As we noted at the start of this chapter, the Sure Step Diagnostic phase is designed to help the seller in the solution provider organizations and the buyer in the customer organizations. In the previous section, we covered the applicability of the phase to the seller; in this section, we will talk about how the customer's due diligence efforts are enabled with a thorough process for selecting the right solution to meet their vision and requirements.

In Chapter 2, Solution Selling and Driving Due Diligence, we discussed the stages that correspond to the customer's buying cycle. The following diagram shows how the same Sure Step Diagnostic phase activities and Decision Accelerator Offerings that we applied to the solution selling process also align with the phases of the customer's buying cycle: