name: Sales Team Playbook description: Operating manual for the X9Elysium sales team — ICP, motion, stages, comp, discount rules, escalation, code of conduct.

X9Elysium Sales Team Playbook

Version: 1.0 (2026-05-04) Owner: Founders → Head of Sales (once hired) Audience: Head of Sales, Sales Manager, Account Executives, BDRs, founders.

This document is the operating manual for the X9Elysium sales function. If a rule below conflicts with what someone tells you on a call, follow this document and escalate. Updates require Head-of-Sales sign-off and a one-line entry at the bottom of this file.

1. Who we sell to (ICP)

Primary ICP: SMB ecommerce merchants on Shopify or migrating onto Shopify, CA$500K – $10M GMV, founder-led or with a small ecom team (1–8 people), based in Canada or the US.

Sub-segments we win:

Replatform candidates — operators on Magento 2, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, or Squarespace who have outgrown the platform. These are our highest-value inbound leads.
Shopify Plus graduates — currently on Shopify Basic/Advanced, hitting B2B / multi-currency / bandwidth limits, evaluating the Plus jump.
Headless-curious DTC brands — fashion, beauty, food, design-led merchants thinking about Hydrogen because performance or content flexibility matters more than out-of-the-box.
Retainer hand-off targets — operators stuck with a freelancer or low-budget agency who need a senior team that won't ghost.

Anti-ICP — walk away:

Sub-CA$500K GMV merchants. They need cheaper/templated work and we will not deliver value without burning the relationship.
Pre-revenue founders with a deck. Refer to a designer or freelancer; we do not run pre-revenue speculative builds.
Enterprise (>$50M GMV) requiring SI-style RFPs and procurement. We do not currently staff RFP responses; if it walks in, escalate to founders for a "good fit / not fit" call.
Industries we will not serve: gambling, adult, MLM, regulated cannabis (cross-border), supplements with weight-loss claims, dropshipping arbitrage.

Geographic priority: Canada (Toronto / GTA, Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal in that order) → US (NYC, LA, Austin, Chicago) → opportunistic UK/AU. Quebec leads should route to a French-speaking AE when available.

2. The wedge (why we win)

We are not a cheap agency. We are not a big agency. We are senior, founder-led, and we name the people doing the work.

The five arguments, in order:

No juniors fronting senior work. The architect on your scoping call is the architect on your project. Read this back to every prospect on the first call.
Founder-direct. Darshan and Adhvait are still in the code, in the deck, and on the call. Discoverable, googleable, and on LinkedIn — verify us.
Outcomes, not utilization. We do not sell hours. We sell shipped engagements with documented commercial outcomes. If a project doesn't move conversion / AOV / GMV / CAC, we don't ship it.
Replatform specificity. We have done Magento → Plus, Woo → Shopify, BigCommerce → Plus enough times that we will tell you what's going to break before you sign.
Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam — the world is one family. Not a slogan: we treat the merchant's business like our own and we don't take work that we wouldn't be proud of in five years.

If a competitor's deck has glossier renders, fine. Lead with #1, #2, and #4 — that's where we win.

3. The motion

A standard SMB cycle is 30–90 days from first conversation to signed SOW. Stages and exit criteria below. Do not advance a deal in the CRM until the exit criteria are met — the forecast depends on this.

Stage	Purpose	Exit criteria
0 — New	Lead source captured, contact validated.	Confirmed company, role, current platform, GMV band. Anti-ICP filter passed.
1 — Discovery	First substantive conversation. AE-led.	Documented: pain, current platform, top 3 problems, decision maker(s), rough budget, rough timeline. Recap email sent same day.
2 — Scoping	Joint call with solutions architect or founder.	Written scope-of-work (1–3 pages). Stakeholder map confirmed. Budget range confirmed in writing.
3 — Proposal	Commercial proposal delivered.	Proposal sent in writing. Mutual close plan with named next steps + dates.
4 — Negotiation	Pricing, terms, redlines.	Verbal or written commit to move forward. Procurement / legal contacts identified.
5 — Closed Won	SOW signed, deposit invoiced.	Delivery handoff doc completed (see §6).
5 — Closed Lost	Disqualified or lost to competition.	Loss reason documented in CRM (see §10).

Every deal must have a next step on the calendar at every stage. If the next step is "follow up Q2," the deal is Closed Lost — code it that way and move on.

4. Pipeline mix and outbound discipline

Target inbound / outbound / referral mix (rolling 90-day window):

40% inbound — website forms, Clutch profile, Shopify Partner directory, content-driven (blog + LinkedIn).
40% outbound — AE-driven prospecting against the ICP list.
20% referral / ecosystem — Shopify enterprise reps, Klaviyo / Recharge / Yotpo partner referrals, ex-clients, our own network.

