Pipeline Partner-Influence Scout

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name: vendor-pipeline-partner-influence-scout
description: Use when a Channel Chief, RevOps, PDM, or AE wants to scan the vendor's CRM (or Excel pipeline) to identify open deals or direct-sales accounts that would benefit most from partner influence, including direct-deal rescue scenarios where Crossbeam shows a partner already has the customer relationship, then handle the registration / co-sell flagging and post a context-rich comment on the deal. Trigger phrases include "which deals need a partner", "find partner-influence opportunities", "who should we bring into deal X", "scout partner co-sell", "match partners to pipeline", "Excel pipeline + partner match", "Crossbeam direct-deal rescue", "partner has the customer at this account", "use Crossbeam overlap to rescue deals", "find partners that already serve customers in our pipeline".
---

# Pipeline Partner-Influence Scout (Vendor)

**Audience**: Vendor, **claude.ai Introw** MCP + **optional claude.ai Crossbeam** MCP (+ optional Read for Excel exports if pipeline lives in spreadsheets, optional Salesforce/HubSpot MCPs).
**Use case**: 08, Deal Registration (proactive vendor-driven side; complementary to `partner-register-deal` and `vendor-email-deal-registration-watcher`).

## When to use this skill

Use when a Channel Chief, RevOps, PDM, or AE wants to scan the vendor's CRM (or Excel pipeline) to identify open deals or direct-sales accounts that would benefit most from partner influence, including direct-deal rescue scenarios where Crossbeam shows a partner already has the customer relationship, then handle the registration / co-sell flagging and post a context-rich comment on the deal.

**Sample prompts that fire this skill:**
- "which deals need a partner"
- "find partner-influence opportunities"
- "who should we bring into deal X"
- "scout partner co-sell"
- "match partners to pipeline"
- "Excel pipeline + partner match"
- "Crossbeam direct-deal rescue"
- "partner has the customer at this account"
- "use Crossbeam overlap to rescue deals"
- "find partners that already serve customers in our pipeline"

## Why this matters
Most channel programs are reactive on registration, they wait for partners to submit. But ~35% partner-led revenue uplift (Computer Market Research) compounds further when the vendor proactively *places* partners on deals where partner influence improves the outcome: complex implementations, vertical-specific motions, geographic proximity, services attach, existing-customer relationships. This skill scans the pipeline, identifies high-leverage partner-influence opportunities, and handles the registration mechanics, including a context-rich comment that explains *why this partner on this deal*.

**The direct-deal rescue scenario** is the highest-ROI version of this workflow and the primary reason channel teams care about Ecosystem-Led Growth: when a deal is sitting in *direct sales* and Crossbeam shows that one of the vendor's partners already has an active customer relationship at the prospect, registering with that partner converts a cold direct pursuit into a warm-introduction-led motion, typically compressing sales cycle and lifting close rate. Without Crossbeam, this signal is invisible; with it, it becomes the dominant scoring factor for partner placement on direct-sales pipeline.

The complementary partner-side skill is `partner-pipeline-influence-companion`, which lets a partner see the same view from their side. The proactive (target-list-first) variant, given an external account list rather than open pipeline, is `vendor-crossbeam-cosell-finder`.

## Inputs to gather first
- **Pipeline source**: Introw / connected CRM (`search_crm_objects`), or an Excel/CSV the user provides (then Read it).
- **Filter scope**: open deals only? specific stage range? specific products? specific regions?
- **Partner-influence definition for this vendor**: services-led? vertical-led? geography-led? existing-customer-led? Confirm if not on file.
- **Action mode**: surface only, or auto-register / flag co-sell where match is clean?

## Process

### Step 1: Pull the pipeline
- Primary: `Introw:search_crm_objects` for open deals (filter to stages where partner influence has leverage, usually mid-funnel onward, post-discovery).
- If user provides Excel/CSV: Read the file and treat each row as a deal record; map columns to the standard schema (account, value, stage, close-date, product, owner, region, vertical).

### Step 2: Score each deal for partner-influence leverage
Score per deal across multiple dimensions:
- **Vertical specialization**: is this a healthcare deal where a healthcare-specialist partner would close better?
- **Geographic proximity**: is the customer in a region where a local partner has presence?
- **Services / implementation complexity**: is this a deal where SI delivery would derisk close?
- **Existing-customer relationship**: does any partner already serve this customer in another product line?
- **Stalled / needs-momentum**: has the deal been in-stage > X days without a partner?
- **Tech-stack match**: does the deal involve integrations a specific partner already builds for?
- **Margin / packaging**: would partner-led pricing/packaging unlock the deal?

Output a priority score per deal: how much would partner influence improve the close probability, expected value, or close velocity?

