Tessellate HR monthly retainer review, September
Owner: Marco Diaz. Updated Oct 1, 2026.
The month on the record
What the Tessellate managed RevOps retainer produced in September, told from the record: what moved, what Quarry Lane recommended, what Hannah decided and what was applied. Prepared by Marco Diaz, lead consultant, for Hannah Okafor, VP of sales at Tessellate HR. Reviewed by the Quarry Lane managing partner before release on October 1, 2026.
September started from the CRM snapshot and the agreed stage definitions, ran two fortnightly pipeline reviews, and ended with the pipeline Hannah approved on Tuesday, September 29. Every item below links back to a decision or a record, not to a recollection of the month.
How this review is built
Each line in this review comes from the change log, the fortnightly review notes or the forecast note. Where a decision is still open, the item is reported as open with its age and owner. Nothing that has not been decided is reported as delivered.
Pipeline movement
Fourteen opportunities moved between the September 15 and September 29 reviews. Six of them changed stage without a next step date, which reads as a data problem rather than a pipeline problem, and it became a change request in its own right.
| What moved | Count | Reading | Action |
|---|---|---|---|
| Opportunities that changed stage | 14 | Normal movement for the second half of the quarter | Discussed by owner at the Sep 29 review |
| Stage changes without a next step date | 6 | Data gap, not a pipeline signal | Next step date rule proposed for decision by Oct 7 |
| Enterprise deals with close dates in a closed quarter | 2 | Cannot yet tell a slipped deal from a stale record | Kept off the client copy until the owners confirm |
| Deals on the Sep 29 discussion list | 5 | The deals where a decision changes the forecast | Owners named in the review pack |
The review pack reached Hannah one day before each call, with every moved deal and its owner named.
Recommendations and what happened to them
Ten recommendations moved on the record this month: the three raised in September and seven raised earlier that were decided, applied or verified in September. The tables below take them in that order.
Raised in September
| Recommendation | Raised | Decision | Applied | Outcome so far |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Split Qualification into Discovery and Evaluation | September | Production, Sep 28, by Lena Varga | Two board reports remapped; stage ageing check on Oct 30 | |
| Map Discovery and Evaluation to the Pipeline forecast category | September | Production, Sep 29 | Rerun export matched the approved pipeline on Sep 30 | |
| Make sales operations the single owner of inbound routing rules | September | Not applied | No outcome to report until a decision is recorded |
Raised before September, with activity in September
| Recommendation | Decision | Applied | Outcome so far |
|---|---|---|---|
| Closed lost reason picklist | Production, Sep 3 | All 31 deals closed lost since Sep 3 carry a reason; Other used on 4 | |
| Regional leads report folder access | Production, Sep 10 | Access check with three of the 14 regional leads on Oct 3 | |
| Closed won handoff task | Production, Sep 11 | Median handoff delay down from 6 days to one at the Sep 25 check | |
| Lead response time report | Production, Sep 24 | Totals reconcile with the 410 September leads; bucket review Oct 8 | |
| HR system in use account field | Not yet loaded | Dev Malhotra shares the mapping list before the production load | |
| Auto close inactive opportunities | Not applied | Sales leaders are reviewing the 73 inactive deals by hand | |
| Converted lead status update | Not applied | 340 converted leads are still counted as open in lead reports |
The Qualification split carries a condition
Hannah accepted the split for new opportunities only and declined back-filling closed deals. Forty-one open opportunities had sat in Qualification for more than 30 days, and deals with a scheduled evaluation closed at twice the rate of those without one. The October 30 check compares stage ageing for new opportunities only, so the result will be read against the condition that was agreed.
Forecast
The commit number in the September 30 note moved down 8 percent against the August note, and three deals carry the whole variance. The first export used last month's stage definitions, so its variance did not match the approved pipeline. Marco asked for the export to be rerun against the current definitions; the rerun matched on September 30, and the forecast judgment and commentary stayed with Marco.
EMEA onboarding
The Tessellate EMEA sales team is joining the retainer. Seven of the eleven intake items were complete by mid-month; the two that blocked the first EMEA pipeline review were the EMEA forecast owner and read access to the regional pipeline. Hannah named the forecast owner and approved read access for Lena Varga only on September 26.
Applied changes to verify
Five Tessellate HR changes still need their verification: the Qualification split, the lead response time report and the regional leads folder access are applied and wait for their checks, and the HR system in use field and EMEA pipeline read access are accepted and wait to be applied.
Open items by age
These items have no outcome yet. Each one is listed with how long it has waited and who it is waiting on. The retainer's working target is a client decision within 10 days of the evidence being attached.
- Inbound lead routing owner: 12 days, waiting on the Tessellate sales operations lead
- Converted lead status update: 7 days past due, waiting on the sales director
- Two enterprise close dates: 16 days since the Sep 15 review, waiting on the account owners
What the routing decision is holding up
While inbound routing has two owners, routing questions keep landing on two teams and leads are reassigned by hand. This review reports the change as open, with its age and owner, rather than as delivered. Marco will ask the sales operations lead for a decision before the October review.
Priorities for October
I can see what we decided, when, and what changed because of it. The open routing item is on me, and I would rather see it here with its age than find it missing.
Prepared and reviewed by
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