇️
What situation are they in?
⬇️
What are they trying to accomplish?
⬇️
What might be getting in their way?
⬇️
What would make this problem relevant to them now?

The objective is to move beyond: My target market is small business owners.
toward: My prospect is a small business owner who is experiencing a specific situation that makes the problem I solve relevant right now.

Chapter 8: Map the Problem (ESSENTIAL)

You already identified and validated the problem in earlier phases. Now use that understanding when identifying prospects.

Ask:
What observable signs might indicate that this person is experiencing the problem?

For example, the signal might be:

A recent role change
A new business launch
A new responsibility
A growth challenge
A stated goal
A visible operational problem
A request for help
A change in circumstances

You are looking for evidence of relevance, not simply demographic similarity.

Chapter 9: Target Your Buyer (ESSENTIAL)

This is the most directly relevant chapter for Step 2. Use it to think about who should actually make it onto your prospect list.

Your objective is not:
Find everyone who could possibly buy.
It is:
Identify the people most worth approaching first.

This becomes the bridge between your Best-Fit Customer and your actual prospect list

What Parts of Gap Prospecting Should I Read Later?

PART I: IT’S BROKEN

These chapters provide useful context about the problems with traditional prospecting.

For this step:

Chapter 1: The Fundamental Challenge (SKIM)

Useful for understanding why prospecting needs to change, but not essential to completing your task.

Chapter 2: The Nine Truthbombs of Prospecting
(SKIM)

Useful context, but you do not need to study every principle before building your first prospect list.

Chapters 3–6 (SKIP FOR NOW)

They provide broader context around the current state and business impact of prospecting, but they are not necessary for this execution step.

What Parts of Gap Prospectibg Should I Save for Step 3?

PART III: THE GOAL OF PROSPECTING

Keep these for the next step:

Chapter 10: Light Up Your Buyer’s Brain
Chapter 11: Get Sticky
Chapter 12: Get Your Mind Right

These become more relevant when you move from:
Who should I approach?
to:
How do I approach them in a way that earns attention and starts a conversation?

Your EVUNN Action

BUILD YOUR FIRST PROSPECT LIST

Now turn your Best-Fit Customer into real prospects. This is where the work moves from strategy to execution. Follow the following steps ti impkement step 2:

1. BRING FORWARD YOUR BEST-FIT CUSTOMER

This would be pre-filled for you if you are using the EVUNN Execution Toolkit

Now, go back to the customer profile you created in Phase 3.

Record:

Who are they?
What situation are they in?
What problem are they experiencing?
What outcome do they want?
What makes this problem relevant now?
Who is NOT a fit?

This becomes your prospect qualification filter.

2. DEFINE YOUR PROSPECT CRITERIA

Before searching for people, decide what makes someone worth adding to your list. Build a prospect list qualifier lije this:

Must Fit
The prospect must: …….
Strong Fit
The prospect is especially attractive if: ………..
Not a Fit
Do not add prospects who: ……….

The goal is to prevent yourself from collecting names simply because they look vaguely similar to your target customer.

Get the rest of the action steps for this step in EVUNN Premium.
EVUNN Action Steps, Doers Community & Execution Toolkits are for paid users.
Get the Action Steps for this step, plus all Stage 1 Action Steps, access to EVUNN Community and EVUNN Execution Toolkits, with 12 months of access.
GET 12-MONTH ACCESS

EVUNN Mindset Checkpoint

Are you building the list because contacting prospects makes you uncomfortable?

Prospecting can create resistance. It is easier to:

Research
Organise
Build spreadsheets
Refine your profile
Improve your website
Create more content
Search for more prospects

than to actually approach someone, but the prospect list is not the goal. The conversation is.
Your list only needs to be good enough to help you begin.

Optional Mindset Reading:
The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. Listen to audiobook with Audible Free Trial

Use this book only if you notice yourself repeatedly preparing instead of taking the uncomfortable action of approaching prospects.

This is optional. If you are not feeling this resisteance, move on.

YOUR STEP 2 OUTPUT

By the time you are done implementing this step, you should have a FIRST PROSPECT LIST that contains:

Best-Fit Customer Criteria
↓
Prospect Qualification Criteria
↓
Problem Signals
↓
Buying-Situation Signals
↓
Real Prospects
↓
Prospect Information
↓
Priority Ranking
↓
25–50 Initial Prospects
Your objective is not to create a perfect database.

Your objective is to have a focused group of real people you can begin approaching and learning from.

Don’t wait for customers to find you.

You need to find real people who fit the description of your best fit customer who genuinely need what you offer.

🔓Use the EVUNN EXECUTION TOOLKIT – First Prospect List Builder

Don’t build a giant database of random leads.

Use the EVUNN First Prospect List Builder to identify real prospects who match your Best-Fit Customer, capture relevant problem and buying-situation signals, rank prospects by priority and create a focused list ready for outreach.

Get the Prospect List Builder + every other Stage 1 Toolkit for 12 months, plus access to the EVUNN Doers Community.

₦5,500 today.

Follow the roadmap. Use the tools. Do the work.

WHAT Should you Do Next?

You now know exactly who you are going to approach first, why they may be a fit and what makes their situation relevant.

