Available Context & Tools

@_platform-references/org-variables.md @_platform-references/capabilities.md

Daily Focus Planner

Goal

Create a prioritized daily action plan that tells the rep exactly what to do today and why. This is not a briefing (that is the Daily Brief Planner's job). A briefing answers "What's happening?" A focus plan answers "What should I DO?"

The difference is critical. A briefing is a newspaper; a focus plan is a battle plan. It ranks, selects, and commits the rep to specific actions that maximize pipeline movement given their available time.

The Briefing vs. Focus Plan Distinction

Dimension	Daily Briefing	Daily Focus Plan
Question answered	"What's going on?"	"What should I do?"
Orientation	Informational	Prescriptive
Output	Status summary	Ranked action list + task pack
Decision required	None (read and absorb)	Yes (commit to top actions)
Time to consume	30 seconds (scan)	2 minutes (review and commit)
Updates during day	Can re-run for latest status	Should be set once in the morning

Why Prioritized Planning Beats Reactive Selling

Research consistently shows that disciplined daily planning drives quota attainment:

Reps with a written daily plan close 27% more pipeline than those who "wing it" (CSO Insights)
The top 20% of reps spend 33% less time on low-value activities because they plan before they act (Gartner)
Decision fatigue costs the average rep 2.5 hours per day in context-switching and task-selection overhead (McKinsey)
The Zeigarnik Effect: Unfinished tasks occupy mental bandwidth. A clear plan with defined scope frees cognitive resources for selling.

The focus plan eliminates the "what should I do next?" question. Every minute spent deciding is a minute not spent selling.

Priority Ranking Methodology

The CVHS Score (Close date x Value x Health x Staleness)

Every deal and action is scored using four weighted factors. Consult references/focus-frameworks.md for the CVHS deep dive with worked scoring examples and override rules.

PRIORITY_SCORE = (Close_Urgency x 0.35) + (Value_Weight x 0.25) + (Health_Risk x 0.25) + (Staleness x 0.15)

Close Urgency (35% weight)

The single strongest signal. Deals closing soon need action NOW.

Close Date	Score	Label
Today or overdue	100	CRITICAL
This week	85	Urgent
Next week	60	High
This month	40	Medium
Next month+	15	Low
No close date	30	Medium (penalized for missing data)

Value Weight (25% weight)

Higher-value deals justify more time investment.

Deal Value vs. Average	Score
3x+ average	100
2-3x average	80
1-2x average	50
Below average	25
Unknown value	40

Health Risk (25% weight)

At-risk deals need intervention before they die.

Health Score	Score	Interpretation
0-30	100	Critical -- likely to lose without immediate action
31-50	80	At risk -- needs attention this week
51-70	50	Needs monitoring
71-90	20	Healthy
91-100	5	Strong -- minimal attention needed
No health score	50	Unknown = assume moderate risk

Staleness (15% weight)

Days since last meaningful activity on the deal.

Days Stale	Score
14+ days	100
10-13 days	80
7-9 days	60
4-6 days	30
0-3 days	5

The "One Thing" Principle

After scoring all actions, identify the single highest-impact action. See references/focus-frameworks.md for the "One Thing" selection criteria, scenario-specific patterns, and the Focusing Question framework. This becomes the headline recommendation:

"If you could only do ONE thing today, do this: [action]"

The one thing is the action with the highest CVHS score AND the clearest path to completion today. A high-score action that requires a 3-day process does not qualify as the "one thing."

Selection criteria for the "one thing":

Highest CVHS score among completable-today actions
Has a clear, concrete next step (not "research" or "think about")
Directly moves a deal forward (advances stage, unblocks decision, re-engages champion)
Can be done in under 30 minutes

Capacity-Aware Planning

The number of recommended actions scales to the rep's available bandwidth. See references/capacity-guide.md for the full available hours calculation, overcommitment detection algorithm, and capacity templates by day type.

Capacity Level	Actions	Task Pack	Signal
Busy (back-to-back meetings, travel day)	1-2	1 task	Focus only on the "one thing"
Normal (typical day, some meetings)	3-5	3 tasks	Balanced action set
Available (light meeting day, focused time)	5-8	3-5 tasks	Expand to include nurture and prospecting

Auto-detection heuristics (when user_capacity is not provided):

5+ meetings today = "busy"
10+ open overdue tasks = "busy" (they're already overwhelmed)
2-4 meetings = "normal"
0-1 meetings = "available"

Never exceed 8 actions regardless of capacity. Research on cognitive load shows that action lists beyond 7 items cause decision paralysis and reduce completion rates.

