sales-skills/sales-maximizer

Maximizer Platform Help

Step 1 — Gather context

If references/learnings.md exists, read it first for accumulated platform knowledge.

1. What are you trying to do?

   • A) Build an API integration — read/write AbEntry (companies/contacts/individuals), Opportunities, Leads, Cases, Notes, Activities
   • B) Set up a webhook to push CRM changes into a warehouse / another CRM / Slack
   • C) Fix an auth (401) or token/PAT problem
   • D) Fix a rate-limit (429) or timeout (408) problem
   • E) Work with custom fields (UDFs), favorite lists, or the Read query syntax
   • F) Pick or understand an edition — Base / Sales Leader / Financial Advisor, cloud vs on-premise

2. Cloud (CRM Live) or on-premise? Auth differs: cloud uses a Personal Access Token (PAT) or /Authenticate with VendorId+AppKey; on-premise calls /Authenticate with just Database/UID/Password. Base URL for cloud is https://api.maximizer.com/octopus.

3. Which edition? Base/For Sales, Sales Leader, or Financial Advisor (households, investment/insurance views). Rate limits and some features are edition-gated.

Skip-ahead rule: if the user's prompt already provides enough context, skip to Step 2.

Step 2 — Route or answer directly

| If the question is about... | Route to... | |---|---| | CRM selection/comparison or migration strategy across vendors | /sales-crm-selection {question} | | CRM data cleanup, dedupe, record matching | /sales-data-hygiene {question} | | Contact/company enrichment for CRM records | /sales-enrich {question} | | Outbound sequence / cadence design across platforms (Maximizer has thin native sequencing) | /sales-cadence {question} | | Connecting Maximizer to other tools generically (iPaaS, Zapier, Make) | /sales-integration {question} | | Lead scoring model design | /sales-lead-score {question} |

When routing, give the exact command, e.g. "This is a CRM-comparison question — run: /sales-crm-selection should I move from Maximizer to HubSpot at 30 people".

Step 3 — Maximizer platform reference

Read references/platform-guide.md for the full reference — the module map (what's API- vs webhook- vs UI-only), editions and pricing/rate-limit gates, the AbEntry/Opportunity/Lead data model with JSON shapes, base64 Key encoding, the Read query syntax (Scope/Criteria/GroupBy/OrderBy + Configuration.Drivers), and quick-start recipes (authenticate + read contacts; nightly opportunity export; subscribe to a webhook target).

Read references/maximizer-api-reference.md for the integration surface — the Octopus base URL, the /Authenticate → PAT/OAuth2 flow, the POST-RPC endpoint list (/Read, /Create, /Update, /Delete, /Validate, /BinaryUpload, /WorkflowStart…), the Scope/Criteria operator catalog ($EQ/$LIKE/$RANGE/$OFFSET()…), the Configuration.Drivers searcher names, pagination via OrderBy+Top, the per-edition rate limits, and the Webhooks API (/v1/targets, /v1/subscriptions, payload shape, 2-second/3-attempt delivery rule).

Answer using only the relevant section. Don't dump the full reference.

Step 4 — Actionable guidance

Focus on the user's specific situation:

• Every Read needs the right Configuration.Drivers searcher. A /Read body specifies which entity searcher to use, e.g. "IAbEntrySearcher": "Maximizer.Model.Access.Sql.AbEntrySearcher". Naming the wrong searcher (or omitting it) returns empty/unexpected results, not an error — this is the #1 "my query returns nothing" cause.
• Keys are opaque base64 composites. Record Key values (e.g. Q29tcGFueQk...) encode the entity type and IDs. Never construct or mutate them — read a record first, then pass its Key back on /Update and /Delete. A wrong-type Key fails silently or hits the wrong record.
• Auth differs by deployment. Cloud: mint a PAT in account settings (sent as a Bearer token) or /Authenticate with Database/UID/Password/VendorId/AppKey. On-premise: /Authenticate with just Database/UID/Password. A {"Code":0} from /TokenValid means the token is still good.
• Budget the rate limit by edition. Core allows ~30 calls / 10 s, Business/Financial ~90 / 30 s; exceeding returns 429, and a long-running call can return 408. Pull incrementally (filter on a date UDF/field with $OFFSET()), page with OrderBy+Top, and back off on 429.
• Webhooks are fragile by design. Your target must return 200 OK within 2 seconds; Maximizer retries twice (3 attempts total) then discards the event. There is no documented HMAC signature — verify authenticity another way (allowlist source IPs, a secret path/header). ACK immediately, process async, and run a periodic reconciliation pull to catch dropped events.
• Email logging is click-heavy. Native Outlook/M365 sync is solid, but linking individual sent emails and syncing multiple mailboxes is a known friction point — for high-volume logging, drive it through the API or a BCC-dropbox pattern rather than manual clicks.

If you discover a gotcha, workaround, or tip not covered in references/learnings.md, append it there.

Gotchas

Best-effort from research (2026-06) — review these, especially pricing and edition-gated features, which change.

