# My reachable path to a buyer

Use this after completing Your first customer and Choosing a distribution channel. Bring forward the named people and source notes you already have; write `I don't know yet` where the evidence doesn't exist.

## Facts from my earlier work

| Question | My answer |
| --- | --- |
| What am I selling? | |
| Which customer have I selected? | |
| Who uses, pays, and approves? | |
| What problem or event gives them a reason to care now? | |
| What evidence supports that? | |
| What is my offer and price? | |
| What customer action do I need now? | |
| Which distribution channel did I choose? | |
| What proof do I have? | |

## People I can already reach

Include people from your first-customer record, validation interviews, previous customers, personal and professional contacts, communities, events, public discussions, and relevant people one introduction away.

| Person | How I know them | Known connection to my selected buyer | Evidence, source, and date | What I've already asked of them | Keep, check, or leave out |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| | | | | | |
| | | | | | |
| | | | | | |
| | | | | | |
| | | | | | |

## Give each relevant person one role

| Person | Role for this request | Why this role fits | One reasonable request | What the response could evidence | What it couldn't evidence |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| | Suitable buyer or user / relevant introducer / access gatekeeper / one specific question | | | | |
| | | | | | |
| | | | | | |
| | | | | | |

## Compare the credible paths

| Possible path | Buyer relevance | Current reason to care | Steps between me and buyer | Permission needed | Relationship concern | Keep or leave out |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Me -> | | | | | | |
| Me -> | | | | | | |
| Me -> | | | | | | |

## My chosen path

| Decision | My answer |
| --- | --- |
| Named buyer I am trying to reach | |
| First person I will approach | |
| Their role in the path | |
| Every step from me to the buyer | |
| Evidence that the buyer fits | |
| Evidence that this route is credible | |
| Why this path comes before the alternatives | |
| Missing fact that could change the choice | |

## Relationship and permission checks

| Check | My answer |
| --- | --- |
| Could kindness make a yes easier than an honest no? | |
| Is there a hierarchy, dependency, or financial relationship that may make refusal difficult? | |
| Have I asked this person for help before? What happened? | |
| Is the request small enough for the relationship? | |
| Have I said why they came to mind? | |
| Have I explained what I am working on and the commercial purpose where relevant? | |
| Can they decline without explaining themselves? | |
| For an introduction, will the buyer be asked to opt in before we are connected? | |

## My drafted request

**Why this person came to mind:**


**What I am working on:**


**One action I am asking for:**


**How I make refusal easy:**


### Draft

> 

## Forwardable note, if I am asking for an introduction

This note should stand on its own. It names the customer, the relevant problem, why the buyer came to mind, and the requested next step without asking the connector to write the pitch.

> 

## What this request could produce

| Possible result | What it would tell me | What it would leave unknown |
| --- | --- | --- |
| No reply | | |
| Decline | | |
| Answer to one question | | |
| Buyer agrees to an introduction | | |
| Buyer conversation | | |
| Trial, pilot, or demonstration | | |
| Purchase | | |

## What happened

Complete this after the request is sent in Founder-led sales.

| Date | Person | Request | Delivered or seen | Response or action | Evidence produced | Relationship follow-up | Next step |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | |

## Is my network exhausted for this task?

- [ ] I reviewed the people and relationships I can reasonably recall.
- [ ] I checked the named people and sources in my earlier records.
- [ ] I followed the introduction paths that had a credible link to my buyer.
- [ ] I can no longer name a matching buyer or somebody who knows one well enough to make a relevant introduction.

If all four statements are true, my network is exhausted for this task. I will return to **[chosen distribution channel]** and find suitable strangers there.

## Evidence and assumptions

### Facts

- 

### Assumptions

- 

### Missing information

- 

### Sources

- 

## Decision record

- **Selected buyer:**
- **Chosen path:**
- **First person's role:**
- **Request I drafted:**
- **Evidence it could produce:**
- **Relationship or permission boundary:**
- **What would change the path:**
- **Next review:**

## Prompt: map my shortest credible path to a buyer

```text
I need to map the shortest credible path from people I can already reach to one
suitable buyer.

Purpose
Use my existing customer evidence and relationships to choose one named buyer
path and draft one appropriate request. Keep access, customer fit, permission,
and evidence separate.

When to use this
I have chosen a customer and first distribution channel. I may know a suitable
buyer directly, know somebody who could introduce one, know somebody who
controls access to a relevant route, or have no credible path in my network.

My context
- Product or service: [what I sell]
- Selected customer: [the specific group]
- User, buyer, and approver: [who uses, pays, and approves]
- Problem and current reason to care: [evidence and source]
- Positioning: [how I explain the product]
- Offer, price, and customer action I need now: [details]
- Proof I have: [results, demonstration, references, reviews, or none]
- First distribution channel already chosen: [channel]
- Relationship or permission limits: [anything relevant]

People I can reach
For every person, give their name, how I know them, what I know about their
connection to the selected buyer, the source and date of that information, and
anything I've already asked them for. Include only facts I know.

1. [person and evidence]
2. [person and evidence]
3. [person and evidence]
4. [optional]
5. [optional]

Your task
1. Extract only the facts I supplied. Keep sources and dates with them.
2. List assumptions and missing information. Don't invent people,
   relationships, customer problems, authority, permission, results, or
   quotations.
3. Check customer evidence before ease of contact. Don't treat a familiar but
   unsuitable person as a prospect.
4. Assign each relevant person one role for this request:
   - suitable buyer or user;
   - relevant introducer;
   - access gatekeeper; or
   - somebody who can answer one specific missing question.
   Leave people with no credible role out of the current path and explain why.
5. Compare the plausible paths using buyer relevance, current reason to care,
   relationship, permission, steps to the buyer, and the evidence each request
   could produce.
6. Flag any risk that kindness, hierarchy, financial dependency, or repeated
   requests may make refusal difficult. Recommend a smaller or different
   request when needed.
7. Recommend one shortest credible path. If no credible path exists, say that
   my network is exhausted for this task and return me to my chosen channel.
8. Draft one request for the first person in the path. It must say why they came
   to mind, explain what I'm working on, make the commercial purpose clear when
   they are a buyer, ask for one bounded action, and make refusal easy.
9. For an introduction, draft a short standalone note the connector can
   forward and require the buyer's opt-in before the connection is made.
10. State what the request could evidence without predicting a reply,
    introduction, trial, purchase, or other result.
11. Treat any benchmark as context only. Give its source, date, customer,
    measured action, sample, and denominator; don't invent a target.

Output
# My reachable path to a buyer
## Facts from my earlier work
## People and roles
## Assumptions and missing information
## Plausible paths
## My chosen path
## Relationship and permission checks
## My drafted request
## Forwardable note, if needed
## Evidence this request could produce
## People outside the current path
## Decision record
## Next review

Use standard Markdown and write the record in my first person. Keep facts,
assumptions, missing information, and recommendations separate. Don't invent
customer evidence or claim that familiarity, a reply, or an introduction proves
demand.
```