Action Concreteness Standard

Every recommended action MUST meet the SMART-A standard (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound, Assigned):

Bad Actions (too vague)

"Follow up on deal" -- Follow up how? With whom? About what?
"Check in with contact" -- What's the purpose? What outcome do you want?
"Work on pipeline" -- This is a category, not an action.
"Review proposal" -- Review for what? What's the decision point?

Good Actions (concrete and completable)

"Send revised pricing proposal to Sarah Chen at Acme Corp, addressing the 15% discount request from Tuesday's call"
"Call Mike Ross at TechFlow to re-engage -- he hasn't responded in 9 days. Ask about the budget committee meeting."
"Email David Kim the case study he requested (FinServ vertical, 30% efficiency gain) and propose Thursday for a technical demo"
"Update the Acme deal stage from Proposal to Negotiation and log the pricing discussion from today's call"

The Concreteness Test

For each action, ask: "Could a colleague execute this action with zero additional context?" If not, add more specifics.

Required elements for every action:

Verb -- What to do (send, call, email, schedule, update, create)
Target -- Who it's directed at (person name and company)
Content -- What the communication/action contains
Context -- Why now (linked to a deal event, timeline, or risk signal)

ROI Rationale Framework

Every action must include a one-sentence rationale explaining why this action matters more than alternatives:

Rationale Templates by Category

Revenue protection: "This $[X] deal closes [when] and [risk signal] -- acting today prevents [consequence]."

Example: "This $45K deal closes Friday and Sarah hasn't replied since Tuesday -- acting today prevents the deal slipping to next month."

Revenue acceleration: "[Deal] is at [stage] and [positive signal] -- [action] could advance it to [next stage] this week."

Example: "TechFlow is at Demo stage and Mike confirmed budget approval -- sending the proposal today could advance to Negotiation this week."

Relationship recovery: "[Contact] has been dark for [X days] on a [value] deal -- re-engagement now has a [Y%] higher success rate than waiting."

Example: "James Park has been dark for 9 days on a $28K deal -- re-engagement now has a 60% higher success rate than waiting another week."

Pipeline hygiene: "[X deals] are stale/outdated -- cleaning the pipeline improves forecast accuracy and frees mental bandwidth."

Task Pack Design

The task pack converts the top 3 recommended actions into ready-to-create tasks. These are designed to be accepted with one click.

Task Pack Requirements

Each task in the pack must include:

Field	Description	Example
`title`	Action-oriented, starts with verb, under 80 chars	"Send revised pricing to Sarah Chen (Acme)"
`description`	2-3 sentences with context and a mini-checklist	See below
`due_date`	ISO date, prefer "today" or "tomorrow"	"2025-01-15"
`priority`	Derived from CVHS score: >70 = high, 40-70 = medium, <40 = low	"high"
`deal_id`	Linked deal if applicable	"deal_abc123"
`contact_id`	Linked contact if applicable	"contact_xyz789"

Description Template

Context: [Why this task exists -- the deal situation and trigger]
Action: [Exactly what to do]
Checklist:
- [ ] [Step 1]
- [ ] [Step 2]
- [ ] [Step 3 -- log the outcome]

Example Task Pack Entry

{
  "title": "Send revised pricing to Sarah Chen (Acme Corp)",
  "description": "Context: Acme Corp ($45K) is in Proposal stage, closing Friday. Sarah requested a 15% volume discount on Tuesday's call.\nAction: Send the revised pricing sheet with the approved discount tier.\nChecklist:\n- [ ] Pull the approved discount matrix from the pricing doc\n- [ ] Customize the proposal PDF with Acme's volumes\n- [ ] Send via email with a suggested call for Thursday to review\n- [ ] Log the email in CRM and set a 24-hour follow-up reminder",
  "due_date": "2025-01-15",
  "priority": "high",
  "deal_id": "deal_abc123",
  "contact_id": "contact_sarah_chen"
}

Time Estimation Methodology

Each action receives a time estimate to help the rep plan their day:

Action Type	Typical Duration	Notes
Send email (with customization)	10-15 min	Includes writing, reviewing, personalizing
Phone call (with prep)	15-20 min	Includes reviewing notes, making the call, logging
Schedule a meeting	5-10 min	Finding availability, sending invite
Update CRM records	5-10 min	Stage changes, notes, next steps
Prepare proposal/deck	30-60 min	Customization, review, formatting
Research / account review	15-30 min	Reviewing history, news, preparing talking points
Internal sync (manager, SE)	15 min	Quick alignment before external action

Total time budget: Sum all recommended actions. If total exceeds available hours (based on meeting gaps), reduce the action list until it fits. A plan the rep cannot complete is worse than no plan.

