What is value selling and how is it different from solution selling?

Value selling keeps the focus on what the prospect gains — the outcome, the improvement, the measurable difference — rather than on how your product solves a stated problem. Solution selling tends to start with the problem and map features to it; value selling goes a layer deeper by asking what solving that problem is actually worth to the buyer and why it matters to them personally and professionally.

Do I need a formal customer persona built out before I can use this checklist, or can I work through it deal by deal?

You can work through it deal by deal — Step 2 gives you a set of research and discovery questions you can run on any live prospect without a pre-built persona. That said, the persona questions in the checklist are worth answering once for your core ICP so you're not starting from scratch every time you prep for a call.

Which parts of this checklist should stay human-led rather than templated or automated?

Step 4's outreach template is a starting point, not a script — the specific references to the ebook topic, the infographic page number, and the concerns you've discussed have to come from an actual conversation, or the message reads as generic and gets ignored. Step 5 is entirely human-led by design; there's no process substitute for being genuinely personable when a deal goes sideways.

What information do I need to have in hand before I can run through the discovery questions in Step 2?

At minimum, you need enough prospect research to know their role, their industry context, and who else in their organization would need to sign off on a purchase — the checklist explicitly flags other decision-makers as a research item. Without that, you'll spend discovery time gathering basics instead of getting to the questions that actually surface value.

How do I know if my Step 1 self-assessment — believing in what I'm selling — is actually solid enough to move forward?

A practical test: if you can answer all five Step 1 questions without hedging or going vague on the competitor comparison, you're in good shape. If you're struggling to articulate who would NOT find value in the product, that's a signal your positioning isn't sharp enough yet and will show up as weak qualification later in the process.

How often should I revisit this checklist once I've worked through it the first time?

Run through Step 1 any time your product has a significant update, a pricing change, or a new competitor enters the market — your internal conviction needs to stay current. Steps 2 through 5 are per-deal work, so you're effectively running those on every active opportunity rather than on a fixed calendar cadence.