Next you will need to earn their attention and start a genuine conversation. That takes us to step 3.

Next: Step 3 – Start The Conversations

What do I say to a prospect that makes them want to engage rather than ignore me?

first customer acquisition planBy Evunn August 24, 2026September 13, 2026

First Customer Acquisition Plan: Get Your First Customer | EVUNN

Make Your EVUNN Journey Personal

Not sure which step is right for your business?

Free |Takes 1 minute

THE PROBLEM: I know who my offer is for and how I want to position it, but I don't know how to turn that into a practical plan for getting my first customer

Without a plan for custoner acquisition in place, you will waste your time on marketing activities that yeild little or no result

Your Stage 1 access includes all the EVUNN Toolkits you’ll need to do the work. Don’t just read. Use them as you move through each step.

Step 1: Build Your First-Customer Acqisition Plan

Sr

Stage 1 Phase 4: Make Your First Sales

You can have a great offer, but your business doesn’t become real until someone pays for it.
EVUNN takes you through 7 steps to move from having an offer to making your first sales as follows:
1. Create Your First Customer Acquisition Plan
⬇️
2. Build Your Prospect List
⬇️
3. Diagnose Sales Opportunities
⬇️
4. Convert Customers
⬇️
5. Close the Sale
⬇️
6. Follow Up With Potential Customers
⬇️
7. Improve Your Sales Process

Don’t skip ahead. Each step builds on the one before it.

We are very close to getting your first sales. If you have been implementing the steps from phase 1 to phase 3, you should now have:

A validated problem
A validated offer direction
A Best-Fit Customer
A Buying Situation
A clear market position
A differentiation strategy
A Core Message

These won’t automatically produce a customer. You now need to turn your market position into a focused path to your first sale.

Many experts make the mistake of trying everything like:

Posting on social media
Sending random DMs
Asking friends for referrals
Running adverts
Joining communities
Creating lead magnets
Attending networking events

They are doing marketing activities, but they don’t have a clear acquisition plan.

The question this step answers is:

What is my deliberate path from the right prospect to my first paying customer?

The EVUNN Mindset Shift

Completing this step takes you from I need to market myself → I need a deliberate path to the right customer.

When experts think about getting customers, they often ask: How do I promote myself?”

That can lead to random activity.

Instead ask:

What path will move the right person from being unaware of me to becoming interested enough to have a conversation and consider my offer?

Your job is not to become visible to everyone. Your job is to become relevant to the right people.

Think of your acquisition path as:
Right Customer
↓
Right Place
↓
Right Message
↓
Right Entry Point
↓
Conversation
↓
Offer
↓
First Sale

You are not building a sophisticated marketing machine yet. You are building a focused first-customer path.

Supporting Book for Step 1 - The 1-Page Marketing Plan

Author: Allan Dib

Time Investment: 6+ hours (Audiobook)

Listen to Audiobook with Libro|Buy the Book at the Bookshop

The Big Idea from 1 Page Marketing

A simple, focused marketing plan is more useful than scattered marketing activity.

The book organizes marketing around three phases:

Before → During → After

For this step 1, the most relevant part is the Before Phase, where you think about: Target Market → Message → Reaching Prospects

You already know your target customer and core message from Phase 3. Now you need to think about how those decisions become a practical acquisition process.

What Business Problem Does 1 Page Marketing Solve?

It takes care of: I know who I want to serve, but I don’t have a clear plan for reaching them and moving them toward becoming customers.

The book helps connect:
Target Market
↓
Message
↓
Reach
↓
Lead
↓
Customer

We will use that thinking as a foundation, but simplify it for the immediate objective which is getting the first customer.

You do not need to build an entire marketing department now. You need a practical acquisition plan you can execute and test.

Should I Read 1 Page Marketing Now?

Yes. This is a supporting book because you have already completed much of the strategic customer and positioning work in Phase 3.

So don’t read the book as though you are starting marketing from scratch.

Read it to understand how: Target → Message → Reach becomes the beginning of a customer acquisition system.

Which Parts of 1 Page Marketing Matter Most for this Step? Focus on these

ACT I: THE BEFORE PHASE

Chapter 1: Selecting Your Target Market (ESSENTIAL)

This reinforces the importance of choosing a specific target market rather than trying to reach everyone.

However, do not redo the Best-Fit Customer exercise.

Bring forward the work you already completed in phase 1- 3:

Best-Fit Customer
Buying Situation
Problem
Desired Outcome
Buying Trigger

Your job here is to turn that strategic definition into an acquisition target.

Chapter 2: Crafting Your Message (READ SELECTIVELY)

You already created your Core Message in Phase 3.

You do not need to create another positioning or messaging exercise.

Instead, focus on how your message functions when you are trying to attract the right prospect.

Ask:
What should this person understand about me that makes them want to take the next step?

Your message should connect with the problem and situation you already validated.

Chapter 3: Reaching Prospects With Advertising Media (READ SELECTIVELY)

This chapter is useful for understanding the idea of reaching prospects through appropriate media.

But don’t interpret it as: I need to advertise.