### Step 3: Match each high-leverage deal to a specific partner
For each prioritized deal, evaluate signals in this priority order:

1. **Existing customer relationship at the prospect** (Crossbeam, when MCP connected): **the strongest possible signal.** A partner with an active customer relationship at the prospect's account beats every other signal: warmer than vertical fit, warmer than prior similar wins, dramatically warmer than territory match. Use `Crossbeam:*` to find overlaps; weight overlap *type* (active customer > active opportunity > champion > lapsed prospect) and *recency* (last 90 days > older). Without Crossbeam, this signal isn't directly observable, fall back to the other signals below.
2. `Introw:search_crm_objects`: partners with **prior wins on similar customers** (vertical, deal size, products): strongest CRM-only signal.
3. `Introw:search_partners`: filter by region, vertical, partner type, certifications relevant to the deal.
4. `Introw:search_partner_engagement`: partners actively engaged this quarter (avoid putting deals on dormant partners).
5. `Introw:get_tier_information`: tier requirements affecting eligibility.
6. `Introw:get_goals`: partners pacing on goals where this deal would help.

For each candidate match, articulate the **why** in one sentence:
- "Partner X, Crossbeam shows active customer relationship at Globex (3-year, expansion-eligible); located in same region; certified on the relevant product. Direct-deal rescue candidate."
- "Partner Y, has 3 recent closed-won deals in healthcare AI at similar deal sizes; located in same region as customer; certified on the relevant product."
- "Partner Z, already serves this customer in a different product line; cross-sell motion is the natural play."

### Step 4: Conflict check
Before flagging or registering:
- Cross-check existing registrations on the account (`Introw:search_form_submissions`).
- Cross-check direct sales claim (account in named-account list?).
- Cross-check other partners with open registrations.
- If conflict, surface, don't auto-resolve. Hand off to `vendor-detect-channel-conflict`.

### Step 5: Handle the registration / co-sell flag
For clean matches with no conflict:
- Auto-register the partner (or surface for human approval based on confirmed mode):
  - `Introw:share_lead_or_register_deal` with the partner's ID and the deal context.
- Post a context-rich comment on the deal:
  - `Introw:add_comment` on the CRM object with the **why this partner**, the prior-win evidence, the suggested co-sell motion, and the recommended next step (intro call, joint pitch, technical deep-dive).
- Notify both the AE and the partner:
  - `Introw:add_task` for the AE to make the intro.
  - `Introw:add_task` or comment for the partner to confirm engagement.

For conflicted or judgment-call matches:
- Surface to a human reviewer with full context.

### Step 6: Track the placement
- `Introw:search_partner_engagement` and `search_crm_objects` over the next 14/30/60 days to measure whether the placement actually moved the deal.
- Capture outcome via `add_comment` so the next pipeline-scout cycle has training data.

## Output format
- **Pipeline scan summary**: deals scored, distribution by leverage tier.
- **High-leverage match table**: deal, value, stage, recommended partner, why, conflict status, action taken.
- **Confirmed actions**: registrations created, comments posted, tasks assigned.
- **Surfaced for review**: conflict, ambiguous match, or judgment-call cases with full context.
- **Tracking checkpoints**: when to measure placement effectiveness.

## Guardrails & PRM best practice
- **Why beats who.** Every match needs a one-sentence "why this partner" that traces to evidence (prior wins, vertical match, customer relationship). If you can't articulate the why, the match is wrong.
- **Channel conflict before action.** Always run the conflict check before flagging, proactive partner placement that creates conflict is worse than no placement at all.
- **Don't displace working AEs.** When a deal is healthy and progressing, a partner overlay can disrupt, match leverage to deal-state, don't impose partners on deals that don't need them.
- **Tier-aware placement.** Strategic deals to top-tier partners; transactional deals to volume-oriented partners. Mismatching destroys margin and partner energy.
- **No auto-action without confirmation on first run.** First-time use of this skill: surface, don't act. Once the user has validated the matching logic against their judgment, auto-action mode can be enabled.
- **Capture the rationale on the deal record.** The AE who picks up the deal next week needs to see why a partner was placed, don't make them archaeology the comment thread.
- **Goal-relevance.** When two partners are equally well-matched, prefer the one whose `get_goals` shows they're pacing toward a target this deal would help, placement is also an activation lever.
- **Don't poach.** If another partner already has a registration on the account, don't override, that's the conflict path, not the placement path.
- **Excel mode is provisional.** Excel pipelines lack the live attribution Introw has; Excel-based matches surface for human review by default rather than auto-action.
- **Crossbeam data has lag.** Overlap data refreshes typically run nightly or weekly; flag Crossbeam-driven matches where overlap data is > 30 days old and confirm currency before recommending placement.
- **Crossbeam respects data-sharing scope.** Only surface overlaps within authorized population groups / partner-data-sharing agreements. Never surface a partner customer's name outside the vendor-internal scope.
- **Cross-skill handoff.**
  - **Proactive variant** (given an external target account list rather than open pipeline) → `vendor-crossbeam-cosell-finder` (UC02). This skill is the *reactive* version (scan pipeline → match partner); cosell-finder is the *proactive* version (given a list → find partners).
  - Channel conflict detected → `vendor-detect-channel-conflict`.
  - Clean placements that need coaching → `vendor-deal-coach-from-similar-wins`.
  - Dormant partner who'd be a great match but is silent → activation lever via `vendor-activate-network-with-personalized-campaigns` before placing the deal.