Plain-language query tool for sponsorship pipeline data
Problem
When the commercial director wants to know how much category-exclusive inventory sits unsold, or which proposals have stalled past the first meeting, the answer does not exist anywhere as a single number. It has to be pulled from a CRM export, the inventory spreadsheet, and whatever pricing sits in old proposal documents, then assembled by hand into a new tab in someone's working file. That person is usually a partnerships manager mid way through their own pipeline work, and the answer arrives after the meeting it was needed for. Ask the same question a month later and a different person builds a different spreadsheet, with a different total, because nobody agreed what counts as stalled or which inventory sheet is current.
Product idea
A query screen where commercial staff type a question in plain English, such as which asset categories have unsold inventory over ninety days, or what the average discount by account manager is this quarter, and get back a table or simple chart. Behind it sits one data model built from the CRM pipeline export and the inventory spreadsheet, so stalled and unsold are defined once and applied consistently. Answers can be saved and rerun rather than rebuilt from scratch. It does not forecast revenue, score deal likelihood, or generate commentary: it answers the question asked, from the data it has, and says so plainly when a question falls outside what the uploaded data can support.
Who it is for
Commercial directors asking the questions, and the partnerships managers and account managers who currently build the answers by hand, sponsored by the commercial director.
Possible first version
A web tool that ingests a CRM pipeline export and the inventory spreadsheet as CSV uploads, builds a single data model from them, and answers around fifteen common questions through free-text search matched to query templates, returned as a table or bar chart. Saved queries and CSV export of results are included. Out of scope for version one: live CRM integration, contract document parsing, and any predictive or forecasting output, left for later once the query set proves useful.
- Build classification
- Workflow application
- Rough effort
- 4-6 week first release
- Roles involved
- Commercial director, Partnerships manager, Account manager
- Relevant to
- Professional club, League office, Women's league, Venue & stadium operator
- Systems in play
- CRM and pipeline tools, Inventory spreadsheets
- Product framing
- Analyse data
Questions we get asked
What do we need to hand over before this does anything useful?
A CRM pipeline export and the current inventory spreadsheet, both as CSV files. The tool has no live connection to either system at the start, so what it can answer is bounded by what is in those files on the day they were uploaded. A messy export produces messy answers, so it is worth a look at what your CRM actually exports before committing to this.
We already have reporting inside our CRM. Does this replace it?
No. CRM reporting is usually built around the CRM's own pipeline stages and rarely reaches the inventory spreadsheet sitting outside it, which is where questions about unsold or double booked assets actually live. This sits alongside your CRM reporting and answers the cross-source questions the CRM was never set up to handle, rather than replacing the reports you already trust it for.
How do we know the answer it gives is actually right and not a guess?
It only answers from the data it was given, matched to a known query template. If a question does not match a template, or the data needed is not in the uploaded files, it says so instead of approximating an answer. Every result also shows which rows it drew from, so someone can check the figure against the source spreadsheet before it goes into a board pack.
Once this exists, who is responsible for keeping it accurate?
Whoever owns the CRM export and the inventory spreadsheet needs to re-upload them regularly, because the tool is only as current as the last upload. If nobody re-uploads after a busy sales week, the answers go stale quietly, with no warning that the data behind them is out of date. That upload habit is the ongoing cost, and it is small but real.
Is this your workflow?
Tell us one sports workflow that still runs on paper, spreadsheets, WhatsApp or an outdated system. We will map it and show you what a simpler product looks like.
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