Your first customer may come through:

Direct outreach
LinkedIn
Referrals
Networking
Workshops
Partnerships
Communities
Content
Email
Advertising

The important lesson is:

You need a deliberate way to reach the people you want to serve.

The specific channel will be tested rather than assumed.

ACT II: THE DURING PHASE

Chapter 4: Capturing Leads (SKIM FOR NOW)

This introduces what happens when someone responds to your marketing.

It is useful background, but you do not need to build a sophisticated lead-capture system yet.

Your first customer may simply enter through a:

Conversation
Consultation
Assessment
Referral
Workshop
Direct response

Chapter 5: Nurturing Leads (SKIM FOR NOW)

Some prospects will not buy immediately.

This chapter gives useful context for maintaining the relationship while someone considers a purchase.

But don’t spend your time building elaborate nurture sequences at this stage.

Your immediate objective is: Get the first customer.

Chapter 6: Sales Conversion

SKIM FOR NOW

This is relevant because ultimately the prospect has to become a customer.

But EVUNN will deal with the actual sales conversation, diagnosis, offer presentation, resistance and closing in later Phase 4 steps.

For now, understand the overall journey in this chapter which is: Lead → Customer

What Should I Skip for Now?

ACT III: THE AFTER PHASE

Chapter 7: Delivering A World Class Experience (SKIP FOR NOW)

This becomes important after you have customers.

Chapter 8: Increasing Customer Lifetime Value (SKIP FOR NOW)

This is more relevant once you have an existing customer base.

Chapter 9: Orchestrating And Stimulating Referrals (SKIP FOR NOW)

Referrals will eventually become an important acquisition mechanism, but they are not the starting point for getting your first customer.

You can return to these concepts later.

YOUR EVUNN ACTION

BUILD YOUR FIRST-CUSTOMER ACQUISITION PLAN

Now turn your Phase 3 work into a practical plan.

Don’t start from a blank page.

Your previous work should feed directly into this step.

If you are using EVUNN Premium, the previous outputs you got would be populated automatically in this steps’ toolkit so you don’t need to do manual input

Follow these steps ti start executing this step:

1. Define Your Acquisition Target

Bring forward your Best-Fit Customer from phase 3
Who are you trying to reach?
What situation are they in?
What problem are they experiencing?
What outcome do they want?
When are they most likely to seek help?

This becomes your Customer Acquisition Target.

2. Define Who is Not a Fit

Not everyone who could theoretically use your expertise should become your prospect.

Ask and Identify: Who should I NOT spend time trying to acquire?

Consider people who:

Don’t experience the problem
Don’t have the relevant situation
Don’t value the desired outcome
Aren’t ready to act
Fall outside the scope of your offer

This protects you from wasting your limited time.

Get the rest of the action steps for this step in EVUNN Premium.
EVUNN Action Steps, Doers Community & Execution Toolkits are for paid users.
Get the Action Steps for this step, plus all Stage 1 Action Steps, access to EVUNN Community and EVUNN Execution Toolkits, with 12 months of access.
GET 12-MONTH ACCESS

EVUNN Mindset Checkpoint

Are you avoiding customer acquisition because selling feels uncomfortable?

You may be comfortable with:

Teaching
Advising
Creating
Researching
Solving problems

But uncomfortable with:

Approaching people
Starting commercial conversations
Following up
Making an offer
Asking someone to buy

If this feels uncomfortable, don’t immediately conclude: I’m not good at sales.

You may simply be experiencing the transition from: Expert → Business Owner

Your expertise creates value, but a business only exists when that value reaches customers.

Optional Mindset Reading: Read To Sell Is Human by Daniel H. Pink only if you are struggling with the belief that selling is somehow incompatible with being a helpful expert.

It is not required reading for Step 1.

↓
Weekly Acquisition Activity
↓
Initial Acquisition Metrics
↓
First Acquisition Experiment

This is not yet a proven acquisition system. It is your starting hypothesis for getting your first customer.

It’s time to stop hoping customers will find you.

Knowing where your customers are is only the beginning. You need a clear plan for getting your offer in front of the right people and moving them from awareness to action.

🔓 Use the EVUNN EXECUTION TOOLKIT – First-Customer Acquisition Planner

Don’t randomly post, message people or try every marketing channel.

The EVUNN Customer Acquisition Planner helps you decide who you’re going after, where you’ll reach them, how you’ll get their attention, and what you’ll do to turn that attention into real customer conversations and sales.

Don’t waste your time doing marketing activities that produce little or no result.

Get the Customer Acquisition Planner + every other Stage 1 Toolkit for 12 months, plus access to the EVUNN Doers Community.

₦5,500 today.

Follow the roadmap. Use the tools. Do the work.

What Should I Do Next?

You entered this step with: I know who my customer is and what I offer.

You leave knowing:

I have a focused plan for finding the right prospects, reaching them, giving them a reason to engage and moving them toward a first conversation.

Now, you need a list of real people to approach.

Knowing where your customers are is not the same as knowing who you are going to contact.

That is the next step.

Next? Step 2: Build Your Prospect List

Who exactly should I approach first?

customer acquisition channelsBy Evunn August 24, 2026September 13, 2026

Customer Acquisition Channels: How to Choose the Right Marketing Channels

Make Your EVUNN Journey Personal

Not sure which step is right for your business?