If outbound creeps above 60% we are not investing enough in inbound. If outbound drops below 25% we have stopped prospecting and the pipeline will collapse in 90 days.

Outbound rules of engagement:

Personalised first touch only. No generic templates. The first sentence must reference something specific (a recent app install, a job posting, a podcast, a press hit).
Maximum 5 touches over 21 days per prospect. After that, recycle for 6 months.
Cadence shape: email → email → LinkedIn → email → break. No cold calling without prior LinkedIn or email contact.
Never pretend to know someone. Never invent shared connections. Never use AI-written templates verbatim.
We do not use sequencing tools that auto-trigger LinkedIn connection requests with a pitch attached. That's spam and it burns the brand.
Suppression list is hard-enforced: ex-clients, current clients, prospects who explicitly opted out, and anyone in our anti-ICP list.

If a prospect replies "stop / unsubscribe / not interested" — they're suppressed within 24 hours. No exceptions, no "let me try one more angle."

5. Pricing, discount, and floor

Price floors (May 2026):

Project / one-time engagements: CA$25,000 floor. Below this we refer to a freelancer.
Retainer: CA$8,000 / month floor on a 3-month minimum.
Solutions architect day rate (consulting only): CA$2,500 / day floor.

Discount authority:

Discount % off list	Approval required
0–5%	AE — at-will
5–10%	Sales Manager — written sign-off in CRM note
10–15%	Head of Sales — written sign-off
15%+	Founders — written sign-off, exception logged in `docs/sales/discount-exceptions.md`

Hard rules:

We never discount the retainer floor below CA$8K/month — if a prospect cannot afford the floor, they are not our ICP.
We never discount and also expand scope in the same negotiation. Pick one.
We never offer "free month one." If we want to invest in the relationship, do a paid Discovery sprint at half-rate, fully scoped.
Multi-project discounts are allowed (e.g. 10% off second project signed in the same quarter) — but documented as a written incentive, not a verbal handshake.

6. Sales-to-delivery handoff

A deal is not Closed Won until the handoff doc is complete. Sales does not get paid commission on a deal that delivery refuses to start.

The handoff doc lives in the CRM attached to the won deal and contains:

Signed SOW + statement of expected outcomes.
Stakeholder map (decision maker, project owner, technical lead, billing contact).
Current-state platform inventory (apps, themes, integrations, hosting, DNS).
Any verbal commitments made during the sales process — every "we can probably do X" gets written down here. If it's not in the handoff doc, it didn't happen.
Timeline expectation set with the client.
Internal capacity check signed off by the engineering or design lead before the SOW is countersigned.

If sales over-promises and delivery refuses, the AE re-opens the deal with the client at no additional cost, fixes the scope, and re-signs. No exceptions.

7. Forecast cadence and CRM hygiene

Cadence:

Daily: AEs update their CRM at end of day. Next steps + dates required on every open deal.
Mondays 09:00 PT: Pipeline review with Sales Manager — every deal in stage 2+, deal-by-deal.
Mondays 11:00 PT: Forecast call with Head of Sales — Commit / Best Case / Pipeline numbers, deltas from last week explained in writing.
Quarter end: Post-mortem in writing — what we won, what we lost, where the forecast was wrong, and what changes for next quarter. Filed under docs/sales/quarter-reviews/.

CRM stage hygiene (zero tolerance):

A deal without a next step + date is stage-zero until corrected.
A deal sitting in the same stage for 30+ days is auto-flagged for Sales Manager review.
The forecast Commit number is what you sign your name to. Missed commits two quarters in a row = performance review.

8. Compensation philosophy

We pay competitively at base and uncapped on variable. The numbers below are the design, not a promise:

AE: CA$50K base + uncapped variable, ~CA$30–60K on plan, no cap. Comp paid on Closed Won × Revenue Recognized (NOT on signed SOW alone — protects against deals that collapse in delivery).
Sales Manager: CA$80K base + variable tied to team attainment (~~70%) and team retention (~~30%). Both halves matter — we will not reward a manager who hits the number while burning out three AEs.
Head of Sales: Base + variable + profit-share on the book of business. Profit-share aligned to delivery margin, not signed revenue, so the function is incentivised to sell deals we can profitably ship.

Clawbacks: any deal that is refunded or terminated within 90 days for cause is clawed back at 100% of commission paid. Clients who churn after 90 days do not trigger a clawback.

