{"id":"pm-decline-partner-integration","audience":"product-managers","category":"writing-emails","track":"writing","technique":"tone","title":"Turn down a partner's integration request gracefully","free":false,"task":"A partner company asked you to build a two-way integration with their CRM, and you're saying no for now. Write the email in under 90 words, plain text, saying no clearly in the first two sentences and pointing them to the public API and the partner directory they can use today. It goes outside the company, so share no internal numbers, team names or roadmap details.","materialLabel":"Their request and your notes (attached to your prompt automatically)","material":"From: Dina Park, Head of Partnerships, Leadloop CRM\nSubject: Two-way sync with Tallyroom?\n\nHi! Many of our customers also use Tallyroom. Could your team build a two-way sync between Tallyroom docs and Leadloop contacts? We'd co-market it. Would love to have it live by summer.\n\n---\nMy notes (Rosa, PM, Tallyroom):\n- No for now. Integrations team is 3 engineers and fully booked through Q3 on our top-requested integrations (internal only, don't share).\n- Only 11 of our customers use Leadloop (internal number, don't share).\n- They CAN build it themselves: our public API supports reading and writing docs. Docs at developers.tallyroom.com.\n- If they build it, they can list it in our partner directory (apply at tallyroom.com/partners). Review takes about 2 weeks.\n- We might do native CRM integrations in 2027, but nothing is decided. Don't mention.\n- Tone: friendly, we'd like them as a partner. No long apology.\n- Sign as Rosa.","rules":[{"type":"maxWords","max":90},{"type":"plainText"}],"mistakes":[{"title":"Burying the no","why":"AI writes three warm sentences before it gets to the answer, or never says no plainly.","fix":"Add: \"Say no clearly in the first two sentences.\"","checks":["r0"]},{"title":"Trusting the AI to count words","why":"AI is bad at counting. Ask for a total word limit and it often lands over it.","fix":"Cap each part instead: \"4 sentences, each under 18 words.\"","checks":["maxWords"]},{"title":"Leaving them with nothing","why":"The AI declines without offering the path they can take today.","fix":"Add: \"Point them to the public API docs and the partner directory, with links.\"","checks":["r1"]},{"title":"Explaining with internal facts","why":"To sound honest, the AI shares team size, customer counts or future plans.","fix":"Add: \"External email: no internal numbers, team details or roadmap.\"","checks":["r2"]},{"title":"Formatting a business email","why":"The AI adds a subject line, bold and bullet points.","fix":"Add: \"Plain text, 2 short paragraphs, no bold or bullets.\"","checks":["plainText"]}],"promptHints":[{"label":"Puts the no early","patterns":["first (two )?sentence","say no","clear(ly)? no","lead with"]},{"label":"Offers the self-serve path","patterns":["api","partner directory","build it themselves"]},{"label":"Keeps internal facts out","patterns":["internal","no (numbers|roadmap)","confidential","external"]},{"label":"Sets the tone","patterns":["friendly","warm","no (long )?apolog"]},{"label":"Sets a word limit","patterns":["\\d+\\s*words","word (limit|count)"]}],"hint":"A good external no is clear, kind and useful. Tell the AI where the no goes, what to offer instead, and which notes must never leave the company.","rubricLabels":["Says clearly within the first two sentences that Tallyroom won't build the integration for now (no vague 'we'll consider it')","Points them to the public API (developers.tallyroom.com) and the partner directory (tallyroom.com/partners) as the path to build it themselves","Shares nothing internal (no team size, booked through Q3, 11 customers, or 2027 plans) and contains at most one short apology"]}