Free |Takes 1 minute

THE PROBLEM: I know who my offer is for and what I want to say, but I don't know where to find the right people or which channels I should focus on.

To sell a valuable product, you need the right acquisition channel that delivers result for your offer

Your Stage 1 access includes all the EVUNN Toolkits you’ll need to do the work. Don’t just read. Use them to build your business as you move through each step.

Step 8: Choose Where To Reach Them

Its time to find the right channel for your customer acquisition. At this point, you should now know:

Who your Best-Fit Customer is
When they become receptive to your offer
What alternatives they have
How you want to be positioned
Why they should choose you
What your core message is
What hooks can get their attention

There is still one important question you need to answer, which is: Where will I find them?

Your customer may be on LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, WhatsApp, Google, professional communities, industry events, email, referrals or somewhere else.

But, a channel being where your customer is does not automatically make that channel a good acquisition channel.

A channel is only a hypothesis until you test whether you can actually use it to reach the right people and move them toward becoming customers.

So don’t ask:
Where is my audience?
Ask:
Where is my audience, and where can I realistically reach and convert the right people?

The EVUNN Mindset Shift

This step takes you from My customers are there, so I should use that channel → Let’s test where I can actually acquire customers.

Your customer being present on a platform is only the first filter. For example: My target customers are on LinkedIn.

That tells you LinkedIn is worth considering.

It does not tell you:

Whether they pay attention to people like you
Whether they have this problem there
Whether they trust experts they discover there
Whether you can consistently reach them
Whether they will move from attention to conversation
Whether conversations will become sales

The channel must therefore be treated as a hypothesis.

So, Identify → Shortlist → Test → Compare → Focus
That is the EVUNN approach.

Recommended Book for Step 8: Traction

Author: Gabriel Weinberg & Justin Mares

Time Investment: 7+ hours (Audiobook)

Listen to Audiobook with Libro |Buy the Book at the Bookshop

Traction’s Role in Step 8: Supporting Book

This is not a required book for completing Step 8.

The purpose of including it is to help you understand how to think systematically about customer-acquisition channels rather than assuming you already know which one will work.

The Big Idea from Traction

Don’t assume you know which acquisition channel will work. Identify promising channels, test them systematically and concentrate your effort on the channels that demonstrate traction.

With this book, EVUNN is not asking you to become a marketing expert. You are learning how to make a good channel decision and then test it.

What Business Problem Does Traction Solve?

It helps answer:

How do I decide which customer-acquisition channels are worth testing instead of spreading myself across every available channel?

For an expertise-based business, that is the right steo because you often have limited:

Time
Money
People
Content capacity
Marketing experience

You don’t need to be everywhere. You need to find where your effort has the greatest chance of producing the right customers.

Should I Read It Now?

No, This is optional. You do not need to read the whole book before completing this step.

Your primary objective for step 8 is to execute the EVUNN channel-selection process.

Read Traction if you want to understand the thinking behind testing and evaluating acquisition channels more deeply.

Your EVUNN Action

Build Your Customer Acquisition Channel Blueprint

You are not going to choose a channel immediately.

You will first identify your options, shortlist the strongest candidates and then test them folkowing these steps:

1. Bring Forward Your Best-Fit Customer

Start with the customer you defined in Step 1.

Ask:
Who exactly are we trying to reach?
Then write:
Best-Fit Customer

Then bring forward the Buying Situation from Step 2.

When does this person become actively receptive to solving the problem?

This is important because the same person may behave differently depending on the situation.

2. Identify Where they Go For Answers

When this customer experiences the problem, where do they go?

Consider the following:

Search

Do they search Google or YouTube?

Social Platforms

Which platforms do they actively use?

Professional Networks

Do they rely on LinkedIn, professional associations or industry networks?

Communities

Do they participate in WhatsApp groups, online communities or professional forums?

Events

Do they attend conferences, workshops, seminars or networking events?

Experts

Which experts, authors or thought leaders do they follow?

Referrals

Do they ask colleagues, friends or professional contacts for recommendations?

Direct Access

Can you identify and contact them directly? Don’t assume.

Use what you already learnt about the customer.

Get the rest of the action steps for this step in EVUNN Premium.
EVUNN Action Steps, Doers Community & Execution Toolkits are for paid users.
Get the Action Steps for this step, plus all Stage 1 Action Steps, access to EVUNN Community and EVUNN Execution Toolkits, with 12 months of access.

GET 12-MONTH ACCESS

EVUNN Mindset Checkpoint

If I’m not everywhere, I’m missing customers.

This is a common resistance for entrepreneurs.

You may feel that you need to:

Post on every social platform
Start a YouTube channel
Build an email list
Run ads
Write a blog
Attend events
Create a podcast
Do everything simultaneously

The truth is more channels do not automatically mean more customers. They often mean more work, less consistency and weaker execution.

Your objective is not to build a presence everywhere. Your objective is to find a repeatable path to your Best-Fit Customer.

Optional Mindset Reading: Essentialism by Greg McKeown

Use this only if you are struggling to focus because you believe you need to pursue multiple channels simultaneously.

