deal-desk

What this skill does

# Deal Desk

End-to-end deal-desk operational practice: charter, approval thresholds, deal-review packet design, routing automation, velocity analysis, and the governance that turns "every deal is a snowflake" into "we close non-standard deals in 48 hours predictably."

This skill is provider-agnostic: works whether your CRM is Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, or homegrown. The patterns and decisions transfer.

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## When to use this skill

| Situation | Skill applies |
|-----------|---------------|
| Starting a deal-desk function from scratch | Yes — start with **charter design** |
| Reviewing existing deal-desk for slowness / inconsistency | Yes — use `scripts/deal_velocity_analyzer.py` + **bottleneck patterns** |
| Defining who can approve what discount / term | Yes — use **approval threshold matrix** + `scripts/discount_authority_router.py` |
| Building the deal-review packet template | Yes — see **deal-review packet** section + `scripts/deal_review_packet.py` |
| Approving / declining a specific deal | Use the packet generator + approval router |
| Setting pricing strategy | Use `business-growth/pricing-strategy` first |
| Forecasting / measuring pipeline | Use `business-growth/revenue-operations` |
| Negotiating an individual contract | Pair with `business-growth/contract-and-proposal-writer` |

---

## What deal desk does (and doesn't)

**Does:**
- Review non-standard deals: discounts beyond rep authority, custom legal terms, custom SLAs, multi-product bundles, payment terms outside policy
- Make the approval decision (or route to the right approver)
- Structure the deal: pricing, terms, ramp schedule, success criteria
- Maintain the deal-desk **policy** — what's standard, what needs approval
- Track deal velocity (time from request → decision → signature)
- Produce evidence for finance / audit (every concession traceable)

**Doesn't:**
- Set the published pricing (that's pricing strategy)
- Negotiate with the customer (that's the sales rep / AE)
- Close the sale (that's the rep + customer success)
- Run the order-to-cash workflow (that's billing / RevOps)
- Replace legal review (legal is one of the approvers, not the function itself)

A clean deal-desk = the lubricant. Without it, every non-standard deal turns into a multi-week negotiation among engineering / product / legal / finance / executive. With it, those people are consulted by deal desk as needed and the rep gets a yes/no in days.

---

## Deal-desk charter (template)

Every deal desk needs a written charter. Use this template:

```yaml
purpose:
  Deal Desk reviews, approves, and structures non-standard deals to enable
  sales to close faster while keeping commercial / legal / financial risk
  within company tolerance.

scope:
  In-scope:
    - All deals > $X ARR
    - All deals with discount > Y%
    - All deals with non-standard terms (custom SLAs, custom legal language,
      payment terms beyond Net 30, ramp deals, multi-year discounts > 12 months
      of standard, bundles spanning multiple product lines)
    - All renewals with > 20% expansion or > 10% contraction
    - All deals to enterprise (>1000 employees) or regulated industries
  Out-of-scope:
    - Self-serve / PLG transactions
    - Standard renewals within auto-renewal terms
    - Trial extensions < 30 days
    - Add-ons < $X per existing customer

sla:
  - Standard deal-desk review (no exec approval needed): 1 business day
  - Deal needing CFO/CRO approval: 2 business days
  - Deal needing CEO/Board approval: 5 business days
  - Legal-only review (no commercial concession): 2 business days

intake_format:
  Sales submits via [Salesforce form / CPQ tool / Slack form]. Required fields:
    - Customer name + size + industry
    - Product(s) + ACV
    - Requested deviation from standard (specific list)
    - Justification (competitor situation, customer constraint, strategic value)
    - Standard-pricing total + requested total
    - Contract length + payment terms
    - Implementation / SLA requirements

decision_inputs:
  - Customer LTV estimate
  - Strategic value (logo, reference, vertical foothold)
  - Risk (credit, compliance, integration)
  - Margin impact

outputs:
  - Approve / decline / counter
  - If approve: signed approval packet with terms, conditions, expiration date
  - If counter: list of negotiable items + non-negotiables
  - If decline: reasoning + alternatives

team:
  Deal-desk lead: <name>
  Deal-desk analysts: <names>
  Standing approvers: CRO, CFO, General Counsel, VP Product (escalation paths)
  Consulted as-needed: Engineering Lead, Security Lead, Customer Success Lead

metrics:
  - Median time-to-decision (target: 1 business day)
  - Decision distribution (% approved, % declined, % countered)
  - Discount-on-discount %  (deals where requested discount was further negotiated up)
  - Discount % vs ACV (correlation; outliers reviewed monthly)
  - Win rate of deal-desk-approved deals
  - Concession follow-through (did the customer keep their side?)
```

