Quarra Opportunity Vetting Automation

Overview

Quarra is implementing a structured opportunity vetting process inside Salesforce to enforce consistency in how sales opportunities are qualified before progressing through the pipeline. The core mechanism is a qualifier scorecard — adapted from an existing Excel-based assessment — that must be completed before an opportunity can advance past the Spec Validation stage. Completion triggers an approval request to Lauren (Lincoln Durham), who reviews the score and context before the opportunity moves forward.

This design was agreed upon during the ^[1] and is part of a broader ^[2] for Quarra.

Vetting Trigger: Spec Validation Stage

The qualifier is enforced at the Spec Validation stage gate. Specifically:

An opportunity can be created and moved through early stages (e.g., Info Gathering → Spec Validation) without requiring the qualifier.
When a rep attempts to advance an opportunity out of Spec Validation (i.e., to the next stage, currently "Capacity/Schedule Validation"), the qualifier fields must be fully completed.
If the fields are incomplete, the stage progression is blocked.

"I think we should incorporate it into the spec validation stage… that would mean that they cannot move past that stage until they've completed it." — Lincoln Durham

The rationale for this placement: by Spec Validation, enough is known about the opportunity to meaningfully score it, but the team hasn't yet committed significant resources.

Qualifier Structure

The qualifier is sourced from Lauren's Excel-based opportunity assessment tool. It scores opportunities across two primary dimensions:

Ideal Client Criteria — factors related to the client fit
Ideal Project Criteria — factors related to project fit (type, scope, schedule, etc.)

Each section produces a subscore; the automation will sum these into a total score (e.g., 75/100). The original Excel tool included a quadrant matrix visualization, but this will not be replicated in Salesforce — the numeric score is sufficient for the approval workflow.

A known gap identified via ChatGPT review: schedule risk assessment is missing from the current qualifier and needs to be added before the Salesforce build begins. Lauren is refining the qualifier with an external coach and expects an updated version shortly.

"No schedule risk assessment. So I do need to kind of take one more pass on this." — Lincoln Durham

Approval Workflow

Once the qualifier is completed and the rep attempts to advance the stage, an approval request is triggered for Lauren to review:

Rep completes all qualifier fields within the opportunity record.
Rep attempts to move opportunity to the next stage.
Salesforce triggers an approval notification to Lauren.
Lauren reviews the score and opportunity context.
Lauren approves or rejects progression.
- Approved: Opportunity advances to the next stage.
- Rejected / Needs Discussion: Opportunity remains at Spec Validation; rep is notified.

The approval mechanism allows Lauren to exercise judgment on lower-scoring opportunities — a low score doesn't automatically kill an opportunity if there's strategic rationale to proceed.

"I want them to score it, then I want to have the opportunity to review that and say, okay, that score is good… if it's like a lower score, you have the opportunity to say like, okay, I see that, but also I see the potential… I'm going to approve it." — Lincoln Durham

The specific notification mechanism (real-time approval request vs. scheduled report) is TBD — Karly will confirm the cleanest implementation with Dimitri.

Implementation Dependencies

Dependency	Owner	Status
Finalized qualifier (with schedule risk)	Lauren (Lincoln)	In progress — update expected after coach meeting
Updated Sales-to-Manufacturing framework	Lauren	To be emailed to Karly
Salesforce process flow remapping	Karly	In progress — next call deliverable
Stage guidance review & proposed name changes	Lauren	To be emailed to Karly/Mark
Qualifier fields built into Salesforce	Karly / Dimitri	Pending qualifier finalization
Approval workflow configuration	Karly / Dimitri	Pending process map

The existing "Project Assessment and Vetting Score" section in the opportunity record will be replaced by the new qualifier fields. Lauren does not like the current structure.
The qualifier applies to opportunities only, not leads. Leads have their own informal vetting; the formal qualifier is scoped to the opportunity object.
Only admins will be able to change the opportunity owner (a separate permission fix being handled by Dimitri — see ^[3]).
Stage names (particularly "Capacity Validation") are under review and may be renamed before the automation is built.

Next Steps

[ ] Lauren: Send Karly the updated opportunity qualifier (including schedule risk criteria)
[ ] Lauren: Review stage guidance doc and propose any stage name changes
[ ] Karly: Remap Sales-to-Manufacturing framework into Salesforce process flow; incorporate vetting gate at Spec Validation
[ ] Karly / Dimitri: Confirm approval notification mechanism (real-time vs. report-based)
[ ] Karly / Dimitri: Build qualifier fields and stage-gate logic once qualifier is finalized
[ ] All: Review full automation design on next call before build begins

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