Big Idea from Essentialism

Focus your limited time and energy on the activities that matter most instead of trying to do everything.

This is an optional mindset checkpoint, not required reading for completing Step 8.

Your Step 8 Output

By the time you are thriugh with this step, you should have a CUSTOMER ACQUISITION CHANNEL BLUEPRINt that has the folkowing:
Best-Fit Customer
↓
Buying Situation
↓
Potential Channels
↓
Channel Fit Assessment
↓
Top 2–3 Channels
↓
Channel Hypotheses
↓
Channel Experiments
↓
Evidence & Results
↓
Primary Acquisition Channel
↓
Supporting Channel
↓
30-Day Channel Plan

You don’t need to show up on every platform or use every marketing channel. You need to find the places where your ideal customers already spend time, pay attention, and look for solutions.

🔓 Use the EVUNN Execution Toolkit: Distribution Channel Matrix

Don’t choose your acquisition channel simply because your audience is there.

Use the EVUNN Distribution Channel Matrix to identify potential channels for your offer, evaluate how well each fits your customer and buying situation, shortlist the strongest options, compare your test results and select the channel with the greatest potential for reaching and acquiring the right customers.

Skipping this step may mean, wasting time on channels that won’t give you paying customers

Get the Distribution Channel Matrix + every other Stage 1 Toolkit for 12 months, plus access to the EVUNN Doers Community.

₦5,500 today.

Follow the roadmap. Use the tools. Do the work.

What Should I Do Next?

When you started step 8, you were thinking: I don’t know where to find my customers.

Now, you leave step 8 with:

I know where my Best-Fit Customer is likely to be, which channels are worth testing, what I need to test, what evidence matters and where I should focus my acquisition efforts.

You have now completed the full Phase 3 journey:

You have moved from: I have an offer to I know who it is for, why it is different, what to say to them, how to get their attention and where to find them.

That gives you your Market Positioning Blueprint

However, there is still a gap you need to fill to start getting customers. Knowing where your customers are does not mean they will automatically become customers.

Now you need to turn attention into:
Conversations → Opportunities → Customers.

Next? Phase 4: Get Your First Customers

How do I consistently turn the attention I’m generating into real customers?

marketing hooksBy Evunn August 23, 2026September 13, 2026

Marketing Hooks: How to Get the Right Customers’ Attention

Make Your EVUNN Journey Personal

Not sure which step is right for your business?

Free |Takes 1 minute

THE PROBLEM: I know what I want to say, but I don't know what to say to make the right customer stop and pay attention.

No matter how great your offer, without the hooks that can get your best fit customers' attention, they won't get the opportunity to know about your offer.

Your Stage 1 access includes all the EVUNN Toolkits you’ll need to do the work. Don’t just read. Use them as you move through each step. Learn as you build your business.

Step 7: Create Attention Hooks

Now, its time to create yiur messaging hooks. At this time, if you have been following and implementing, you now have:

Your Best-Fit Customer
Their Buying Situation
Their Alternatives
Your Position
Your Differentiation
Your Core Message

You know who you want to reach, what problem they have, what they want, why your offer is different and what your core message is.

But none of that guarantees that the right person will notice you. Your customer is constantly exposed to:

Social media posts
Videos
Emails
Advertisements
Articles
Offers
Sales messages
Notifications

You are competing for attention, but EVUNN is not trying to help you get everyone’s attention. You want the right person to stop.

The goal of a hook is not simply:
Look at me.
It is:
If you’re experiencing this, this is for you.

A strong hook creates recognition and makes the right person think:

That’s exactly what I’m dealing with.
or:
I’ve been wondering about that.
or:
I need to understand this.

The EVUNN Mindset Shift

Now, you go from How do I get attention? → How do I earn relevant attention?

Don’t make the mistake of trying to create something that will appeal to everybody because that produces vague messages like: Are you ready to transform your business?

The problem is that almost anyone can relate to it. And therefore, almost nobody feels specifically addressed.

The opposite mistake is creating hooks simply because they are provocative or clever. That may generate attention without generating relevant attention.

Your objective is different.

Don’t chase attention. Create recognition.

Your hook should connect to something your Best-Fit Customer already:

Experiences
Wants
Questions
Fears
Believes
Struggles with
Is trying to accomplish
Is considering before buying

This is why the work you have already done matters. Your hooks should come from the customer research and positioning decisions you have already made, not from random content ideas.

Recommended Book for Step 7: They Ask, You Answer

Author: Marcus Sheridan

Time Investment: 6+ hours (Audiobook)

Listen to Audiobook with Libro |Buy the Book at the Bookshop

The Big Idea from They Ask, You Answer

Trust is the ultimate currency in business, and the absolute best way to build that trust is to openly, honestly, and radically address all the questions, fears, and doubts your customers have online.

The questions, concerns and buying issues customers raise can become the foundation for marketing that earns attention and builds trust.

They Ask, You Answer specifically introduces the process of brainstorming the questions customers ask every day.

Note: They Ask, You Answer is not a hook-writing book.
We are using it to teach you that strong hooks come from Real customer questions and concerns.

You will then use those insights to create your own hooks.

What Business Problem Does They Ask, You Answer Solve?

