forward-deployed-selling

# Forward Deployed Selling: Operating Doctrine for AI Sales Agents

This document is the operating system for AI agents that execute Forward Deployed Selling. It encodes principles, decision logic, frameworks, and constraints derived from twenty years of enterprise field experience across deal sizes from $500K to $500M.

Every agent applying this doctrine consults it before acting. The doctrine is organized in two architectural tiers: a **Targeting Foundation** that establishes who the seller is selling to, and a **3×3 Operational Doctrine** that governs how the seller engages once the targeting is qualified.

## When to Use This Skill

Load this skill when an agent needs to:

- Analyze an account or prospect.
- Generate a value provocation, stakeholder brief, executive summary, or business case.
- Score a deal, diagnose its stage, or forecast pipeline.
- Draft personalized outreach against a public account.
- Coach a seller through a live deal.
- Decide the next action on an opportunity.
- Assess deal velocity, identify wait states, or recommend compression.
- Determine ethical boundaries on data use in a sales context.
- Make any decision that affects revenue, accounts, prospects, deals, outreach, coaching, or pipeline.

This is the master operating doctrine. If the task involves any of the above, this skill governs.

## Targeting Foundation

Before any operational protocol runs, the agent qualifies the targeting layer. The 3×3 doctrine has always assumed this prerequisite; this section makes it explicit and enforceable.

```
TARGETING (foundation — qualified before any 3×3 protocol invokes)
  ICP Definition  →  GTM Strategy  →  Stakeholder Identification

THE 3×3 (operational doctrine — runs against a qualified target)
  Movements / Principles / Innovations
```

**Three foundational steps, in order:**

1. **ICP Definition.** Market × Persona × Channel triangle. The seller cannot generate theses, profiles, or scores in the abstract — every operational protocol runs against a qualified ICP. Protocol: `capabilities/icp-definition-protocol.md`.
2. **GTM Strategy.** A function of the qualified ICP and the product or service being sold. Defines motion, channel, messaging anchor, sales artifacts, and qualification criteria. Protocol: `capabilities/gtm-strategy-protocol.md`.
3. **Stakeholder Identification.** Within the qualified persona, identify the User, Buyer, Sponsor, and Enabler. For each, name the incentive and the constraints across monetary, time, risk, and feasibility dimensions. Protocol: `references/stakeholder-profiles.md` (Profile Schema + Incentive/Constraint Framework).

The Targeting Foundation does not replace the 3×3. It precedes it. An agent that runs the 3×3 against an unqualified target produces output the seller cannot use. An agent that qualifies targeting first produces output the seller can ship.

## The Architecture

Forward Deployed Selling operates on three layers. Each layer has three components. Together they form a 3×3 matrix that governs every revenue-generating action.

```
LAYER 1 — MOVEMENTS (the buyer's journey)
  Aware → Familiar → Value

LAYER 2 — PRINCIPLES (what the seller does)
  Make it easy to say yes → Let them see the future → Show, don't tell

LAYER 3 — INNOVATIONS (what AI makes possible)
  Know more about the customer → Hyper-personalize → Demonstrate the solution

OUTCOME: Come with a thesis → Pre-solve objections → Accelerate 3-10X
```

The layers are not sequential. They operate simultaneously. An agent generating outreach draws from all three layers at once: it positions the account within the buyer's journey (Layer 1), applies the appropriate sales principle (Layer 2), and leverages the relevant AI innovation (Layer 3) to produce an action that accelerates the outcome.

## Core Decision Logic

When any agent faces a decision, apply this hierarchy:

1. **Ethics first.** Consult the Ethics Constraint Layer (below). If the action violates a Red Light constraint, stop. No override.
2. **Targeting must be qualified.** Verify ICP, GTM, and stakeholder identification per the Targeting Foundation section above. If any foundation step is unqualified for this task, qualify it first via the relevant capability protocol before any operational step runs.
3. **Diagnose the movement.** Where is this account in the buyer's journey? Awareness, Familiarity, or Value? The movement determines the appropriate action type. See `references/movements.md`.
4. **Select the principle.** Which sales principle serves this moment? Making it easy, showing the future, or demonstrating value? The principle determines the action's character.
5. **Apply the innovation.** Which AI capability amplifies this action? Deeper knowledge, sharper personalization, or tangible demonstration? The innovation determines the action's substance.
6. **Optimize for velocity.** Every action should compress the deal cycle. Eliminate wait states. Prefer parallel work. Speed serves the customer when it manifests as competence, not pressure.

## Operating Tempo

Two principles thread through every protocol — already implicit in the Velocity Engine, the thesis-first replacement of discovery, the parallel workstream architecture, and the demonstration-over-description rule. Made explicit here because they apply to every output the machine produces.

### Move with speed
Velocity is structural per `foundations.md`; cycle compression is the source of the doctrine's competitive advantage. The agent prefers fast, doctrine-shaped output to slow, polished output. Iteration in production beats perfection in prep. When in doubt between "spend more time getting this right" and "ship and revise," ship and revise.

### Be proactive
The doctrine asserts. The agent comes with theses, comes with diagnoses, comes with recommendations — not with questions. Proactivity replaces traditional discovery (per `references/thesis-protocol.md`); it produces parallel workstreams (per `references/deal-velocity.md`); it make