Briefing Standard · For MDAs and Sales Directors

What separates winning briefings from losing ones.

Findings from a structured rubric scoring of 184 of our pre-call briefings, joined to Salesforce outcomes. The good news: this is fixable. Six habits, in priority order. One red flag list.

80% vs 43%Win rate of MDA-augmented briefings vs. Conga-only briefings

72% vs 39%Win rate when an internal champion is named vs. not

+0.01Won−Lost delta on company news. Stop optimizing this section.

§ The big idea

Whether you augment beats which section you augment.

The single biggest signal in the data isn't "Section X matters more than Section Y." It's binary: did you hand-augment the briefing, or did you ship the Conga draft? MDA-augmented briefings win at 80%. Conga-only briefings win at 43%. Six of eight sections beyond Conga defaults is the cultural standard.

§ The six habits, in priority order

Augment six of eight sections — every briefing, every time.

The cleanest signal in the data. The fact of MDA augmentation matters more than which sections you enrich. Aim for 6 of 8 sections beyond Conga defaults.

CHECK: Would a reader spot >6 sections with hand-curated content?

Cheat Sheet quick-take at the top — a one-liner above the Conga block.

Largest single section delta in the data (+0.42). One line: "new to role X/Y/Z," "succeeded [predecessor]," "promoted from Z in March," "took over after [name] left for budget." This is the first thing the SD reads. Make it earn its place.

CHECK: Are the first 3 lines hand-curated, not Conga auto-fill?

Annotate past-call history with takeaways — not just dates.

Second-largest delta (+0.36). Multi-call wins consistently have rated calls + 1-line takeaways logged. Multi-call losses get a date list. If prior calls exist, force annotation.

CHECK: Does every prior call have a rating and a 1-line takeaway?

Personal intel must be specific. Generic bios lose.

Third-largest delta (+0.35). The won briefings that opened conversations leveraged something concrete: Nadler's son with T1D. Buerki's professional cycling. Samir's daughter at Emory. Cassidy's dad who passed in 2017. Find one fact a LinkedIn skim wouldn't surface.

CHECK: Is there one fact in "Why Them" that isn't on their LinkedIn?

Capture the prospect's reply verbatim — when they wrote one.

When a prospect's actual reply email gets pasted into "How We Set the Call," wins follow. When you summarize it ("they said yes"), the substance is lost. Paste the email body, with quotes preserved.

CHECK: Is the prospect's reply pasted verbatim, not summarized?

News work is fine. Stop optimizing it.

Section 6 (Company News + Why W50 Now) shows a +0.01 won−lost delta. That's statistical noise. Every briefing already has competent news sourcing. Don't add hours here. Reallocate that effort to habits 2 and 4 above.

CHECK: Are you adding the 11th news bullet? Stop. Go to habit 2.

⚠ The Inverted-Champion Red Flag

When the briefing surfaces a named internal contact who's actually a blocker — historical close rate is 0%. None of these patterns appeared in any won deal. Treat as a hard pause. Route to senior review before scheduling.

A former W50 member whose decline reason was Budget or "didn't see ROI"
An internal contact whose OK-to-mention permission was denied
The prospect themselves listed in the alumni-decline roster (alumni reactivation attempt)
A prior decline where the membership had to be escalated to the CEO for budget review
The boss/peer-funder who's voiced "we have enough memberships" in writing
The prospect deflecting to a junior direct report ("they know more than I do")

Action: add a mandatory boolean to the briefing template — "Internal contact alignment: Aligned / Neutral / Inverted." If Inverted, flag for senior review before SD takes the call.

§ What good looks like

Three examples from won briefings.

S1 Cheat Sheet — MDA quick-take above the Conga block

Lavonne Monroe (HPE) — won "Just got promoted to VP Global Talent Acquisition Performance Enablement & L&D Jan 2025" + green/yellow/red OK-to-mention color system across 10 named members.

Hannah Karp (Warner Music) — won "Predecessor James Steven was in CO50 until he declined renewal in late 2025. Hannah started role on 1/26/26." Explicit predecessor + new-to-role flag in 2 lines.

S5 Why Them — specific personal intel

Hugo Doetsch (AuditBoard) — won "Background in professional cycling" — surfaced Hugo's "marginal gains" mental model that Scudder used as an opener. Closed.

Jim Nadler (Kroll Bond Rating) — won "He's 68 and actively managing succession — son was diagnosed with T1D at age 9. He's on the board of Breakthrough T1D." Scudder opened the call by asking about his son. Closed in 25 minutes.

S3 Past Call History — annotated, not just dated

Christoph Buerki (Novartis) — won Multi-row past-call history with ratings + takeaways logged + Lisa Martin's dinner endorsement: "she thinks it's brilliant" preserved verbatim. Closed after multi-month resistance.

Pre-flight checklist for every briefing

Cheat Sheet — 1-line MDA quick-take above the Conga block? If no, fix.
How Set — prospect's reply pasted verbatim (not summarized)? If no, fix.
Past Calls — every prior call has rating + 1-line takeaway? If no, fix.
Why Them — at least one fact not on LinkedIn? If no, dig deeper.
Champion — internal contact tagged Aligned / Neutral / Inverted? If Inverted, route to senior review.
Alumni — decline patterns analyzed (not just listed)? If 5+ alumni and no analysis, add it.
News — already covered. Don't add an 11th bullet.
Group-Specific — already covered. Don't over-tailor.

§ The structural truth that briefing craft can't fix

Knowing where you are in the win-rate landscape.

Briefing quality moves win rate from 14% (lowest scoring) to 55% (highest). Real but moderate. Two structural variables move it more:

Existing W50 members at the prospect's company	Win rate
0 (pure new-logo, personal-narrative wins)	56%
1–2	33%
3–4 (the Goldilocks-bad zone)	30%
5–9	39%
10+ (thick-company effect)	76%

If the prospect's company has 3–4 existing members, the briefing has the hardest job: enough presence to surface in research but not enough density to pull the deal through. Lean harder on personal intel and past-call annotation in this band. If the company has 10+ members, the deal is mostly already won — make sure the briefing doesn't break it.