Deal Review Checklist

Purpose: replace "how do you feel about this deal?" with a repeatable set of verifiable questions, so a rep's confidence is evidence-based before it becomes a forecast commitment.

Before you start

• Time-box each deal to 5–8 minutes. If a deal needs 20 minutes, that itself is a red flag — it means the story isn't clean.
• Require the rep to answer from the buyer's mouth ("the VP told me...") not from the rep's inference ("I think they're going to..."). Any answer starting with "I think" or "I assume" is unverified — mark it and move on.
• Review in stage order, oldest deals in a stage first.

Section A — Economic Buyer & Access

1. Who signs the check, by name and title — and has the rep personally spoken with them, or only with an internal advocate?
2. When was the rep last in a room (or on a call) with that economic buyer, unaccompanied by the champion?
3. Can the rep state, in the buyer's own words, what business outcome the economic buyer is being measured on this quarter?

Section B — Compelling Event

1. What specific event, deadline, or cost is forcing this decision to happen this quarter and not next quarter?
2. What happens to the buyer, specifically, if they do nothing? (If the honest answer is "not much," downgrade the deal.)
3. Did the buyer state the timeline, or did the rep propose it?

Section C — Champion Strength

1. Has the champion ever advocated for this deal to someone above them, unprompted, with no rep on the call?
2. Does the champion have enough political capital to win an internal argument if a rival priority competes for the same budget?
3. What does the champion personally get if this deal closes — and what do they personally risk if it doesn't?

Section D — Decision Process & Paper

1. Name every person who has to sign off, in order, and what each one cares about.
2. Has legal/procurement/security seen anything yet — redlines, DPA, security questionnaire? If not, why not, given the stated close date?
3. Is there a documented mutual action plan with dates the buyer agreed to, or only dates the rep proposed?

Section E — Competition & Differentiation

1. Who else is the buyer evaluating, including "do nothing" and "build it ourselves"?
2. What does the buyer say is the #1 reason they'd pick us — in their words, not the rep's talk track?
3. What does the buyer say is the #1 reason they'd pick someone else, or stall?

Section F — Budget

1. Is the budget already allocated to a line item, or does it need to be created/reallocated?
2. Has the rep seen or heard a number from the buyer, or is the deal value the rep's own estimate?

Section G — Next Step Verification

1. What is the next calendar-confirmed meeting, with whom, and what is its agenda?
2. If there is no meeting on the calendar past today, this deal cannot be Commit or Best Case — no exceptions.

Manager's Gut-Check (ask yourself, not the rep)

1. If I removed this rep's optimism entirely and only looked at the dated, buyer-sourced facts above, would I still call this deal happening this quarter?

Forecast Category Rule

Apply after every deal review — do not let the rep self-assign:

• Commit: Sections A, B, C, D, G all have verified (buyer-sourced) answers, no unresolved "I think."
• Best Case: A and G verified; one of B/C/D still unverified but a next step exists to verify it before close.
• Pipeline: Two or more sections unverified, or no confirmed next meeting.
• Omit / Push: No economic buyer access and no compelling event — this is not a real deal this quarter regardless of stage in the CRM.

Red-flag phrases to listen for during the review

"They're really excited." · "I'm just waiting to hear back." · "I think it's basically done." · "They said budget isn't an issue." · "I haven't looped in [economic buyer] yet, but the champion says it's fine." Each of these, unaccompanied by a dated next step, should trigger a downgrade, not a nod.