Deal Review So Easy That My Grandma Can Do It: The New Science of Deal Qualification

It took us 5 painful years to learn this.

Ever sat through a painful deal review where your reps insist every opportunity is "closing this month" despite obvious red flags?

You're not alone.

As sales leaders, we often find ourselves playing detective rather than coach during these sessions.

Most SaaS reps I know are trying to earn $300,000 and beyond.

Some are shooting for that $1,000,000.

Yet most are stuck at less than $200k. One key reason?

Poor deal qualification and review processes.

Great sales reps know:

if you disqualify bad opps early, you get a lot of time back...

time that you can spend on finding deals that fit your ICP and actually selling to them.

The best performers aren't juggling the most deals; they're working the right deals.

We spent years watching the best reps in action.

What were they doing differently?

How did they consistently deliver when others missed?

The answer wasn't in their charisma or product knowledge

it was in their ruthless objectivity about deal health.

But this is easier said than done. We still struggled with it.

That's why we have developed a simpler method.

That was the birth of: The Pulse Deal View.

Three Simple Pillars making deal reviews so straightforward that (as the saying goes) even my grandma can do them.

The Three Pillars of No-BS Deal Reviews

1. The Deal Pulse

Just like a fitness watch tracks your heart rate, this system monitors deal activity. (Email, Calls, Meetings, etc.)

The concept is simple but powerful: No activity = flat line and the deal is dead.

Which of these do you think is going to close?

Too many deals sit in pipelines for months while reps claim "the prospect is just thinking it over."

But actual buyer engagement follows patterns we can measure objectively.

The pulse doesn't lie.

2. Deal Warning System

More than 3 warnings, and the deal is definitely not going to close this month/quarter.

These warnings include critical factors like:

• Ghosting (no response from prospect)

• Decision-maker involvement

• No pricing discussions

• Unknown business process

• Strong Competition was mentioned

• No business pain uncovered

• Urgency driver no mentioned

• You only talk to one stakeholder

This warning system aligns perfectly with what we've observed from top performers.

Every time we've seen AEs fail...

Literally, EVERY time: They didn't lead.

When it came to next steps, they did not have a point of view, followed rather than led, and relied on their buyer.

3. The Three Strikes Rule

Be super strict: strike every deal out that does not fulfill this criteria. Like in baseball.

3 strikes and out.

Unless the sales rep has some better explanation why.

This might seem harsh, but it creates accountability. When a rep needs to defend a deal with specific evidence rather than vague assurances, magical things happen:

1. They qualify better upfront

2. They pursue the right activities to advance deals

3. Your forecasts become reliable

   
   

Why This Approach Works

The problem with most deal reviews is they rely too heavily on the seller's assumptions.

As one CRO we spoke with put it, "Today, we're selling in a demand-neutral and even demand-negative environment. Those are completely different skills."

In today's market, wishful thinking kills forecasts.

This system forces objective evaluation.

It's NOT your customer's job to create the right order of operations in your mutual success plan.

It's YOURS.

Similarly, it's not your rep's job to decide if a deal belongs in this month's forecast – it's the data's job to tell you.

how you can implement this quickly? Just contact us and we will show you how it works

Let's do it

The Bottom Line

This approach drives accountability while removing assumptions from your pipeline reviews.

It transforms the conversation from "trust me, this will close" to "here's exactly where we stand and what needs to happen."