Latest / Sales Leadership with Fexingo: Quota Carriers, Sales Managers, and Revenue Teams / How Top Sales Managers Run Deal Reviews That Accelerate Deals
Transcript
- Lucas: I sat in on a deal review last week at a mid-market SaaS company, and within ten minutes I could tell you exactly which two deals were going to close and which three were pipe dreams. The manager couldn't see it. Luna: So what tipped you off? Lucas: The structure — or the lack of it. Most deal reviews are just reps reading from their CRM and the manager asking 'When do you think it'll close?' That's not a review, that's a status update. And it doesn't move the deal forward. Luna: Right, but a lot of managers I talk to say they don't have time to run a deep-dive on every deal. They've got twenty reps, hundreds of opportunities. How do you square that? Lucas: You don't deep-dive every deal. You pick the three or four that are at critical decision points — the ones where a coaching intervention could actually change the outcome. The rest, you just scan. But when you do review, it has to be structured around the buyer's reality, not the rep's pipeline. Luna: Okay, what's the framework? Give me something I can use tomorrow. Lucas: Three questions in order. First: what is the buyer's timeline and decision process? Not the rep's expected close date — the actual steps the buyer needs to take. Second: what is the evidence gap? What proof does the buyer still need to feel confident saying yes? Third: what is the single next action that will produce that evidence? If the manager and rep can't answer all three in under three minutes, the deal is probably stalled. Luna: I like the evidence gap piece. Most managers focus on price objections or competitor threats, but they skip the part where the buyer just doesn't have enough internal justification. Lucas: Exactly. I saw a deal at that same company where the rep had done a great demo, the prospect loved the product, but the CFO needed a total cost of ownership model. The rep hadn't even asked. The manager spent the whole review asking about champion access and next steps, but the real blocker was right there in the evidence gap. Luna: So the manager needed to shift from 'What's the forecast?' to 'What does the buyer need to prove to themselves?' That's a coaching moment. Lucas: And that's the shift. The best managers I've seen — at companies like Gong and Outreach — they structure their deal reviews as coaching moments, not interrogation sessions. They ask questions that reveal what the rep doesn't know about the buyer, and then they roleplay the next conversation right there. Luna: I've heard that some managers actually have reps pitch the deal to them as if they were the buyer, and then they critique the pitch. Is that effective? Lucas: It can be, but it's easy to fall into the trap of making it about the rep's presentation skills rather than the buyer's decision criteria. A better approach: have the rep explain the buyer's situation in three sentences without mentioning the product. If they can't, they don't understand the buyer well enough to sell to them. Luna: So the first question is always about the buyer's timeline and process. What do you do when the rep says 'They're hoping to decide by the end of the month' but you know that's unrealistic? Lucas: You push on the specifics. 'What's the milestone that makes that date real? Is there a budget meeting? A board review? Who actually owns the final signature?' Nine times out of ten, the rep's date is a guess. The manager's job is to ground it in the buyer's actual calendar. Luna: Alright, but let's say the rep is honest and the buyer's timeline really is end of month. But the evidence gap is big — they need a security audit, a pricing comparison, and internal references. That's not happening in two weeks. Lucas: Then the manager should catch that in the review and either reset the timeline or help the rep prioritize which piece of evidence moves the needle most. One of the top reps I know says he always asks his buyer: 'If you could only get one more piece of information before deciding, what would it be?' That single question cuts through the noise. Luna: That's smart. And it feeds directly into your third question — the next action. Lucas: Right. And the next action has to be something the rep will do within 24 hours. Not 'follow up next week.' Something concrete: send the TCO model, schedule a call with the reference customer, prepare a one-pager for the CFO. If the action is vague, the deal stays vague. Luna: I'm thinking about the manager who has twenty reps. Even if they only deep-dive three deals per week, that's a lot of coaching. How do they keep it efficient? Lucas: Standardize the format. Have the rep fill out a one-page deal review template before the meeting — timeline, evidence gap, next action — and then the meeting is just a conversation around that document. No CRM scrolling. No 'let me pull up the notes.' It saves fifteen minutes per deal, and the mental shift from data entry to coaching is immediate. Luna: I like that. It also forces the rep to think before the meeting. They can't just wing it. Lucas: And that's part of the coaching too. The rep learns that preparing for a deal review is as important as preparing for a customer call. It