Deal-Breakers: Who will never buy, no matter how much they like you
Refine each weakness into deal-breakers — the disqualifiers that define your anti-market — then use them to hone every keystone segment into a sharper target. Adapted from Chapter 3 of Hidden Multipliers: Speaking Carol Into Existence.
- Input
- Your STRENGTHS-WEAKNESSES.md (the W-side) and your KEYSTONES.md from the previous steps.
- Output
- A DEALBREAKERS.md (D1, D2, … with anti-market segments) — plus your KEYSTONES.md honed: each segment description sharpened with the qualifiers the deal-breakers force.
What this is about
A purchasing committee can love everything about you. They can still be forbidden to buy. Example: no SOC 2, no deal. It does not matter how many keystones they have. We call these blockers deal-breakers. A deal-breaker trumps every keystone. This skill runs the keystones exercise in reverse, on your weaknesses. For each weakness, ask: what circumstances make it disqualifying, not just annoying? Which real market segments live in those circumstances? Those segments form your anti-market. They sit beyond the edge of your possible market. Know them precisely. The right response is deliberate exclusion. Do not market to them. Do not sell to them. Do not build the features they request, however loudly they ask.
This step is more than bookkeeping, because deal-breakers hone your keystones. Take the keystone "e-commerce stores that need speed." Add the deal-breaker "can't afford premium pricing." The result: "e-commerce stores processing at least $5,000/mo." Each qualifier you add makes the keystone easier to advertise to. It makes the keystone easier to qualify against. It makes the keystone clearer to build for. You may want to say "we could just fix that weakness." Maybe you should, someday, as a separate strategy decision. But today the job is different: describe the market you can win with what you have now.
Example invocation
You can invoke the skill like this:
/asb-carol-dealbreakers Here's our STRENGTHS-WEAKNESSES.md and
KEYSTONES.md. Who's never buying from us — and what does that do to
our target segments?
The skill walks through your weaknesses one at a time. For each weakness, it finds deal-breakers and names the anti-market segments. Then it walks through your keystones. For each keystone, it proposes the qualifier each deal-breaker forces. It edits KEYSTONES.md with you, one honed segment at a time.
One practical note: say where you are working. Name a directory, or point to your existing files, when you invoke the skill. The skill then keeps the method's files together in that location. If you do not say, the skill asks before it creates anything.
From the source
Two sources form the foundation of this skill:
- As in Chapter 3 of Hidden Multipliers: Speaking Carol Into Existence (sections "Weaknesses → Deal-Breakers → Anti-Market" and "Hone Keystones Using Deal-Breakers") — hiddenmultipliers.com — this section explains that deal-breakers trump keystones. It covers the anti-market and why you exclude it on purpose. It covers the honing move. It covers the rule this skill enforces: sell only what you have now.
- Selling to Carol: Why targeting an ICP brings 10x more customers than you expected — this article explains why excluding the anti-market makes the business stronger, not smaller. The accounts that destroy profit sit at the tail of the customer base.
Supporting sources each supply a piece of the mechanism:
- As in Chapter 2 of Hidden Multipliers: Carol Loves You for You — hiddenmultipliers.com — this chapter defines the classified weaknesses this skill uses. It includes the both-attributes, where the weakness half lands here.
- Specificity: A weapon of mass effectiveness — this article sets the qualifier bar. "processing at least $5,000/mo" is specific enough to target. "bigger companies" is not.