Pipeline Velocity Impact

Connect each action to its pipeline impact using this framework:

Action	Pipeline Metric Affected	Expected Impact
Re-engage stale contact	Cycle time (reduces stall)	Prevents 15-30 day deal extension
Send proposal	Conversion rate (stage advancement)	Advances deal to Negotiation
Book next meeting	Velocity (keeps momentum)	Maintains 3-5 day cadence
Handle objection	Win rate	Addresses #1 reason deals stall
Multi-thread (new contact)	Win rate (+15-25% with 3+ contacts)	De-risks single-champion dependency
Update forecast	Pipeline accuracy	Improves commit reliability

Inputs

pipeline_deals: from execute_action("get_pipeline_deals", { filter: "closing_soon", period: "this_week", include_health: true, limit: 10 })
contacts_needing_attention: from execute_action("get_contacts_needing_attention", { days_since_contact: 7, filter: "at_risk", limit: 10 })
open_tasks: from execute_action("list_tasks", { status: "pending", limit: 20 })

Output Contract

Return a SkillResult with:

data.one_thing: object -- The single most important action today
- title: string
- description: string
- entity_type: "deal" | "contact"
- entity_id: string
- rationale: string
- estimated_time: number (minutes)
data.priorities: array of 5-8 priority items
- type: "deal" | "contact" | "task"
- id: string
- name: string
- reason: string (why it needs attention now)
- urgency: "critical" | "high" | "medium"
- context: string (deal stage, days stale, value, etc.)
- cvhs_score: number (0-100, for transparency)
data.actions: array of 3-8 next best actions (adjusted by capacity)
- title: string (verb-first, under 80 characters)
- description: string (concrete, passes the colleague test)
- priority: "urgent" | "high" | "medium" | "low"
- entity_type: "deal" | "contact" | "task"
- entity_id: string | null
- estimated_time: number (minutes)
- roi_rationale: string (why this matters more than alternatives)
- pipeline_impact: string (which metric this action affects)
data.task_pack: array of 3 task previews (top actions, ready to create)
- title: string
- description: string (include context and checklist)
- due_date: string (ISO date, prefer "today" or "tomorrow")
- priority: "high" | "medium" | "low"
- deal_id: string | null
- contact_id: string | null
data.time_budget: object
- total_action_minutes: number
- available_minutes: number (estimated from meeting gaps)
- capacity_assessment: "busy" | "normal" | "available"

Quality Checklist

Before returning the focus plan, verify:

Error Handling

Empty pipeline (no deals)

Shift focus entirely to tasks and prospecting. Actions should center on:

Completing overdue tasks
Prospecting new leads
Nurturing existing contacts
Administrative pipeline hygiene Message: "Your pipeline is empty. Today's focus: building pipeline through prospecting and outreach."

No contacts needing attention

This is a healthy signal. Note it positively: "All contacts are recently engaged -- nice work." Focus actions on deal advancement and tasks instead.

No tasks

Generate actions purely from deal and contact data. Every deal or stale contact implies a natural next action. Include a note: "No pending tasks found. The actions below are generated from your pipeline status."

All deals healthy

When no deals are at risk, shift from defensive to offensive actions:

Advance deals to next stage
Multi-thread into additional contacts
Prepare for upcoming close dates
Prospect for new pipeline Message: "Pipeline looks strong. Focus on acceleration and prospecting today."

Conflicting priorities (too many critical items)

When more than 3 items score as "critical," apply tiebreakers in order:

Highest deal value wins
Nearest close date wins
Longest stale period wins Cap critical items at 3 and downgrade the rest to "high."

Capacity mismatch (too many actions for available time)

If total estimated time exceeds available hours by more than 25%, trim from the bottom of the priority list. Add note: "Your day is packed. I've trimmed to the top [X] actions that fit your available time."

Missing health scores

When health data is unavailable, increase the weight of staleness and close date in the CVHS calculation. Note: "Deal health scores unavailable -- prioritizing by close date and activity recency."

Afternoon/evening request

If the focus plan is requested after 2pm, adjust:

Remove actions that require morning energy (cold calls, major proposals)
Focus on quick wins completable before end of day
Include a "tomorrow's top priority" preview
Reduce action count by 50% (half the day is gone)