See [references/deal-desk-charter-and-process.md](references/deal-desk-charter-and-process.md) for the full charter template, including sub-charters per region, intake form spec, and the standard SLAs.

---

## Approval threshold matrix

The matrix defines: for each deal characteristic (discount %, contract length, custom term type), who can approve it.

### Standard matrix template

| Deal characteristic | Rep | Sales Manager | Director | VP Sales | CRO | CFO | CEO |
|---------------------|-----|---------------|----------|----------|-----|-----|-----|
| Discount 0-10% | ✓ | | | | | | |
| Discount 10-20% | | ✓ | | | | | |
| Discount 20-30% | | | ✓ | | | | |
| Discount 30-40% | | | | ✓ | | | |
| Discount 40-50% | | | | | ✓ | | |
| Discount > 50% | | | | | | | ✓ |
| ACV > $250k | | ✓ | | | | | |
| ACV > $1M | | | | ✓ | | | |
| ACV > $5M | | | | | | | ✓ |
| Multi-year > 12mo standard | | ✓ | | | | | |
| Non-standard payment terms | | | | | | ✓ | |
| Custom SLA / penalties | | | | (with CCO) | | | |
| Custom legal language | | | | | | | (Legal must concur) |
| MSA red-line on liability cap | | | | | | | (Legal must concur) |
| Most-favored-nation clause | | | | | | ✓ | |
| Acceptance criteria / payment-on-acceptance | | | | | | ✓ | |
| Multi-product / cross-BU bundle | | | (each BU lead approves) | | | | |
| Whitelabel / OEM rights | | | | | | | ✓ |

Customize per company stage, ACV distribution, and authority preference (some orgs want CRO at 30%, others delegate further down).

### Stacking rule

When multiple non-standard items apply, **the highest required approver applies.** A $1M deal at 25% discount with custom SLA needs VP Sales (ACV) AND Director (discount) AND VP Sales+CCO (custom SLA) → effectively requires VP Sales sign-off + CCO + Legal concurrence.

Use `scripts/discount_authority_router.py --deal deal.yaml` to compute the required approvers for any deal.

See [references/approval-thresholds-and-routing.md](references/approval-thresholds-and-routing.md) for the full matrix design guide, regional variants, escalation paths, and routing automation patterns.

---

## The deal-review packet

Every non-standard deal gets a packet. Without it, approvers ask the same questions repeatedly and decisions take days instead of hours.

### Standard packet structure

```markdown
# Deal Review: <Customer Name>

## Summary
- Customer: <name, size, industry>
- ACV: $<amount>
- Discount %: <%> (vs standard $<list-price>)
- Contract: <length>, <payment terms>
- Decision needed by: <date>

## Standard vs Requested
| Item | Standard | Requested | Delta |
|------|----------|-----------|-------|
| ACV  | $X       | $Y        | -Z%   |
| Term | 12mo     | 36mo      | +24mo |
| Payment | Net 30 | Net 60   | +30d  |
| SLA  | 99.5%    | 99.9%     | +0.4% |
| Liability cap | 1x fees | 2x fees | +1x |
| Termination for convenience | No | Yes (90d) | New |

## Justification
- Why customer wants this: <competitor situation, budget cycle, etc.>
- Why we're considerin