# The single-owner rule

This is the rule the whole handoff system runs on. Read it before you touch a deal record.

## The rule, in one line

Every open deal has exactly one named owner, written down in one place everyone checks. Not a team. Not "whoever picks it up." One name.

## Where the name lives

Pick one field and use it for every deal, every time:

- A CRM owner field, if the deal lives in a CRM.
- A single column on a shared tracker or spreadsheet, if that's what the team actually opens.
- A pinned note in the deal's own thread, if that's the lowest-friction option for a one or two person team.

It does not matter which field. It matters that there is only one, and that it is the field people check before they assume a deal is covered.

## Why a shared owner fails

Two people listed on a deal is not safety, it's the exact setup that loses deals. Each person assumes the other one sent the follow-up. Neither did. The buyer goes quiet, and by the time anyone notices, the trail is cold and nobody can say who dropped it, because on paper both of them had it.

A deal with no name in the field is worse than a deal with the wrong name in the field. A wrong name gets corrected the moment someone looks. No name means nobody even knows to look.

## Why an implied owner fails

"Everyone knows Sam has that one" is not a record, it's a guess that works right up until Sam is out sick, on a plane, or just assumed someone else grabbed it while they were heads-down on something else. The deal needs a name written in the field, not a name people would probably say if you asked them in a hallway.

## Reassignment replaces, it never adds

When a deal moves to a new owner, the new name replaces the old one in the field. It does not sit next to it. A deal that lists two names is a deal with zero real owners, because neither person is on the hook alone.

## The closing-stage note

A deal in a closing or late stage gets treated differently the moment it changes hands: the handoff gets a same-day check-in instead of waiting on the standard acknowledgment window (see references/acknowledgment-checklist.md). Here's why that matters more at this stage than any other: a deal near the finish line looks done. Nobody checks on a deal that looks done. That's exactly the condition where a signature, a final contract redline, or a last buyer question sits untouched for a week because both people assumed someone else was handling it. The deal that looks safest is the one most likely to rot quietly if the handoff slips.

# Handoff note template

Fill every field below from the deal record and the sending owner's own words. If a field can't be sourced from either one, mark it OPEN and ask the sending owner directly. Never write in a guess to fill a blank.

```
DEAL: [deal name / account name]
SENDING OWNER: [name]
RECEIVING OWNER: [name]
DATE OF HANDOFF: [date]
DEAL STAGE AT HANDOFF: [stage]
CLOSING-STAGE FLAG: [yes / no - if yes, see references/dri-rule.md closing-stage note, same-day check-in required]

BUYER CONTEXT:
[Who the buyer is, what they care about, how this deal started. Two or three sentences, not a transcript.]

STAKEHOLDERS INVOLVED:
[Every person on the buyer side with a role in the decision, plus anyone internal who has touched this deal.]

PROMISES ALREADY MADE:
[Anything the sending owner told the buyer that the receiving owner now has to honor. Pricing mentioned, timelines mentioned, features promised, anything said in a call or email that the buyer is holding them to.]

NEXT ACTION:
[The exact next thing that needs to happen. Not "follow up", the actual action: send the redlined contract, call to confirm the start date, answer the open question about seat count.]

DEADLINE FOR NEXT ACTION:
[Date. If there is no hard deadline, write "no hard deadline" rather than leaving it blank, so it's clear that was checked, not missed.]

OPEN FIELDS (anything above that could not be sourced and needs the sending owner's answer):
[List each one by name, or write "none"]
```

## Rules for filling this out

1. Source every field from the deal record or the sending owner's own words. If you're inventing a stakeholder name or a promise you're not sure was made, stop and ask instead.
2. An OPEN field is fine. A guessed field is not. A gap is visible and gets closed with one question. A guess looks complete and gets discovered wrong three weeks later, usually by the buyer.
3. This note goes to the sending owner for approval before it goes anywhere else. Nothing here is final until they've said yes to it.