1. Configuration.Drivers must name the correct searcher (e.g. IAbEntrySearcher, IOpportunitySearcher). Wrong/missing driver → empty result, not an error.
2. Record Keys are base64 composites that encode entity type + IDs. Read first, reuse the Key; never hand-build one.
3. Code: 0 means success. The JSON envelope returns a numeric Code; non-zero is a failure — always check it even on a 200.
4. Webhooks need a 2-second 200 ACK and drop after 3 attempts, with no HMAC signature documented. A slow receiver or brief outage silently loses events.
5. Rate limits are per-edition (Core ~30/min, Business/Financial ~90/min); 429 on exceed, 408 on slow calls.
6. UDFs (custom fields) use Udf/$TYPEID notation in webhook filters and queries — not the display name.
7. Pricing is annual-commitment "rental." Published rates assume annual billing; monthly is ~10–20% higher, and there's no free tier (30-day trial only).
8. Two APIs, two base URLs. Data is https://api.maximizer.com/octopus; webhooks live at https://api.maximizer.com/webhooks. The legacy Ferret API is being superseded by Octopus.

Related skills

• /sales-crm-selection — CRM comparison, selection, and migration strategy across vendors (is Maximizer the right CRM, or time to switch?)
• /sales-data-hygiene — CRM data quality: dedupe, record matching, enrichment automation
• /sales-enrich — Contact/company enrichment for Maximizer records
• /sales-cadence — Outbound sequence/cadence design across platforms (Maximizer has thin native sequencing)
• /sales-integration — Connecting Maximizer to other tools via webhooks/Zapier/Make
• /sales-do — Not sure which skill to use? The router matches any sales objective to the right skill. Install: npx skills add sales-skills/sales --skill sales-do -a claude-code

Examples

Example 1: My Octopus /Read returns an empty list (developer/automation)

User says: "I POST to /Read with a Scope and Criteria for contacts but get back zero rows even though they exist." Skill does: Checks the Configuration.Drivers block — a contact/company read needs "IAbEntrySearcher": "Maximizer.Model.Access.Sql.AbEntrySearcher" (opportunities need IOpportunitySearcher). Confirms the Criteria.SearchQuery uses the operator syntax ({"Type": {"$EQ": "Contact"}}) and that the Bearer PAT is valid via /TokenValid (expect {"Code":0}). Shows the working /Read body from the API reference. Result: The correct searcher returns the expected rows.

Example 2: Nightly export of changed opportunities into a warehouse (developer/automation)

User says: "I want to pull opportunities that changed recently into BigQuery without tripping the rate limit." Skill does: Recommends a /Read against IOpportunitySearcher filtered with a date operator ($OFFSET() / $RANGE) on a last-modified field, paginated with OrderBy + Top, selecting only needed Scope.Fields. Notes Core ~30/min vs Business/Financial ~90/min, to back off on 429, and to persist each record's base64 Key. Points to Recipe 2 in the platform guide. Result: A bounded incremental export that stays under the edition's rate limit.

Example 3: Is Maximizer the right CRM for us?

User says: "We're a 12-advisor wealth firm comparing Maximizer's Financial Advisor edition to Salesforce Financial Services Cloud." Skill does: Recognizes a cross-vendor selection question and routes: "run: /sales-crm-selection 12-advisor wealth firm, Maximizer Financial Advisor vs Salesforce FSC." Briefly notes Maximizer's edge (advisor/household features at ~$79/user/mo vs FSC's ~$325) and weak spots (reporting, email-logging friction) but defers the comparison to the strategy skill. Result: User is handed to the right strategy skill with a ready prompt.

Troubleshooting

/Read returns nothing (no error)

Symptom: A /Read with valid Scope/Criteria returns an empty result and a 200. Cause: The Configuration.Drivers searcher is wrong or missing for the entity, or the Criteria.SearchQuery operator/field name doesn't match (e.g. querying a UDF by display name instead of Udf/$TYPEID). Solution: Set the matching driver (IAbEntrySearcher for AbEntry, IOpportunitySearcher for Opportunity, etc.), verify field names via the object's Metadata read, and use the documented operators ($EQ, $LIKE, $RANGE, $IN…). Check the response Code — 0 is success.

Webhook fired for a while, then stopped

Symptom: A subscription delivered events, then they silently stopped arriving. Cause: The target failed to return 200 OK within 2 seconds; Maximizer retries twice and then discards the event after 3 total attempts. There's no signature to confirm authenticity and no built-in delivery log. Solution: Make the target ACK 200 immediately and process async; confirm the target is still enabled (/v1/targets/{id}/enable) and the subscription's Entity/Op/Filter still match; run a periodic reconciliation /Read on a last-modified field to backfill dropped events.

401 / 408 / 429 on API calls

Symptom: Calls fail with 401 Unauthorized, 408 Request Timeout, or 429 Too Many Requests. Cause: 401 — expired/invalid PAT or wrong auth flow for cloud vs on-premise; 408 — a single call ran too long; 429 — exceeded the per-edition rate window (Core ~30/10s, Business/Financial ~90/30s). Solution: Re-check the token with /TokenValid and re-mint the PAT if needed (cloud uses Bearer PAT or /Authenticate with VendorId/AppKey; on-premise omits those). Split heavy /Reads into smaller pages (Top + OrderBy), select fewer Scope.Fields, and add exponential backoff on 429.