Chapter 13

Collateral

Everything to send, show or hand over, built to print at A4. Each PDF has its HTML source next to it, so a change is an edit and a re-render: ./collateral/legal/build.sh, or Chrome File then Print then Save as PDF with margins set to none.

Before first use
  • Fill every [placeholder], highlighted in yellow in the source: company name, number, registered office, contact email, governing law, privacy notice URL.
  • The pilot agreement and the ownership policy go to a solicitor once. Then they never change per customer unless the customer pays for the change.
  • The security summary carries orange verify badges on every answer that is not settled yet: hosting location and entity, retention, backups, model provider terms, incident notification, DPA. Answer all of them before the -ISSUE variant is sent to anybody.
  • Two documents build twice. Send only the -ISSUE variants. The -INTERNAL ones carry the review note and the verify badges and are for you.
  • Nothing in these documents claims a customer, a testimonial or a statistic that does not exist, and the honest "you would be early" paragraph appears in all three customer-facing sales documents on purpose. Keep it that way; the credibility is the product.

What to send, to whom, when

MomentSend or showNotes
Cold email, touch oneNothingNo attachment on a first touch. The email is the artefact.
Cold email, touch threeThe gap report you generated for themReal, specific, about their own site. It is the touch that works and it costs almost nothing to produce.
After any first call, same daysales/austen-one-pager.pdfThe general one-pager. Same day, every time.
After a first call with an agencysales/onepager-agency.pdfSend this instead of the general one, never both. It leads on margin and white-label rules.
Before a meeting where you know the incumbentsales/battlecards.pdfEight cards: ChatGPT, Byword, Frase, Verblio, Jasper and Writer, a freelancer, an agency retainer, doing nothing. Internal. Never send.
After the demo, same daysales/pilot-proposal-template.pdf + legal/pilot-agreement-ISSUE.pdfThe proposal is accepted subject to the agreement, so they arrive together. One signature.
Their procurement, legal or IT asks anythinglegal/security-summary-ISSUE.pdf + legal/content-ownership-and-ai-policy.pdfVolunteer both before they ask in education, law and publishing. Use the -ISSUE variant of the security summary; the -INTERNAL one carries the verify badges.
The moment payment clearscustomer/kickoff-pack.pdfWith the payment confirmation, so the kickoff call has an agenda before it is booked.
At kickoffcustomer/article-acceptance-criteria.pdfFilled in on the call and attached to the agreement as Schedule A. It is what turns "we do not like it" into a fixable sentence.
Days 2 to 5 of the pilot, ten timescustomer/brief-approval-form.pdfAll ten at once, not in batches. Nothing is written until they come back.
Day 21 of the pilotcustomer/renewal-sequence.pdfInternal. Run the three messages from it. Day 21, never day 30.
At deliveryThe reference request in Chapter 12Ask when they are happiest, which is delivery day, not renewal day.

Sales collateral

Use before and after a meeting. The general one-pager goes out the same day as every first call; the agency one-pager replaces it entirely when the buyer resells. The battlecards are internal and must never be attached to an email.

FileType
austen-one-pager.htmlHTMLeditable source
austen-one-pager.pdfPDF2 pages
battlecards.htmlHTMLeditable source
battlecards.pdfPDF3 pages
onepager-agency.htmlHTMLeditable source
onepager-agency.pdfPDF2 pages
pilot-proposal-template.htmlHTMLeditable source
pilot-proposal-template.pdfPDF3 pages

Legal and supplier pack

The pilot agreement travels with every proposal. The security summary and the ownership policy go out when a buyer above about 500 staff asks, which they will. Send only the -ISSUE variants: the -INTERNAL ones carry the review note and the verify badges.

Customer onboarding pack

Everything the buyer sees after they have paid. The kickoff pack goes out with the payment confirmation, the brief approval form is used ten times per pilot, and the acceptance criteria are agreed at kickoff and attached to the agreement as Schedule A. The renewal sequence is internal.

FileType
article-acceptance-criteria.htmlHTMLeditable source
article-acceptance-criteria.pdfPDF2 pages
brief-approval-form.htmlHTMLeditable source
brief-approval-form.pdfPDF2 pages
kickoff-pack.htmlHTMLeditable source
kickoff-pack.pdfPDF3 pages
renewal-sequence.htmlHTMLeditable source
renewal-sequence.pdfPDF3 pages