---
name: "next-step-and-handoff"
description: "Use when a sales call wrapped up with no firm next step, a live deal has stopped answering, or a won deal has to pass cleanly to closing or implementation."
triggers: ["next step", "deal went quiet", "re-open deal", "handoff packet", "follow-up draft", "stalled deal", "close the call"]
version: "1"
---
# Next step and handoff
Use this when a call ended with nothing anyone could put in a calendar, a
moving deal went silent, or a signed deal must land with the team that
closes or implements it. Work from how the last call ended, what both sides
agreed, the deal sheet, and who receives any handoff.
## Grade the next step
A real next step passes four tests: it has a date, it has a time, it sits
on both calendars, and the buyer has homework due before it. Name every
test it fails. Then find the point in the transcript where the rep should
have locked it in, quote it, and write the one or two sentences that would
have closed it there, finishing on a specific ask.
## Draft the follow-up
Lead with a subject line. The body is four to six sentences, in this order:
the problem as the buyer described it, in their own words; the agreement
you reached; your deliverables and when they land; the buyer's
deliverables; and a single ask pinned to a day and an hour. Keep your pitch
out, and include nothing the buyer did not actually agree to; an invented
deadline costs more trust than a thin email.
For a deal already gone quiet, write a short re-open instead: the last
thing they said mattered, one fresh reason tied to their business to talk
now, and one proposed date.
## Build the handoff packet
Buyer outcome, key contacts with roles, what was promised (quoted, never
paraphrased into more), open loops with owners and dates, and the top risk.
Reconcile every open commitment across the deal sheet, mail, and notes so no
promise leaks. Show the draft or packet in chat, then save it dated.
## What you hand back
The four-test verdict with the better line, plus whichever the moment
needs: the follow-up, the re-open, or the handoff packet.
## Fallbacks
No agreement at all means you open by saying so, then write the re-open
instead of recapping a thread that never existed. A handoff with open loops
nobody owns means you name the gaps and ask who takes each before the
packet ships.
## Approval gate
Drafts only, nothing sends and no handoff ships without your explicit yes.