It takes care of: I don’t know what my customers actually want to hear from me.

Many experts start marketing by asking: What should I post? That’s the wrong starting point.

Instead ask:
What is my customer already asking, wondering, worrying about or trying to understand?

Those questions give you raw material for:

Hooks
Content
Headlines
Videos
Articles
Emails
Sales conversations
FAQs

They Ask, You Answer’s early chapters will specifically take you from discovering customer questions to identifying the major categories of questions that influence buying decisions.

Should I Read They Ask, You Answer Now?

Yes, you are not reading this book to build your entire content marketing system now.

You are reading it to learn how to:

Listen for customer questions.
Identify the questions that matter.
Understand the concerns behind those questions.
Turn those insights into useful marketing topics.
Use those topics as raw material for attention.

Which Parts They Ask, You Answer Matter Most for this Step? Focus on these Chapters:

Chapter 6: Brainstorming the Questions You Are Asked Every Day (ESSENTIAL)

This is the most directly relevant chapter for this step. The objective is to identify the questions your customers and prospects actually ask.

Don’t invent questions that sound like marketing questions.

Capture the language people really use.

Chapter 9: The Discovery of The Big 5 (ESSENTIAL)

This introduces the major categories of questions customers want answered. Those become valuable sources of marketing topics and hooks.

Chapter 10: The Big 5, Topic 1: Pricing and Cost (READ)

Pricing questions often attract attention because they involve uncertainty and risk.

Look at how customers think about:

Cost
Value
Affordability
Risk

These can become powerful question and objection hooks.

Chapter 13: The Big 5, Topic 2: Problems (ESSENTIAL)

Your customer already has a problem. Learn how to talk openly about that problem rather than immediately talking about your solution.

This provides material for problem-based hooks.

Chapter 17: The Big 5, Topic 3: Versus and Comparisons (READ)

Customers often want to know: Which option is better for me?

Comparison questions can become excellent hooks because they address an active decision.

Chapter 19: The Big 5, Topics 4 and 5: Reviews and Best in Class (READ)

These help you understand the importance of:

Social proof
Evaluation
Standards
What customers consider best

Use these insights later when creating hooks around credibility and decision-making.

Chapter 21: The Impact of Discussing Competition (SKIM)

This chapter is useful for understanding how customers think about alternatives.

This connects directly to the Alternative Landscape you created in Step 3.

You do not need to turn this into a competitive marketing strategy yet.

Listen to Audiobook with Libro |Buy the Book at the Bookshop

What Should I Skip for Now?

There is a lot in They Ask, You Answer that belongs much later.

For Step 7, you can skip or save for later the following:

Sales-team implementation
Assignment selling
Video strategy
Content-team management
Content marketing culture
Website implementation
Conversational marketing
Self-selection tools
Website priorities

They Ask, You, You Answer later moves heavily into these areas. You don’t need those yet.

Your current objective is much narrower which is to:

Discover what your customer cares enough about to pay attention to, then turn those insights into relevant hooks.

Your EVUNN Action

Build Your Marketing Hook Library

You are not trying to create one perfect headline. You are creating a library of attention hooks that you can use across future marketing. To do that, follow these steps:

1. Bring Forward Your Customer

Return to your Best-Fit Customer and Buying Situation and ask:

What is happening when this person becomes most aware of the problem?

This gives you the context from which your hooks should be created.

2. List Their Real Questions

Write down at least 10 questions your customer is likely to ask.

Start with:

What are they confused about?
What are they worried about?
What are they comparing?
What are they trying to understand?
What are they unsure about buying?
What are they afraid of getting wrong?
What do they want to know before taking action?

Don’t write questions that sound clever. Write questions that sound like something the customer would actually say.

Get the rest of the action steps for this step in EVUNN Premium.
EVUNN Action Steps, Doers Community & Execution Toolkits are for paid users.
Get the Action Steps for this step, plus all Stage 1 Action Steps, access to EVUNN Community and EVUNN Execution Toolkits, with 12 months of access.
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EVUNN Mindset Checkpoint

What if people judge me?

Creating hooks means putting your thinking into public view. You may start asking;

What if nobody responds?
What if people criticise me?

Who am I to talk about this?

What if I get it wrong?

If this is the resistance you’re experiencing, don’t confuse fear of visibility with evidence that your message isn’t valuable.

You don’t need to feel completely confident before you begin. You need to be willing to test.

Optional Mindset Reading: Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway by Susan Jeffers

Use this only if fear of visibility, judgment or taking action is preventing you from creating and testing your hooks.

This is not required reading for Step 7. It is an optional mindset checkpoint.

30+ Relevant Attention Hooks

Every hook should connect back to: Your Best-Fit Customer:

→ Their Buying Situation

→ Their Problem

→ Their Desired Outcome

→ Your Core Message

Give your customer a reason to stop scrolling.

You can have a valuable offer and a strong message, but if your customer doesn’t notice it, none of it matters.

🔓 Use the EVUNN Execution Toolkit: Marketing Hook Builder

Stop wondering what to say every time you need to market your offer.

Use the EVUNN Marketing Hook Builder to turn your customer’s real problems, situations, questions, desired outcomes, objections and buying concerns into a structured library of relevant attention hooks.

