funnel-strategy — research skill

Infer and structure your sales funnel based on your GTM motion. Reads ICP + positioning (if locked) and your website signals to produce pre-close + post-close stages with qualification criteria per stage. Output: marketing/funnel/funnel-strategy.md.

When to use

• Early in the engagement, after ICP research is in place — defines the stages every downstream skill assumes
• When the GTM motion is shifting (e.g., PLG → Hybrid as enterprise deals start landing)
• Quarterly refresh if win/loss data suggests stages are misaligned with reality

When NOT to use

• For lead scoring logic per account — use /lead-scoring after this is locked
• For lifecycle email campaign design — use /lifecycle-marketing after this is locked
• If you already have a documented funnel that the team trusts — skip this; it's already done

Inputs

• Recommended: marketing/icp/ICP.md (the champion + economic buyer help identify stage transitions)
• Recommended: marketing/positioning/positioning.md (status-quo alternatives often map to closed-lost re-entry signals)
• Your company website URL (Exa fetches + reads it)

What it produces

marketing/funnel/funnel-strategy.md with these sections:

• GTM motion classification — PLG / SLG / Hybrid, with evidence from website + ICP signals
• Pre-close stages — typically 4–6 stages (Aware → Engaged → Qualified → Discovery → Evaluation → Closed-Won)
• Post-close stages — Onboarding → Activated → Habitual → Expansion (or Churn-Risk → Recovered)
• Per-stage definitions — what triggers entry, what defines progression, what qualification criteria gate the next stage
• FETE mapping — Fit / Engagement / Tier / Eligibility signals per stage
• Closed-lost re-entry paths — how leads that dropped out get back in

Example run

In your terminal: /funnel-strategy

Claude reads your ICP + positioning files + fetches your website, then walks you through the GTM motion classification. Edits the draft with you, then writes the final to marketing/funnel/funnel-strategy.md.

For the format: see ../../../pulse-analytics-example/funnel/funnel-strategy.md — fully populated example for the fictional PulseAnalytics B2B SaaS analytics company.