Meeting: Quarra / Asymmetric Salesforce working session
Attendees: Lincoln Durham (Quarra), Mark Hope, Karly Oykhman, Avokerie Onorimuo (Asymmetric)
Source: Fathom recording
Working session covering three areas: (1) billing and contract housekeeping, (2) user management blockers, and (3) planning the sales process automation roadmap. Several immediate blockers were resolved live on the call; the automation work was scoped and assigned for the next session.
| Decision | Detail |
|---|---|
| Accept $1,350 contract uplift as value-add | Rather than absorbing a mandatory price increase at renewal (May), reallocate it to 10,000 additional marketing contacts. Current usage is ~80% of capacity, so this provides headroom at no incremental cost. |
| Opportunity vetting enforced at Spec Validation | The opportunity qualifier (scoring ideal client + ideal project criteria) must be completed before an opportunity can advance past the Spec Validation stage. |
| Owner changes restricted to admins only | Dimitri to fix the permission set so only admins can change the opportunity owner field. |
| Defer quadrant visualization | The Excel qualifier's quadrant matrix will not be replicated in Salesforce; a numeric score total is sufficient. |
| Company-wide training in ~1–2 months | Once the flow and integrations are in place, run a combined session: onboarding for Quarra Italia + refresher for the full team. |
The "Closed Won" workflow requires assigning a Project Manager, but Josh Trum and Brian Adams lacked active Salesforce seats, blocking progression.
Resolution (completed on call): Both users were found as deactivated (not absent) and reactivated. Passwords reset and emailed. Remaining available licenses: 4 (a 5th will free up when Asymmetric's temporary contractor Raphael finishes email creation work).
Neither Lincoln (full admin) nor Karly could change the opportunity owner field on existing opportunities.
Resolution (pending): Karly to email Dimitri with a clear request — enable admins to edit the opportunity owner field; no other roles should have this permission.
Immediate need: reassign opportunities currently owned by Jennifer Besson (departed).
Lauren's Excel-based qualifier scores opportunities across two dimensions — Ideal Client and Ideal Project — producing a numeric score. A schedule risk assessment section is being added before the qualifier is finalized (Lincoln meeting with his coach the following Tuesday).
Salesforce implementation plan:
- Build qualifier criteria as fields on the Opportunity object
- Make fields required when the opportunity attempts to advance past Spec Validation
- Trigger an approval request to Lauren to review the score before the stage flip is permitted
- Salesperson fills out the qualifier → score calculated automatically → Lauren approves/rejects progression
"I want them to score it, then I want to have the opportunity to review that and say, okay, that score is good… I don't want them to be able to move forward until we've made that decision." — Lincoln Durham
Lincoln shared a 2022 "sales to manufacturing" flowchart (pre-Salesforce). Karly will remap this into a Salesforce process flow, identifying automation touchpoints and flagging conflicts or gaps. This will be the primary agenda item for the next call.
No email correspondence is currently being logged in Salesforce — users are not manually copying it in. Connecting Outlook will auto-populate activity history on opportunities and contacts.
Benefits cited:
- Eliminates manual data entry, improving adoption
- Makes correspondence visible to PMs when a project is greenlit
- Reduces the burden of keeping opportunity stages current
Karly to send Lincoln information on the Salesforce Inbox / Outlook integration and propose a setup approach.
Lincoln flagged that the current stage names (particularly "Capacity Validation") may not reflect how the team actually works. He will review the stage guidance document Karly sends and propose any name changes or structural updates.