DealNorthwind Traders, vendor onboarding
StageQualify
OwnerMarcus Hale
Updated2026-08-14
Nextvendor onboarding deep dive, tomorrow. Prep brief delivered 2026-08-18; the four things it asks for are the open threads below.
Internal. What Northwind sees is the scope draft, poc-scope.md in this directory. Nothing in it is agreed yet.
Company
- Northwind Tradersfood and beverage distribution. About 900 people across three sites, finance team of 22.
- Flux tenant slug
northwind - CRM record namematches the account name. Render it as Northwind.
CRM state
Deal "Northwind Traders — vendor onboarding", stage Qualify, owner Marcus Hale.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
monthly_volume | 1,100 across all approvals. The vendor-onboarding slice is unsized |
current_process | an ERP module they describe as "technically there, nobody uses it" |
integration_target | not yet named |
champion_confidence | medium |
People
| Identity | Who | Class |
|---|---|---|
| lena.fischer@northwind.example | AP manager. Likely champion — brought us in and owns the pain | customer |
| r.castellanos@northwind.example | Procurement lead. Skeptical; owns the ERP module nobody uses | customer |
| VP Finance, unnamed | Economic buyer. Not identified by name yet | customer |
Where the deal stands
| Question | Where it stands |
|---|---|
| Named workflow | Vendor onboarding. New-supplier setup takes "two to three weeks", most of it waiting on someone to review documents |
| Impact quantified | No. "Two to three weeks" is Lena's recollection, and the vendor-onboarding volume has not been counted |
| Champion | Probable, not confirmed. Lena has not been asked whether she will spend political capital |
| Economic buyer | A VP Finance exists. That is the extent of it |
| Budget range | Untouched |
| Product usage | None. Nothing provisioned at Qualify |
Open threads
| Thread | Owner | State |
|---|---|---|
| Cycle time for the last five suppliers, request date to live date | Lena | To ask at the deep dive |
| Vendor-onboarding volume per month | Lena | Unsized |
| The audit finding on supplier documentation | Flux | Mentioned once in passing. Never followed up |
| Scope draft | Marcus | Drafted, not yet walked through with Lena and Roberto |
History
- 2026-08-18Prep brief generated for the vendor-onboarding deep dive.
- 2026-08-14Scope draft written for review with Lena and Roberto.
The read
- Impact is not quantifiedQualify does not exit on a recollection, and two of its four exit criteria turn on numbers nobody has pulled.
- The buyer has no nameWe know a VP Finance exists.
- Roberto owns the unused ERP moduleHe is the person most likely to say "we already bought something for this" — expect the status-quo objection from him rather than from Lena, and see competitor-matrix on conceding the flexibility point early.
- The audit finding is the strongest timing lever we have and we have asked nothing about it. An audit finding is a VP Finance problem, which is also the fastest route to the buyer.