Deal Desks: The Hottest New Sales Function

Deal Desks: The Hottest New Sales Function:from The Sales Challenger™ by Lucia Litman
Let’s face it: deals are not becoming smaller or simpler.  In fact, growing demands for customization from buyers have increased both deal size and complexity, prompting many sales organizations to consider the creation of a deal desk that advises and supports field sales on deal economics.
Over a year ago, SEC conducted a deal desk survey to gather benchmarking information on what they do, where they are located, who has them, and why they are increasing in popularity.  The results from this survey indicated that 35% of respondents were in the ‘planning’ stages of a deal desk.
As deal desks continue to gain popularity, we have chosen to re-visit the topic and conduct a fresh survey about their function and organization within companies. If you have a deal desk function or are planning to launch a deal desk, please click here to take our updated survey!
Our last survey uncovered several interesting facts about the role of deal desks:
What do deal desks do?

• Some traditional deal desk duties include approving non-standard deals, establishing pre-set discount levels, and working with cross-functional stakeholders on deal solutions.

What are newly-established deal desks doing differently than older deal desks?

• Newer deal desks focus on equipping field reps with sales enablement tools and market trend analysis that provide visibility into all the variables impacting deal profitability.

What is used to measure deal desk success?

• The majority of sales organizations measure deal desk effectiveness by increased deal profitability, higher gross revenue/volume, and lower sales cycle time.

SEC Members, click here to access the results of our last deal desk survey. If you’re interested in the topic of deal desks, please complete our latest survey, the results of which will be previewed in an upcoming webinar on October 9, 2012 (click here to register for the webinar).