# Acquire and sell

URL: /workflows/lifecycle/acquire-and-sell · Id: `page:workflows/lifecycle/acquire-and-sell`

> How a Startup wins its first outside paid Order by hand, then its next ten through Plays, with spend that waits for payback.

Demand brings a person or an [Agent](/business/nouns/agent) to a [Startup](/business/nouns/startup), and selling helps them accept the right [Offer](/business/nouns/offer). The first outside paid [Order](/business/nouns/order) comes by hand, and the next ten come through [Plays](/business/nouns/play).

## Who is who
Each step toward a sale has its own [Noun](/business/nouns/noun), and the difference decides what the Startup may do next.

| Noun | Means |
| --- | --- |
| [Visitor](/business/nouns/visitor) | Reached the [Site](/business/nouns/site) or an [Interface](/business/nouns/interface) |
| [Prospect](/business/nouns/prospect) | Found by research, with no hand raised |
| [Lead](/business/nouns/lead) | Raised a hand: asked, signed up, or replied |
| [Contact](/business/nouns/contact) | A person the Startup talks with |
| [Customer](/business/nouns/customer) | Accepted an Offer, at any price |

A researched list of studio owners holds Prospects, not Leads. A Lead asked to hear back; a Prospect did not, so every message to one honors each [Suppression](/business/nouns/suppression) and [Consent](/business/nouns/consent) rule.

## The first ten by hand
The first Customers come from people the [Founder](/agents/founding/founder) can reach by name. The Founder lists 10 to 30 of them: past colleagues, communities they belong to, and [ICP](/business/nouns/icp) members who already gave [Evidence](/business/nouns/evidence).

Each gets one personal message with a stated [Price](/business/nouns/price). A human founder sends it, or an Agent sends it as that founder under a [Mandate](/business/nouns/mandate) scoped by [Channel](/business/nouns/channel), volume and topic. [Payment asks](/agents/founding#payment-asks) counts the asks, and every no is recorded as Evidence with its reason.

Take a Startup selling a bookings app to independent yoga studios, whose founder taught at four studios and knows thirty owners. Ten asks at $49 a month bring three yeses, two not-yets and five noes. Four of the noes give one reason: they already pay for a class-pass app.

Setup is done by hand as well. A step done by hand three times becomes an [Issue](/business/nouns/issue) for the [Product Team](/agents/product), and that is how a hand-run sale turns into [Software](/business/nouns/software).

## Seed, then compound
A new Startup starts with a $0 demand budget. Seed Plays reach first buyers within days: [Launch sites](/workflows/plays/launch-sites), [Directory listings](/workflows/plays/directory-listings), [Agent registries](/workflows/plays/agent-registries), and [Cold email](/workflows/plays/cold-email) to a researched list.

Compounding Plays such as [Answer engine optimization](/workflows/plays/aeo) and [Programmatic SEO](/workflows/plays/programmatic-seo) take months to start, then keep paying. A Startup seeds until a compounding engine carries it.

The [Marketing Lead](/agents/marketing/marketing-lead) runs one lead Play at a time until it works or fails by its own [Metric](/business/nouns/metric), then adds the next. The yoga Startup leads with Directory listings in the categories studio owners search, because its buyers already shop there.

## Paid demand waits for payback
Paid demand runs when the first transaction pays for acquiring the Customer. A $60 acquisition cost against a $49 first month fails that test; against a $490 annual plan it passes.

A probe of $100 to $1,000 is the exception. With no audience, it is the fastest way to learn which message converts, and it counts as exploration, not acquisition. A founder who funds a larger demand budget records it as a [Decision](/business/nouns/decision) with a target and a stop rule.

[Ad](/business/nouns/ad) spend and outbound campaigns are one-way decisions. Each waits a delay window before it runs, anyone watching can pause, redirect or cancel it, and on timeout it proceeds within its [Limit](/business/nouns/limit).

## Self-serve, assisted, and Agents
Most Offers sell with no conversation: a Customer reads the Offer, pays, and starts. A studio chain asking for twelve locations on one invoice reaches [Answer inbound](/workflows/processes/inbound-sales/answer-inbound), which replies at once and opens a [Deal](/business/nouns/deal).

[Send a quote](/workflows/processes/quoting/send-quote) prices the [Quote](/business/nouns/quote) from the list Price inside the discount Limit. A larger concession creates an [Approval](/business/nouns/approval), never a promise delivery cannot keep.

Many buyers are Agents acting for a [Person](/business/nouns/person) or a [Company](/business/nouns/company). They read the Offer through agents.json and the API, take a key, and pay under their principal's Mandate. Claims an Agent can check by machine win; adjectives do not.

## The demand checks
[Repeatable](/business/lifecycle/states/repeatable) reads this work through two checks. Ten or more outside Customers who arrived through Plays pay in the trailing 30 days. The lead Play repays its fully loaded acquisition cost within one month.

[Play-sourced Customers](/agents/marketing#play-sourced-customers) never counts the founder's network, which is why the first ten do not pass the check alone. Free Plays are not free either: Agent hours, shared accounts and published content all post [Cost](/business/nouns/cost), so [Acquisition payback](/agents/finance#cac-payback) never reads zero.

## Next
[Deliver and accept](/workflows/lifecycle/deliver-and-accept) turns the accepted Offer into the result the Customer paid for.