9. Code of conduct

These are non-negotiable. Violations are documented and grounds for termination.

Never lie. Not about the team, not about the timeline, not about a competitor, not about a feature. If we don't have it, we say so. The wedge dies the day a prospect catches us bluffing.
Never sell to anti-ICP. If a deal smells wrong, walk. Bad-fit clients destroy delivery morale and produce no referrals.
Never invoice a client surprised by a price. Every dollar a client owes us was discussed in writing first.
Never trash a competitor by name. We say "we'd approach it differently because [reason]." We do not sell by tearing others down — there are real consequences in a small ecosystem like Shopify Partners.
Never share another client's data. Names of clients we've worked with are public on the site. Numbers, decks, and architecture from one client are never shown to another, ever.
Never make promises on the founders' behalf without confirmation. "Darshan can review your roadmap personally" requires Darshan's confirmation in writing first.
Always honour the suppression list. A "no" lasts 6 months minimum.
Always use the founder-led wedge honestly. If a project is going to be staffed primarily by mid-level engineers, say so — and explain the senior oversight cadence. Do not claim founders are doing work they are not.

10. Loss reasons (CRM picklist)

Closed Lost deals must select exactly one primary reason. We use this data quarterly.

lost_price — competitor or in-house was cheaper and the prospect prioritised price.
lost_competitor — chose a different agency or partner; competitor named in CRM note.
lost_in_house — decided to build in-house with their own team or freelancer.
lost_timing — defer to a future quarter; reschedule date set in CRM.
lost_no_decision — prospect went silent or could not get internal alignment.
lost_anti_icp — disqualified by us (sub-floor budget, anti-ICP industry, scope mismatch).
lost_capacity — we walked because delivery couldn't take the project on the requested timeline.

Every Closed Lost gets a 2-sentence note: what we'd do differently, what we wouldn't.

11. Escalation

Escalate to the Head of Sales when:

A deal is at stage 3+ and stuck for 14 days.
Discount request is in the 10–15% band.
Multi-stakeholder deal where the technical buyer and economic buyer disagree.
A signed prospect requests scope expansion mid-delivery.

Escalate to the founders when:

Discount request is 15%+.
A prospect asks for a custom MSA / legal redlines beyond standard SOW.
An anti-ICP prospect insists on engagement (we may want to refer rather than refuse).
Anything involving press, partnership announcements, or co-marketing.

Escalate to the Head of Delivery / founders jointly when:

A deal commits to a timeline shorter than delivery's capacity model.
A deal includes technology or integrations we have not shipped before.

12. Tooling stack (May 2026 baseline)

CRM: HubSpot Free → Starter once we cross 3 AEs. Pipedrive is a fallback. Do not introduce a third CRM without Head of Sales approval.
Engagement: Apollo.io for prospecting + Smartlead for cold email. No tools that auto-DM on LinkedIn.
Calls: Google Meet (default). Zoom for prospects who request it. All discovery and scoping calls recorded with Fathom or Grain — recording disclosure is in the meeting invite text.
Proposal: Notion → PDF export until we hit 5+ deals/month, then evaluate PandaDoc or Better Proposals.
Contract: DocuSign for signature. Templates owned by founders + Head of Sales.
Forecast: spreadsheet exported from CRM until volume justifies a dedicated forecast tool. Do not add another SaaS until volume forces it.

13. Onboarding checklist (first 30 days for new sales hires)

Week 1 — Read and watch.

This document, end to end.
docs/foundation/ — Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam credo + the Five Pillars + the Ten Operating Rules.
docs/marketing/6-month-organic-growth-plan.md — what marketing is doing.
docs/marketing/third-party-listings.md — the proof gaps the founders are closing.
Watch: 5 most recent recorded discovery calls with the founders.
Read: 3 won-deal SOWs and 3 lost-deal post-mortems (Head of Sales selects).

Week 2 — Shadow.

Sit on every founder-led discovery and scoping call.
Co-write 2 recap emails. Have the founder edit them in Loom.

Week 3 — Co-pilot.

Run discovery; founder observes.
Submit 5 outbound personalisations for review before sending.

Week 4 — Solo with safety net.

Run discovery + scoping solo, with founder available for join-rescue if requested.
Own 3–5 active deals in the CRM.
First Monday forecast call.

If a hire is not running solo discovery by week 4, the ramp plan is extended in writing — not glossed over.

14. Updates log

Date	Change	By
2026-05-04	v1.0 — initial playbook authored alongside the first three sales role postings (Head of Sales, Sales Manager, Account Executive).	Founders