If you can’t get your best fit customers to pay attention, you will end with no sales no matter how good your offer is.

Get the Marketing Hook Builder + every other Stage 1 Toolkit for 12 months, plus access to the EVUNN Doers Community.

₦5,500 today.

Follow the roadmap. Use the tools. Do the work.

What Do I Do Next?

Now you have a library of relevant attention hooks.

You need to find out exactly where to place your hooks to reach your best fit customers.

Next? Step 8: Choose Where To Reach Them

Where will I find the people this offer is designed for, and which channel should I focus on first?

core messagingBy Evunn August 23, 2026September 10, 2026

Core Messaging: How to Create a Clear Core Message Customers Understand

Make Your EVUNN Journey Personal

Not sure which step is right for your business?

Free |Takes 1 minute

THE PROBLEM: I know who I serve, how I want to be positioned and why my offer is different, but I don't know how to explain it so the right customer immediately understands its value.

Your pricing can break your business. Before you launch the offer, work out a pricing strategy

Your Stage 1 access includes all the EVUNN Toolkits you’ll need to do the work. Don’t just read. Use them as you move through each step.

Step 6: Build Your Core Message

Its time to build your core message. By now you have now worked through:

Your Best-Fit Customer
Their Buying Situation
Their Alternatives
Your Position
Your Differentiation

You know what you want to be known for.

You know why your offer should be preferable.

But your customer doesn’t see all the work you’ve done.

They see your:

Website
Headline
Social media posts
Profile
Sales conversation
Offer description
Marketing materials

And they have to understand your value quickly. If your message is unclear, even a well-positioned offer can be overlooked.

You may say:
I provide strategic transformation solutions for professionals and organisations.

But the customer may still wonder:

What does that actually mean for me?

The goal of this step is to turn your strategic decisions made sobfar into a clear, customer-centred core message.

This is not about writing your entire website copy ir running your marketing campaign.

Its about drafting your Core Message that your website copies, marketing campaign etc will be centred on.

Recommended Book for Step 6: Building a StoryBrand

Author: Donald Miller

Time Investment: 6+ hours (Audiobook)

Listen to Audiobook with Libro| Buy the Book at the Bookshop

The Big Idea from Building a StoryBrand

Make the customer the hero of your message and position your business as the guide that helps them overcome a problem and reach the outcome they want.

The book’s SB7 framework follows this basic progression:

A Character
↓
Has a Problem
↓
Meets a Guide
↓
Who Gives Them a Plan
↓
Calls Them to Action
↓
Helps Them Avoid Failure
↓
Ends in Success

You are not using StoryBrand to create a dramatic story about your company.

You are using its framework to make your customer’s situation and your role in helping them easy to understand.

What Business Problem Does The StoryBrand Solve?

It takes care of: My offer may be valuable, but customers don’t immediately understand what I do, who it is for or why they should care.

This is a common problem for expertise based business owners. You know too much about your subject. So you communicate everything you know.

The customer receives information instead of clarity. StoryBrand gives you a framework for simplifying that communication. The official StoryBrand framework specifically emphasises clarity and warns that confusing customers causes them to look elsewhere.

Should I Read The StoryBrand Now?

Yes. Read it with one objective to answer:

How can I turn my positioning and differentiation into a message my best-fit customer immediately understands?

Which Parts of The StoryBrand Matter Most for this Step? Focus on these:

Section 1: Why Most Marketing is a Money Pit

Chapter 1: The Key to Being Seen, Heard, and Understood (READ)

Focus on the importance of clear communication.

Your takeaway:
If the customer has to work too hard to understand your offer, your message is failing.

Chapter 2: The Secret Weapon That Will Grow Your Business (READ)

Use this chapter to understand why clarity in communication matters commercially.

Chapter 3: The Simple SB7 Framework (ESSENTIAL)

This is the framework you will use for this step.

Understand the seven elements and how they work together.

Section 2: Build Your StoryBrand

Chapter 4: A Character (ESSENTIAL)

The customer is the character. Connect this to the Best-Fit Customer you created in Step 1.

Ask:

Who is the person this message is actually for?

Chapter 5: Has a Problem (ESSENTIAL)

Bring forward the problem you’ve already identified and validated.

Don’t invent a new problem.

Ask:

What is the customer struggling with, and what is preventing them from getting what they want?

Chapter 6: And Meets a Guide (ESSENTIAL)

This is where your expertise becomes relevant. You are not the hero. You are the guide. Your role is to demonstrate:

Empathy I understand what you’re dealing with.
and:
Authority: I have the knowledge or capability to help.

This is where your positioning and expertise support the customer’s story.

Chapter 7: Who Gives Them a Plan (ESSENTIAL)

Customers need to understand that there is a path forward. Bring forward the offer you developed in Phase 2 and ask:

What is the simple path we give the customer to move from their current situation to their desired outcome?

Don’t explain every operational detail. Give them enough clarity to understand the path.

Chapter 8: And Calls Them to Action (ESSENTIAL)

A customer should know what to do next. Your message should eventually lead to a clear action. For now, identify the primary action you want the customer to take.

