Bill Canady shows how to track deal progress like a clock: find your actual close date, count days elapsed, and grade each completed phase against its deliverable. Phase 1 requires three random employees to state the company's current goal in one sentence from memory.
This is the single most important idea in this episode. Now let's make this useful because a framework for you can't act on it is entertainment. And I'd rather you get paid. Move number 1, locate yourself on your clock. Where are you in the journey? Get the actual date the deal closed, not the date you started, the date the sponsor closed. Count the days to today. Write that number down, then write down which number, which phase you're in. I want to warn you about the reaction because it's almost universal. People are further along than they think. Someone who feels like they're just getting started turns out to be on day 380. You need to know where you're at. That means phase 1 is over and whatever command you establish is the command you have. You cannot manage a clock you refuse to read. Now you go to move 2, grade the phase you just finished. Every phase before your current one has a deliverable. Go grade it. Honestly, alone on paper where nobody's watching and you don't have to defend it. In phase 1, it was command. Can you pick 3 people at random from your building and state the company goal in one sentence? Can they do it? Can you pick those 3 people without them looking it up? Not the mission statement, the goal. If you're not sure, go find out this week.