# Same-day acknowledgment checklist

A handoff is not complete when the sending owner approves the note. It's complete when the receiving person has confirmed they have it, in their own written words, the same day. Run this checklist for every handoff, every time.

## The two facts this checklist tracks separately

- [ ] Fact 1: The handoff note was sent to the receiving person.
- [ ] Fact 2: The receiving person confirmed, in their own written words, that they have the deal and understand the next action.

These are two different facts. "I told them" only proves fact 1. Do not mark the handoff complete until fact 2 is also checked, with its own date and source.

## What counts as a full acknowledgment, and what only counts as provisional

Full acknowledgment, directly from the receiving person, in their own words:

- A reply confirming they have the deal and naming the next action back to you (even one line: "got it, I'll send the contract by Thursday").
- A note in the deal record itself, timestamped, written by the receiving person.

Provisional only, not a full acknowledgment on its own:

- A message the sending owner relays that quotes or summarizes what the receiving person said, with a date. Log this as PROVISIONAL, then follow up and collect the receiving person's own written word before the handoff counts as complete.

What does not count at all: the sending owner assuming it landed because they haven't heard otherwise, or the receiving person being told verbally with no written trace.

## Logging the acknowledgment

When it arrives:

```
DEAL: [deal name]
ACKNOWLEDGMENT DATE: [date]
ACKNOWLEDGMENT STATUS: [full / provisional]
ACKNOWLEDGMENT SOURCE: [direct reply / deal record note / relayed by sending owner - provisional]
CONFIRMED NEXT ACTION (in receiving person's own words, if available): [text]
```

If the status is logged as provisional, treat the handoff as still open and keep the follow-up on the sending owner's list until a full acknowledgment replaces it.

## If a full business day passes with no acknowledgment

- [ ] Tell the sending owner now. Do not wait for the weekly review to surface it.
- [ ] If the deal was flagged closing-stage at handoff, the same-day check-in from references/dri-rule.md still happens today, whether or not the acknowledgment has come in.

## Before marking any handoff complete

- [ ] Fact 1 confirmed: note was sent
- [ ] Fact 2 confirmed: full written acknowledgment received in the receiving person's own words, with its own date and source (a provisional, relayed-only note is not enough on its own)
- [ ] Single-owner field updated to the new owner's name and timestamped
- [ ] Closing-stage check-in run same day, if flagged

# Weekly review: every open deal, no exceptions

Run this on a fixed cadence (once a week if nothing else is set) against every open deal, not just the ones that changed hands this week. A deal that hasn't moved in three weeks is exactly the deal this review exists to catch.

## Per-deal check

For each open deal, answer both questions straight from the record:

- [ ] Is a single named owner present in the owner field? (Not blank, not two names.)
- [ ] What is the date of the most recent written confirmation on this deal (a handoff acknowledgment from references/acknowledgment-checklist.md, or a standing check-in note)?

A deal fails the review if either answer is bad: no named owner, or the last confirmation date is older than the cadence window.

## Review log

```
REVIEW DATE: [date]
CADENCE WINDOW: [e.g. 7 days]

DEAL                | OWNER PRESENT? | LAST CONFIRMATION DATE | PASS/FAIL
--------------------|-----------------|--------------------------|----------
[deal name]         | yes / no        | [date]                   | pass / fail
[deal name]         | yes / no        | [date]                   | pass / fail
```

## For every deal that fails

- [ ] Do not resolve it yourself or guess at an owner. Surface it as one list: deal name, what's missing (no owner / stale confirmation), and who the record last shows touching it.
- [ ] Offer a one-line check-in draft addressed to the teammate the record points to, asking who currently owns the deal. Not addressed to the buyer.
- [ ] Hold every draft for approval. Nothing goes out without an explicit yes in that turn.

## Closing the review

State the count checked and the count that failed, even when the count that failed is zero. A clean week is the system working, not nothing happening, and it's worth seeing that in writing.

```
Deals checked: [n]
Deals failed: [n]
Failed deals (if any): [list]
```

# Worked example: one deal through the full handoff loop

This walks a single deal through steps 5 to 11 of the handoff procedure, start to finish, so you can see what a real filled-in handoff looks like next to an empty template.

