Deal Review Checklist

Why Rigorous Deal Reviews Matter

Most sales teams lose deals they should have disqualified weeks earlier. They invest time, resources, and emotional energy into opportunities that were never going to close, not because the product was wrong, but because the deal fundamentals were never validated.

A structured deal review forces honesty. It surfaces the gaps between what you hope is true and what you have actually confirmed. It prevents happy ears from turning into missed quarters. And it gives sales leadership the information they need to coach effectively rather than just asking "when is this going to close?"

This checklist combines MEDDPICC-style qualification with practical deal management criteria. Use it in weekly pipeline reviews, in one-on-ones with your manager, and as a personal gut-check before updating your forecast.

Deal Qualification Scorecard

Score each criterion from 0-3 using the definitions below:

Score	Definition
0	Not identified or not started
1	Partially identified, unconfirmed
2	Identified and confirmed by prospect
3	Fully validated with evidence

MEDDPICC Criteria

Criterion	Questions to Validate	Score (0-3)
Metrics	Have you quantified the business impact of the problem? Does the prospect agree with your numbers?
Economic Buyer	Have you identified and engaged the person with budget authority? Have they confirmed interest?
Decision Criteria	Do you know the formal and informal criteria the committee will use to decide?
Decision Process	Can you describe every step from today to signed contract, including who approves at each stage?
Paper Process	Do you know the procurement, legal, and security review requirements and timelines?
Identified Pain	Has the prospect articulated the pain in their own words? Is it compelling enough to drive action?
Champion	Do you have an internal advocate who is actively selling on your behalf? Have they demonstrated this?
Competition	Do you know who else is being evaluated? Do you understand your differentiation in the prospect's eyes?

Scoring interpretation:

Total Score	Deal Health	Action
20-24	Strong	Accelerate and close
14-19	Promising	Address gaps in your next interactions
8-13	At risk	Develop a recovery plan or consider disqualifying
0-7	Unqualified	Disqualify or move to nurture

Stakeholder Mapping Status

Check	Status
All committee members identified by name and role
Each stakeholder's priorities and concerns documented
Champion identified and actively engaged
Economic buyer engaged (not just identified)
Technical evaluator satisfied or concerns addressed
End users consulted or piloting
Legal/procurement contact established
Detractors or blockers identified
Relationships mapped (who influences whom)

Competitive Positioning

Check	Status
Competitors in the deal identified
Prospect's evaluation criteria understood
Your differentiation articulated in prospect's language
Competitive objections anticipated and responses prepared
Win themes validated with champion
Proof points (case studies, references) aligned to evaluation criteria

Timeline Validation

Check	Status
Prospect's desired go-live date confirmed
Reverse timeline built from go-live to today
Each step in the decision process has a date
Procurement/legal timeline confirmed with the actual reviewers
Implementation timeline shared and agreed
No conflicts with budget cycles, freezes, or holidays
Mutual action plan shared and accepted by prospect

Risk Assessment

Risk Category	Description	Likelihood	Impact	Mitigation
Champion leaves	Your sponsor changes roles or leaves the company			Develop multiple relationships
Budget cut	Funding is reduced or reallocated			Tie to revenue-critical initiative
Priority shift	Another initiative takes precedence			Connect to CEO-level priorities
Competitor move	A competitor makes a disruptive offer			Strengthen champion relationship
Technical blocker	Integration or security issue surfaces late			Complete technical review early
Decision delay	Committee pushes decision to next quarter			Create urgency with cost of inaction

Step-by-Step Instructions

Running a Weekly Deal Review

1. Prepare before the meeting. Fill out the scorecard for each deal in your pipeline before sitting down with your manager. Come with an honest assessment, not an optimistic one.

2. Start with the score. Present the total MEDDPICC score for each deal. This immediately surfaces which deals need attention and which are progressing well.

3. Focus on gaps, not updates. The deal review is not a status update. It is a strategy session. Spend your time on the criteria scored 0-1, not rehashing what is going well.

4. Define specific next actions. For every gap identified, agree on a concrete next step with an owner and a deadline. "I need to find the economic buyer" becomes "I will ask [champion name] to introduce me to [CFO name] by Thursday."

5. Update your forecast honestly. After the review, adjust your commit and best-case numbers based on what you actually validated, not what you hope will happen.

Monthly Pipeline Hygiene

• Remove deals that have scored below 8 for two consecutive reviews
• Validate that every deal in "commit" has a score of 16 or higher
• Check that close dates have been confirmed by the prospect, not just estimated by you
• Review win/loss patterns from closed deals to calibrate your scoring

Common Mistakes

Scoring based on hope instead of evidence. "I think the economic buyer is supportive" is a 1, not a 2. Unless the economic buyer has told you directly, it is not confirmed.

Only reviewing deals when your manager asks. The best reps review their own deals weekly, unprompted. If you only think critically about your pipeline during formal reviews, you are always reacting instead of planning.

Ignoring the paper process. Deals die in procurement more often than in evaluation. If you have not mapped the legal and procurement timeline by mid-deal, you are setting yourself up for a delayed close.

Not updating the checklist as deals evolve. A deal that was well-qualified last month may have changed. Champions leave. Budgets get cut. Priorities shift. Re-validate continuously.

Treating the champion's word as the only source. Your champion has their own perspective and biases. Validate what they tell you by engaging directly with other stakeholders. A champion who says "everyone is on board" without you having spoken to those people is a risk, not a comfort.

Conflating activity with progress. Five meetings and a demo are not the same as a qualified deal. Progress means validated criteria: confirmed budget, identified decision maker, documented pain with metrics.

Best Practices

• Score deals independently before reviews. If you and your manager score the same deal differently, that gap is the most valuable part of the conversation.
• Use a shared document or system. Deal reviews are only useful if the output is recorded and accessible. Verbal agreements in meetings get forgotten.
• Be willing to disqualify. The most productive thing you can do for your pipeline is remove deals that are not going to close. Every hour spent on a dead deal is an hour not spent on a live one.
• Track your scoring accuracy. After deals close (won or lost), compare the outcome to your scores. Over time, this calibrates your judgment and reveals which criteria are most predictive for your market.
• Include a "what could kill this deal" question. For every deal, ask yourself and your champion: what is the single most likely reason this deal does not close? Then build your plan around addressing that risk.
• Review lost deals with the same rigor. When a deal is lost, go back to the checklist and identify which criteria were weak. This feedback loop is how you improve your qualification skills over time.
• Set score thresholds for forecast categories. Define clear rules like "commit requires a score of 18+" and hold yourself to them. This removes subjectivity from forecasting.

How demoshake Helps

Deal reviews are only as good as the data behind them. demoshake gives sales teams real-time visibility into how every stakeholder is engaging with deal materials, replacing guesswork with evidence.

When you score "Champion" on your MEDDPICC checklist, demoshake shows you whether your champion has actually shared the deal room with their colleagues, who they shared it with, and what those people reviewed. When you assess "Decision Criteria," engagement data reveals which evaluation areas stakeholders are spending the most time on.

Mutual action plans built in demoshake give both sides a shared, visible timeline, making timeline validation a living document rather than a slide that goes stale. Every criterion on your checklist becomes easier to validate when you can see how the buying committee is actually engaging with your deal, not just what your champion reports in meetings.