AWS referrals

A second way in

Most opportunities start as a deal in your CRM. Some start with AWS: an AWS seller finds a customer who needs what you offer and refers the opportunity to you through ACE. AWS calls this an opportunity invitation.

Skematic treats a referral as the start of the same pipeline:

Invited by AWS

When AWS sends a referral, Skematic shows it in your Opportunities list as Invited by AWS as soon as it next reads ACE (usually within a minute), with how many days you have left to answer, until the referral expires (AWS usually allows 15 days).

Each referral includes what AWS shared: the customer, the project and its business problem, the expected AWS spend, AWS's message and contacts, and what AWS expects of you.

Accepting

When you accept a referral:

1. AWS creates the opportunity in your ACE catalog. Skematic links it to the same opportunity you were looking at. If AWS takes longer than usual, Skematic tells you it's still being accepted; ask again shortly and it picks up where AWS is.
2. Skematic creates the deal in HubSpot. It's named after the project, at the first stage of your default pipeline, with AWS's target date and the business problem as its description. It's linked to the customer's company: Skematic finds it by its website domain, or creates it.
3. ACE's status appears on the new deal, as on any other (see ACE status in your CRM).

From then on it's an opportunity like any other, kept in sync both ways.

Note: To create the customer's company in HubSpot, Skematic needs permission to create companies. If your HubSpot connection was made before Skematic asked for it, the deal is created without a company and Skematic tells you; reconnect HubSpot to allow it.

Accepted in Partner Central

If you accept a referral in Partner Central instead, you don't need to do anything in Skematic. The next time Skematic reads ACE (usually within a minute), it:

1. Links the ACE opportunity AWS created to the referral's opportunity.
2. Creates the deal in HubSpot, exactly as accepting in Skematic does: same name, stage, close date, description and company, with ACE's status on it.

Each referral gets one deal. Before it creates one, Skematic checks whether you already have one:

• The deal ACE names. If you typed a HubSpot deal's ID into the opportunity in Partner Central, Skematic links that deal.
• A deal that already has the ACE opportunity ID in Skematic's "ACE opportunity ID" property. Skematic links that deal.

Skematic doesn't ask for approval first: you already accepted the referral in Partner Central, and the deal is what accepting does. Every deal Skematic creates or links appears in the opportunity's Activity, and in Settings → Organization → Audit log: made by Skematic, or by you if you started the sync.

• HubSpot not connected yet? Nothing is created. The first time Skematic reads ACE after you connect HubSpot, it creates the deal.
• HubSpot unavailable? Skematic tries again the next time it reads ACE. This also applies when you accepted in Skematic and HubSpot failed then.
• Declined or expired referrals never get a deal, and neither do referrals already closed in ACE (Closed Lost or Launched).
• Many at once? Skematic creates up to 10 deals each time it reads ACE, newest first; the rest follow over the next few minutes.
• No website on the referral? Skematic looks for the customer's company by its name before creating one.

Declining

You can decline a referral with one of AWS's reasons:

• Customer problem unclear
• Next steps unclear
• Unable to support
• Duplicate of partner referral
• Other

AWS is told, and the referral is closed. The opportunity stays in Skematic with its history.

Good to know

• Answering is a person's decision. Accepting or declining can't be undone, so Skematic shows a preview first. Only people who can make changes in your organization can answer.
• Answer anywhere. In Skematic, through an AI assistant connected to Skematic, or in Partner Central itself. See Accepted in Partner Central.
• Expired referrals can no longer be answered; they're closed in Skematic.
• Lead referrals (AWS sharing a lead rather than an opportunity) aren't handled yet.