## Setup

Mara has been running the deal with Lindqvist Hardware. She's going on leave for two weeks and is handing the deal to Priya.

## Step 5 to 7: the filled handoff note

```
DEAL: Lindqvist Hardware - annual contract
SENDING OWNER: Mara
RECEIVING OWNER: Priya
DATE OF HANDOFF: 2026-10-20
DEAL STAGE AT HANDOFF: Contract sent, awaiting signature
CLOSING-STAGE FLAG: yes - same-day check-in required per references/dri-rule.md

BUYER CONTEXT:
Lindqvist Hardware is a three-location hardware chain renewing and upgrading from last year's smaller plan. The owner, Erik Lindqvist, cares most about not losing data during the switch and wants a start date before their winter inventory count.

STAKEHOLDERS INVOLVED:
Erik Lindqvist (owner, final decision-maker). His operations manager, Dana, handles the actual data migration questions and has been cc'd on the last three emails.

PROMISES ALREADY MADE:
Mara told Erik the migration would be done before the winter count and that there would be no price increase for the first renewal year. Both of those are in writing in the last email thread.

NEXT ACTION:
Follow up on the signed contract. It was sent Friday, no reply yet as of the handoff date.

DEADLINE FOR NEXT ACTION:
2026-10-24 (Erik's winter count starts the following Monday, so the contract needs to be back before then for the migration promise to hold)

OPEN FIELDS:
none
```

## Step 8: approval

Mara reviewed the note above and confirmed it was accurate before anything moved. Nothing went to Priya until she said yes.

## Step 9: owner field updated

The single-owner field on the Lindqvist Hardware deal was changed from "Mara" to "Priya", timestamped 2026-10-20. The deal is now in a transitional state: handed off, not yet acknowledged.

## Step 10 and 11: acknowledgment

Priya replied the same day: "Got it, I see the contract's out and the winter count deadline. I'll chase Erik tomorrow morning and loop in Dana if the migration timeline needs confirming."

That reply is a full written acknowledgment, directly from Priya in her own words, logged as:

```
DEAL: Lindqvist Hardware - annual contract
ACKNOWLEDGMENT DATE: 2026-10-20
ACKNOWLEDGMENT STATUS: full
ACKNOWLEDGMENT SOURCE: direct reply from Priya
CONFIRMED NEXT ACTION (in receiving person's own words): "I'll chase Erik tomorrow morning and loop in Dana if the migration timeline needs confirming."
```

Because this deal was flagged closing-stage, the same-day check-in ran on 2026-10-20 as well, the same day as the handoff, rather than waiting on any standard timeline. Both facts, the acknowledgment and the check-in, landed the same day here, but they don't have to: the rule only requires that neither one is skipped.

The handoff is now complete. The deal carries one name in the owner field, Priya, with a dated, full acknowledgment on file.

Give every open deal exactly one named owner in one visible field, always. When the deal moves to a new person, write a handoff note covering buyer context, promises made, and the next action, then require a separate same-day written acknowledgment from the new owner before the transfer counts as done.

No. "I told them" only proves the note was sent. The handoff only counts as complete once the receiving person confirms, in their own written words, that they have the deal and know the next action. A message relayed secondhand by the sending owner is logged as provisional only, not a full acknowledgment.

Weekly, across every open deal, not only the ones that changed hands that week. The review checks two things per deal: is a single named owner on record, and is there a written confirmation inside the cadence window. Anything failing either check gets surfaced to the owner by name instead of being fixed silently.

A deal near the finish line looks done, so nobody checks on it. That is exactly the condition where a signature, a final redline, or a last buyer question sits untouched for days because both people assume the other has it. Flagging closing-stage deals for an immediate same-day check-in catches a dropped handoff before it can hide.