CHS · Continuant Healthcare Solutions · Revenue

A system for selling
credentialing & revenue cycle.

RCM and credentialing aren't sold by lining up features — they're sold by becoming the team a CFO trusts with the most operational pain in their P&L. Built on Musk's deletion discipline, Jensen's flat-structure signal, and Bezos's narrative method.

6 stagesPipeline
3×Coverage Min
35%+Win Rate Target
90 daysFull Rollout
The buyer isn't buying RCM. They're buying outcomes in their P&L.
Diagnosis

Five symptoms. One root cause.

CHS sales motions stall in predictable places. Symptoms look different — long discovery, ghosted proposals, stuck legal review — but the root cause is almost always the same: we're selling services when we should be selling P&L outcomes. CFOs and Revenue Cycle VPs don't buy "RCM expertise." They buy denial reduction, AR compression, and credentialing speed measured in days saved and dollars recovered.

What it looks like today

Five symptoms keep recurring across deals. They look like five problems. They're not.

AEs talk about RCM services in discovery — buyers tune out within ten minutes
Discovery surfaces budget but misses the political reality of the buying committee (CFO ↔ VP RCM ↔ COO)
Champions in revenue cycle ops can't get the CFO to the table; deal stalls in Stage 3
Proposals quote service tiers and FTE counts, not before/after numbers in the customer's own P&L
Renewal/expansion conversations start 30 days before contract end — far too late to recover momentum

What this system fixes

The fix is structural, not motivational. Build the operating system around CFO economics, not service inventory.

Lead every discovery with denial-rate, AR-aging, or enrollment-backlog math — not service descriptions
Map the buying committee in writing before Stage 3 — name the CFO ascent path explicitly
Every proposal opens with a Win Press Release: 90-day outcome in their language, in their numbers
T5T from AEs is the CEO's primary signal on market shifts (payer rule changes, denial trend movements)
Renewal motion starts 90 days before contract end — Account Manager owns; Service Manager provides the health snapshot
The thesis: A CFO does not buy services. A CFO buys reductions in financial uncertainty. Every step of the CHS sales motion has to translate the work we do into the language of risk reduction in the buyer's P&L — denial rate down, AR aging compressed, enrollment cycle halved, bad-debt write-off line reduced.
The System

Six pillars. One operating system.

Each part is modular. Implement in sequence or start with the pillar where the team's losing the most deals today (for most CHS sales orgs, that's Pillar 03 — the buying committee map).

01

Revenue OS

Six-stage pipeline with explicit entry/exit criteria, SLAs, named owners, and forecasting categories tuned to CHS deal cycles.

Pipeline · Forecast · SLAs
02

Buyer Intelligence (T5T)

Top-5-Things from AEs every Monday. CEO sees market shifts in week 1: denial trends, payer policy changes, peer hospital signals.

T5T · Market Signal
03

Decision Architecture

How a hospital actually buys RCM. Champion → Economic Buyer → Approval committee. Mapped in writing before any proposal.

★ The Star Pillar
04

Manager Role Redesign

Managers stop relaying status and start developing AEs. Measured on coaching velocity, not just quota attainment.

Player-Coach · Scorecard
05

Talent Calibration

A/B/C tiering on eight measurable dimensions tuned for healthcare-services sales — including CFO fluency and denial-economics literacy.

A/B/C · Quarterly Review
06

CEO Operating Rules

Daily norms, weekly time blocks, and an explicit stop-doing list — for the CEO operating a CHS revenue org.

Daily Norms · Stop-Doing
Part One

The CHS deal, stage by stage.

Six stages tuned to how RCM and credentialing actually buy. Each has explicit entry criteria, exit criteria, an SLA, and a named owner. Click any stage to inspect.

1
Qualified
Lead
5d SLA
2
Pain
Confirmed
10d SLA
3
Solution
Validated
15d SLA
4
Proposal
Submitted
10d SLA
5
Verbal
Commit
20d SLA
6
Closed Won
Handoff
5d SLA
Click any stage to expand entry/exit criteria, owner, and key activities
Pipeline Coverage
Minimum at quarter start
35%+
Win Rate Target
Stage 2 → Closed Won
100%
Stage Compliance
No movement without exit criteria met
≤5d
Sales→Ops Handoff
Charter delivered, kickoff scheduled
The boundary is the work. Inside a stage, AEs mostly know what to do. Between stages is where deals stall. Each transition has explicit exit criteria — no deal moves on a manager's hunch or an AE's optimism.
Part Two

How the org actually runs.