Examples:

Book a consultation
Start a trial
Buy the programme
Request an assessment
Schedule a call
Download a resource

Chapter 9: That Helps Them Avoid Failure (READ)

Identify what remains at stake if the customer doesn’t solve the problem. Don’t exaggerate. Use realistic consequences.

The purpose is to make the importance of the problem clearer.

Chapter 10: And Ends in a Success (ESSENTIAL)

Define the transformation the customer wants. This should connect directly to the desired outcome established in Phase 2.

Ask:
What does the customer’s situation look like after successfully using this offer?

Chapter 11: People Want Your Brand to Participate in Their Transformation (READ)

This helps bring the framework together. Focus on the idea that your business participates in the customer’s transformation rather than making the business itself the centre of the story.

Section 3: Implementing Your Storybrand BrandScript

Chapter 12: Building a Better Website (SKIM FOR NOW)

Useful later when you apply the message to your website. But you are not building your website in Step 6.

Chapter 13: Using StoryBrand to Transform Company Culture (SKIP FOR NOW)

This is not necessary for creating the core message of an expertise-based offer.

The StoryBrand Marketing Roadmap (SKIM)

Keep this for later when you begin turning your core message into a broader marketing system.

Listen to Audiobook with Libro|Buy the Book at the Bookshop

What Should I Ignore For Now?

Do not turn Step 6 into:

A website-building exercise
A copywriting course
A social media strategy
A complete branding exercise
A sales funnel
A marketing campaign

Those come later.

Your immediate job is much simpler:

Create the message that all of those future marketing activities can be built around.

Your EVUNN Action

Build Your Core Messaging Blueprint

Bring forward everything you’ve already created in phase 3 (step 1-5). If you are using EVUNN premium, the previous steps will be populated in your toolkit.

From Step 1

Best-Fit Customer

From Step 2

Buying Situation

From Step 3

Alternative Landscape

From Step 4

Positioning Statement

From Step 5

Differentiation Strategy

Now translate those strategic decisions into the customer’s story following these steps:

1. Define Your Customer: The Character

Complete:

We help ____________________.

Be specific. Avoid things like: we help businesses. Instead say: we help newly promoted managers… or we help independent consultants who…

Your message should allow the right person to recognise themselves.

2. Define What They Want

Ask:
What does this customer want to achieve?
Complete:
They want to ____________________.

This should be a meaningful outcome.Not the product or the service or the method.

The customer wants the transformation, not your offer.

Get the rest of the action steps for this step in EVUNN Premium.
EVUNN Action Steps, Doers Community & Execution Toolkits are for paid users.
Get the Action Steps for this step, plus all Stage 1 Action Steps, access to EVUNN Community and EVUNN Execution Toolkits, with 12 months of access.
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EVUNN Mindset Checkpoint

Are you making the message complicated because you want to prove your expertise?

This is a common trap especially for experts. You may feel that a simple message makes you look less sophisticated.

So you add:

More credentials
More terminology
More features
More services
More explanations
More claims

The result is a message that says a lot but communicates very little.

Remember:
Your expertise does not need to appear in every sentence.

Your expertise should make your solution valuable.

Your message should make that value easy to understand.

Optional Mindset Reading: This Is Marketing by Seth Godin

Use this only if you are struggling to narrow your message because you want to appeal to everyone.

This is not required reading for Step 6. It is a mindset checkpoint for the resistance: If I narrow my message, I’ll lose customers.

If you don’t feel this resistance, skip this checkpoint.

Your Step 6 Output

By the end of this step, you should have a CORE MESSAGING BLUEPRINT
that contains the following:
Best-Fit Customer
↓
What They Want
↓
Their Problem
↓
Your Role as Guide
↓
Your Plan
↓
Call to Action
↓
What They Want to Avoid
↓
Desired Success
↓
Your Differentiation
↓
One-Sentence Core Message (once you are done with step 6).

It’s time to turn what you’ve learnt into a message that connects.

You know who you’re serving, the problem you solve, the result you create, and what makes your offer different.

Now you need to put it into words your customer actually understands and cares about.

🔓 Use the EVUNN Execution Toolkit: Core Messaging Blueprint

Don’t let your positioning get lost in complicated marketing language.

Use the EVUNN Core Messaging Blueprint to translate your customer, problem, desired outcome, positioning and differentiation into one clear message the right customer can immediately understand.

Do this before you start promoting your offer, because you may have a great offer but struggle to explain why your customer should care.

Get the Core Messaging Blueprint + every other Stage 1 Toolkit for 12 months, plus access to the EVUNN Doers Community.

₦5,500 today.

Follow the roadmap. Use the tools. Do the work.

What Should You Do Next?

You entered Step 6 with:

I know who my offer is for, where it fits and why it is different.

You leave knowing:

I can explain my offer in a way that makes the right customer recognise their problem, understand the value of my solution and know what to do next.
Your Phase 3 journey is now:
Best-Fit Customer
↓
Buying Situation
↓
Alternative Landscape
↓
Position
↓
Differentiation
↓
Core Message

Note that even a clear message won’t help if nobody notices it.

Your next challenge is to create language that makes the right customer stop and pay attention.