builds the habit of strategic thinking. Luna: Let me push back on something. You mentioned roleplaying the next conversation during the review. Some reps hate that — they feel put on the spot. Lucas: That's fair. But you can make it low-stakes. Instead of 'pitch me,' say 'Let's practice the first minute of that call with the CFO. I'll be the CFO, and you try to get me to agree to look at the TCO model.' It's not about performance — it's about building confidence. And the manager should go first sometimes, to model it. Luna: Yeah, that takes the pressure off. And it shows the rep that even the manager might fumble, which normalizes learning. Lucas: Absolutely. And look, we don't run ads here — it's important to us that the content stays focused and honest. If you've gotten value from conversations like this, you can support that choice at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's a small gesture, but it keeps us independent and ad-free. Luna: Second that. Every little bit helps us keep the focus on what actually works in the field. Lucas: So back to the deal review structure. I want to talk about one more common mistake: the manager who tries to solve every problem that comes up. A rep says the prospect is worried about implementation, and the manager jumps in with a solution. That's not coaching — that's doing the rep's job. Luna: Right. So what's the alternative? Ask the rep what they think the solution is first? Lucas: Exactly. 'What's your best idea for handling that concern?' Let them think. If they're stuck, then you guide — 'Have you considered introducing them to our implementation lead for a fifteen-minute call?' But you let them own the solution. That's how they grow. Luna: That reminds me of a stat I saw: deals reviewed with this kind of structured coaching close 23 percent faster. Is that real? Lucas: It's from a study by the Sales Management Association. They looked at over a thousand sales teams and found that teams using a structured deal review process — focused on buyer evidence and next actions — had significantly higher win rates and shorter sales cycles. The 23 percent number is for cycle time reduction. Luna: That's a concrete reason to change the way you run meetings. It's not just about feeling more productive — it's about actual revenue acceleration. Lucas: And the best part is it scales. You can train a first-line manager on this framework in a single afternoon. Then they practice it for two weeks, and you start to see the pipeline move differently. Stale deals either advance or die. Luna: Let's talk about the rep who consistently cedes control to the buyer — they get pushed around on price, or they let the buyer set the timeline. How does a manager coach that in a deal review? Lucas: That's a pattern issue, not a one-time problem. In the review, you want to catch it early. When the rep says 'They want a discount of 20 percent or they'll go with the competitor,' the manager's coaching move is: 'Why did they bring up price before we demonstrated value? What question could you have asked earlier to prevent that?' Then roleplay that earlier conversation. Luna: So you're coaching the rep to recognize the pattern and adjust their approach next time, not just save the current deal. Lucas: Exactly. The deal review becomes a vehicle for skill development, not just pipeline management. And that's what separates good sales managers from great ones. Luna: I think one more thing that's underrated in deal reviews is the team dynamic. If you have a rep who is struggling but proud, public coaching can backfire. Lucas: That's why I recommend a mix: one-on-one reviews for the struggling reps, and group reviews for deal diagnosis where the focus is on learning, not performance. You can present an anonymized deal and ask the whole team: 'What would you do?' That way everyone benefits, and no one feels singled out. Luna: It's almost like shifting from 'manager as judge' to 'manager as coach and facilitator of collective intelligence.' Lucas: That's exactly it. And if a manager walks into a deal review already knowing the answers, they're probably not listening. The best ones go in curious: 'What are we about to learn from this deal?' That mindset changes everything. Luna: So to recap for the listener: number one, focus on the buyer's timeline and decision process. Number two, identify the evidence gap. Number three, define the next action. And the manager asks, doesn't tell. Lucas: And the framework is just the start. The real magic is the consistency. Do this every week, for every critical deal, and over a quarter you'll see the quality of conversations improve across the whole team. That's how you build a revenue engine that doesn't rely on hero reps. Luna: Any final thought for the new manager who's nervous about running their first structured review? Lucas: Start with one deal. Pick the one that's most important this week, use the template, and see if it feels different. It will. The rep will walk out with a clearer action plan, and you'll walk out knowing what you actually need to coach on. That's the win. Luna: Good stuff. Next episode, I want to dig into how to handle a rep who's hitting number but poisoning the culture — that balance. Lucas: That's a whole episode in itself. Let's do it.