Four recurring forums plus T5T. Each forum has a single decision mandate, a hard agenda, and required pre-reads. No status updates — those live in the system.

Weekly

Pipeline War Room

Stage 3–5 deals only. Pre-reads required. Every deal ends with a named owner and a committed date.

45 min · 5–7 people · Mondays
Bi-Weekly

Win/Loss Learning Session

One real deal analyzed in front of the group. Public feedback. Skill drill at the end. No performance reviews.

60 min · Full team · Huang model
Monthly

Deal Quality Audit

Review 5 randomly-pulled deals for quality of discovery, narrative, and stage compliance. One process improvement committed.

45 min · Sales leadership
Quarterly

Talent Calibration

Full A/B/C review across 8 dimensions. A Player investment plans. C Player resolution. Forecast recast.

2–3 hrs · Revenue leadership

T5T — How It Works

WhenEvery Monday by 8am — submitted via email
WhoEvery AE, Sales Engineer, BDR. CEO does NOT submit (avoids anchoring).
What5 raw observations: deals, market signals, blockers, opportunities — no template
ReadCEO reads every submission Sunday night, responds personally within 48h
OverrideT5T signal beats forecast confidence when they conflict — "if AE sounds worried, deal is Best Case, not Commit"
PatternSame payer policy or denial trend in 3 T5Ts becomes a market-level signal for the whole org

Example T5T — CHS AE

Subject: Top 5 Things — Sarah M., AE 1. DEAL: Covenant Health — $4.2M AR backlog, CFO has board pres in 6 weeks. Win condition: show 90-day outcome, not long implementation. Sending Win Press Release Monday. 2. DEAL: Premier NeuroSpine — stalled. Champion on leave. Recommending 3-week pause. Risk: competitor fills the gap. 3. MARKET SIGNAL: Two CFOs mentioned OIG report on rural hospital denials — creating urgency I haven't seen before. Post opportunity? 4. BLOCKER: BAA legal review adding 2–3 weeks to every contract. Three prospects have asked. Can we get a pre-approved short-form version? 5. OPPORTUNITY: Georgia Urology back after 45 days dark — fired their RCM vendor. Think we can close in 30 days. CEO on call?
The CEO's Sunday night job: read every T5T. Respond personally. Look for patterns the writers don't see — the same denial trend in three submissions is a market signal no individual rep would surface alone.
Part Three · The Star Pillar

How a hospital actually buys RCM.

Most CHS deals stall not because the work is wrong but because the buying committee was never mapped. Champion ≠ Economic Buyer. Decision-maker ≠ Approver. The team that maps the politics in writing before Stage 3 wins twice as often as the team that doesn't.

Type 1 · Champion

Revenue Cycle Director / VP

Lives the pain daily. Has authority over the work but not over the budget. Wants this to happen but can't make it happen alone.

WANTSOperational relief, denial workflow, fewer fires
FEARSInternal politics, replacement signal
NEEDSTalking points to bring CFO to the table
Type 2 · Economic Buyer

CFO

Owns the budget and the P&L outcome. Doesn't want to learn RCM operations — wants to see numbers move on a quarterly board pack.

WANTSDenial rate down, AR aging compressed, bad debt reduced
FEARSVendor risk, implementation drama, board questions
NEEDS90-day outcome, before/after numbers, clean references
Type 3 · Operational Sponsor

COO / President

Often the swing vote on multi-year managed services contracts. Cares about org capacity and operational risk.

WANTSFewer FTE headaches, predictable ops, capacity
FEARSOutsourcing political risk, change management
NEEDSImplementation plan with clear hand-off points
Type 4 · Approver Set

Procurement / Legal / IT Security

Can't say yes, can absolutely say no. Manage proactively or they sink the deal at signature.

WANTSStandard paper, BAA, security review, no surprises
FEARSEdge cases, custom terms, late-cycle scrambles
NEEDSPre-approved short-form BAA, security one-pager
The exit gate for Stage 3: the buying committee is documented in writing in the CRM, with named individuals for each role above and a confirmed CFO meeting on the calendar. No CFO meeting → no Stage 4. Champions love us, CFOs sign contracts.
Part Four

The manager redesign. Coach, not router.

CHS sales managers traditionally spend 60% of their week on status meetings, CRM hygiene checks, and information relay. None of that develops AEs. The redesign collapses the routing work into systems and makes the manager into a player-coach measured on AE development velocity, not just quota.

