commercial-skills

Direct vs partner-led channel economics — fully-loaded cost-to-serve, channel ROI, optimal channel mix. NOT partnership structure (sibling partnerships-architect). Direct invocation of the channel-economics skill.

Forward bookings / billings / ARR forecast with funnel + cohort math + conversion-assumption disclosure. NOT financial close (finance). Direct invocation of the commercial-forecaster skill.

Discount matrix designer + T&C library + exception policy. New ground — designs the policy that deal-desk applies per deal. Direct invocation of the commercial-policy skill.

Top-level Commercial router. Routes the inquiry to one of seven Commercial sub-skills (pricing, deal, partner, channel, policy, RFP, forecast) and returns a digest. Invokes the commercial-skills orchestrator (context: fork).

Per-deal review. Score margin + risk, route discount approval to the right human, redline T&Cs against commercial policy. Never auto-approves. Direct invocation of the deal-desk skill.

Margin-protective Commercial lead. Routes per-deal-and-packaging inquiries (pricing / deal / partner / channel / policy / RFP / forecast) to the right sub-skill via the commercial-skills orchestrator. Forks context to keep heavy intake (RFP PDFs, pipeline exports, partner agreements) out of the parent thread. Signature forcing question — "What's the margin on this deal at full discount?"

Use when reviewing, approving, or designing commercial motion — pricing models, deal review, discount approval, partnership economics, channel mix, commercial policy, RFP/RFI response, bookings forecast. Triggers on "review this deal", "should we discount", "pricing model", "partner economics", "RFP response", "bookings forecast", "channel mix". Forks context to route to one of seven Commercial sub-skills (pricing-strategist, deal-desk, partnerships-architect, channel-economics, commercial-policy, rfp-responder, commercial-forecaster) and returns a digest. Distinct from business-growth (sales execution) and c-level-advisor/cro-advisor (strategic CRO judgment).

Use when reviewing or rebalancing direct vs. partner-led channel economics — computing fully-loaded cost-to-serve per channel, channel ROI with cash / LTV / marginal lenses, and optimal channel mix subject to constraints. For Head of Commercial, RevOps, and VP Sales doing quarterly channel review when pipeline is mixed (e.g., 60% direct + 40% partner-led) and nobody actually knows which channel makes money after CAC, support load, partner discount, deal-velocity differences, retention differential, and overhead allocation are all loaded in. Outputs cost to serve, channel ROI verdicts (DOUBLE-DOWN / MAINTAIN / DEFUND / EXIT), a sensitivity-tested channel-mix recommendation, and the diminishing-returns inflection. Not channel structure (that's partnerships-architect — tiers, joint GTM, revshare). Not RevOps process (that's business-growth/revenue-operations — lead routing, SDR motion). Not strategic CRO judgment (that's c-level-advisor/cro-advisor — comp plans, when-to-hire-a-VP-Sales). Not historical close-and-report (that's finance/financial-analysis). This skill answers: direct vs partner profitability, channel profitability, channel mix, channel economics.

Use when building a quarterly bookings forecast, ARR projection, pipeline forecast, NRR projection, or commit/best-case/pipe-only board number — especially when the CRO needs to walk the board through funnel math + cohort ARR + per-stage conversion assumptions without the theatre of a single undefended number. Decomposes pipeline into commit, best-case, and pipe-only tiers; projects cohort-level NRR/GRR to surface leaky cohorts before they show up in the consolidated number; scores per-stage funnel confidence so soft-floor stages get treated differently from high-confidence ones. Every output explicitly names the conversion rate used, the data window, and the weighting choice. For Head of Commercial, RevOps, VP Sales, and CRO at quarterly forecast or board prep. NOT financial close (see finance/financial-analysis). NOT strategic CRO hiring/territory (see c-level-advisor/cro-advisor). NOT pricing (see sibling pricing-strategist).

Use when designing or revising a company's commercial policy — the rules of engagement governing discounts off list price, approver thresholds, exception flows, and the deal framework that Deal Desk and AEs operate under. Covers discount matrix design (ARR band x term length x payment terms x strategic value), commercial policy design, exception policy, discount governance, approval thresholds, deal framework structure, and policy linting (contradictions, gaps, cliff edges, gaming surfaces). For Head of Commercial, Head of Deal Desk, VP Sales, or RevOps at the policy-design moment — NOT per-deal application (that is deal-desk) and NOT pricing model selection (that is pricing-strategist).

Use when reviewing a specific inbound deal before close — when sales has asked for a discount that exceeds AE authority, when the customer has redlined the MSA, when per-deal economics (margin after discount, multi-year payment shape, indemnity exposure) need to be quantified, or when discount approval needs to be routed to a named human approver (Sales Director, VP Sales, CFO, CRO, General Counsel). Covers deal review, discount approval routing, per-deal margin scoring, deal exception handling, MSA redline triage, contract landmine detection (uncapped indemnity, MFN, perpetual license-back, missing DPA), and named-approver chain assembly. NEVER auto-approves — every output is a numeric scorecard plus a routing recommendation to a named human.