Deal Review Checklist for Managers

Run these 15 questions on every deal in commit or best-case forecast, every week. The rule: an answer without a name, a date, a number, or a direct quote doesn't count. "It's going well" is not an answer to any of these.

1. Who exactly is the economic buyer, and when did you last speak with them directly — not through the champion?
2. What number did the buyer put on the cost of this problem, in their own words?
3. Who is your champion, and what have they personally risked or done to move this forward?
4. What are the buyer's actual decision criteria, ranked in their words — not what you assume matters to them?
5. Walk me through every remaining step to signature, with a name and a date attached to each one.
6. What does legal, security, or procurement require here, and has that process actually started yet?
7. Who else inside this account have you spoken to, besides your champion?
8. What's the single biggest risk to this deal closing on the date in the forecast, and what are you doing about it this week?
9. If this deal died today, what would the buyer tell their boss was the reason?
10. What competing options — including "do nothing" or building it in-house — is the buyer evaluating, and how do you know?
11. What did the buyer say, verbatim, that tells you this is a real priority for them this quarter?
12. What's the mutually agreed close plan, and has the buyer — not just you — confirmed the dates on it?
13. What happens to this deal if your champion leaves or changes role tomorrow?
14. What's changed since the last deal review, specifically? (If nothing has changed, why is it still in this forecast category?)
15. What's the one thing you need from me, right now, to move this forward?

How to run it

• Cadence: weekly, for every deal in Commit or Best Case; every two weeks for active Pipeline.
• The rule that makes this work: if a rep answers with a feeling ("I think it's good," "they seem happy") instead of a name, date, number, or quote — stop and ask the question again. Don't move on until you get a real answer or an honest "I don't know yet."
• Red flag threshold: if a rep can't answer 8 or more of these 15 with specifics, the deal doesn't belong in this week's forecast, regardless of what stage it's sitting in on the CRM.
• Don't interrogate — inspect. The tone is a co-pilot checking instruments, not a prosecutor. The goal is to find the gap early enough to close it, not to catch the rep out.