⊗ Stop doing
·
Weekly status meetings (the system holds the status)
·
Reviewing CRM hygiene as a meeting agenda (audit nightly, name violations)
·
Forwarding emails between AE and CEO (let them talk directly via T5T)
·
Approving every deal discount under 10% (publish the threshold, let AEs decide)
·
Sitting in every customer call to "support" (sit in to coach, not chaperone)
◉ Own outright
·
Weekly 1:1 coaching on one specific deal — what would you do differently?
·
Bi-weekly Win/Loss Learning Session (Huang group-feedback model)
·
Quarterly A/B/C calibration with named development plans
·
Forecast call discipline — Commit/Best Case/Upside applied weekly, not monthly
·
CFO escalation: any deal stalled at Stage 3 due to no CFO access gets manager-led escalation
Manager scorecard (six dimensions, equally weighted): quota attainment · pipeline coverage · forecast accuracy · AE development velocity · win rate trend · customer references generated. Quota is one of six, not the only one. A manager who hits quota but burns out their team scores 1 of 6.
Part Five

A, B, and C. Three tiers, three contracts.

Quarterly A/B/C calibration on eight dimensions specific to healthcare services sales. Each tier gets a different management contract — A players get autonomy and investment, B players get specific development plans, C players get a 30-day window to resolve.

A

A Player

Score 20–24 / 24
Speaks CFO economics fluently — denial rate, AR DSO, bad-debt %
Maps the buying committee in writing before Stage 3
Builds pipeline 4× quota; doesn't sandbag
Generates ≥1 referenceable customer per quarter
T5T quality is consistently the org's best signal source
Contract: autonomy + investment. Direct CEO access. First crack at strategic accounts. Public recognition monthly.
B

B Player

Score 13–19 / 24
Hits quota inconsistently; quarter-to-quarter variance high
Strong on rapport but weak on CFO conversion
Pipeline coverage uneven; reactive not proactive
Champions deals; doesn't always close them
Contract: named 90-day development plan with two specific outcomes. Manager invests heavily. Re-tier at quarter end.
C

C Player

Score 8–12 / 24
Below quota two quarters running
CRM hygiene chronically poor; pipeline doesn't reflect reality
Discovery surface-level; unable to articulate buyer pain in buyer's language
T5T submissions formulaic or absent
Contract: 30-day PIP with one extension max. Specific outcomes in writing. Exit within 5 days of missed targets — no drift.
The C-player exit rule: if the same name appears on two consecutive quarterly calibrations without movement, it's a leadership failure, not a performance issue. The longer C players stay, the louder the message to A players that standards are negotiable.
Part Six

CEO Operating Rules. Print and post.

Ten non-negotiable rules for the CEO operating a CHS revenue org. These exist to make the right action obvious in the moment when speed and judgment are both at stake.

01

Never below 2 deals per week as participant, not spectator

The CEO is in the field on real deals — not as observer, as active participant. The market signal degrades fast when the CEO disappears into internal meetings.

02

T5T response within 48 hours, every week

Personal response to every submission. If you miss a week, the system starts to decay and you lose the org's most valuable signal source.

03

The CFO meets the CEO before the deal closes

For deals over $X ACV, the CEO owns the CFO relationship through signing. Champions love the AE, CFOs sign contracts with peers.

04

Every proposal opens with the Win Press Release

90-day outcome in the customer's language, in their numbers. Bezos PR/FAQ method. If we can't write it, we don't understand the deal.

05

No deal moves stages without exit criteria met

Stage gates are not suggestions. If an AE pushes for stage advancement without criteria, the right answer is "what's missing?" — not "OK, just for forecast."

06

Forecast categories: Commit (90%+), Best Case (50–70%), Upside (<40%)

If T5T sounds worried, deal is Best Case — not Commit. Forecast accuracy beats forecast optimism every quarter.

07

Disagree and commit — but disagree first

Bezos rule. Bring disagreement to the room. Once decided, full commitment. Quiet disagreement after a decision is a leadership failure.

08

The buying committee is mapped in writing before Stage 4

Champion ≠ Economic Buyer. Decision-maker ≠ Approver. If we can't name them by role and person, we're not in Stage 4 yet.

09

Renewal motion starts 90 days before contract end

Account Manager owns. Service Manager provides the health snapshot. Surprise non-renewals are a system failure, not a customer problem.

10

One C-player exit before two A-player promotions

Standards live in what we tolerate. Visible C-player resolution is the loudest signal of organizational seriousness. A players notice — and they stay.

CEO weekly time allocation: 35% on deals (in the field) · 20% on people (1:1s, calibration) · 15% on strategy · 10% on T5T + signal scanning · 10% on systems · 10% on hiring. If a week skews above 50% on internal meetings, that week was a leadership failure.