Team/Manager
Checklist
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Deal Review Checklist for Managers
The 15 questions to ask in every deal review so 'it's going well' is never an acceptable answer again: every question demands a name, a date, a number, or a direct quote.
How to use it
Run all 15 questions on every commit and best-case deal each week, require a name, date, number, or direct quote for every answer, and pull any deal that can't clear at least 8 of the 15 out of this week's forecast.
What's inside
- 15 deal-review questions organized around economic buyer access, champion strength, and decision process
- Each question is designed to force a name, date, number, or verbatim quote as the answer
- A built-in risk question and a 'what would kill this deal' pre-mortem question
- A champion-dependency question for single-threaded deals
- A forward-motion check comparing this review to the last one
- Guidance on cadence and what to do when a rep can't answer more than half the list
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.
- Who exactly is the economic buyer, and when did you last speak with them directly, not through the champion?
- What number did the buyer put on the cost of this problem, in their own words?
- Who is your champion, and what have they personally risked or done to move this forward?
- What are the buyer's actual decision criteria, ranked in their words, not what you assume matters to them?
- Walk me through every remaining step to signature, with a name and a date attached to each one.
- What does legal, security, or procurement require here, and has that process actually started yet?
- Who else inside this account have you spoken to, besides your champion?
- 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?
- If this deal died today, what would the buyer tell their boss was the reason?
- What competing options: including "do nothing" or building it in-house: is the buyer evaluating, and how do you know?
- What did the buyer say, verbatim, that tells you this is a real priority for them this quarter?
- What's the mutually agreed close plan, and has the buyer, not just you, confirmed the dates on it?
- What happens to this deal if your champion leaves or changes role tomorrow?
- What's changed since the last deal review, specifically? (If nothing has changed, why is it still in this forecast category?)
- 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.