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Recipes for deal boards

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Naomi Papoushado
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You can create a your own deal board to track what matters most to you in your pipeline.

Get a reality view of key deal types, stages, or other areas of focus, with automatic warnings to guide you on where to dig in. 

Top managers in Gong use custom deal boards to:

  • See a reality view of the deals most and least likely to close

  • Get ahead of any risks in their most critical deals

  • Focus on deal strategy as opposed to deal recap in 1:1s and team reviews

  • Get rid of their Frankenstein tool set up of multiple reports in CRM and Excel

  • Come prepared for pipeline conversations with leadership

Ok, now that you know how managers are leveraging custom deal boards, let’s put them into action.

You can create your own custom deal boards in Gong. Here’s how. Want some ideas on where to start? Here are three common types of custom board. Take a look at the configuration and copy it, or tune it to your needs.

Tip

Open the instructions for one of the examples below and, as you read them, try building the board yourself in a second browser tab. You can always edit or delete it later.

1. Must-win (swing) deals

Ensure that you are dialed into the key deals that will make or break your quota. Create a custom deal board that is laser focused on the most important activities and key warnings, to ensure that you can coach and support reps in driving these deals over the line.

swing-deals-board.png

Click here to learn how to create a swing deals board

Here’s a suggested configuration, which you can modify to fit your needs. You may not have all of these CRM fields available to you. It depends on how your organization has set up your CRM and which fields are being pulled into Gong. If you’re missing a field, get started with the fields that you have, and get in touch with your Gong technical admin for help. You add fields to a board at any time.

Default to the right initial filters

Default to open deals, closing in period:

  • Default Close Date: Closing this month (or Closing this quarter)

  • Default Deal Status: Open deals

Use Additional Filters to see the right opportunities

If you have a CRM field for must-win deals, pull that field in from your CRM, and filter specifically by those deals when configuring your board. For example, only strategic opportunities:

  • Forecast Category: Commit

  • Amount: >$75k

  • Account Tier: Strategic

Customize the columns in your board

Focus on fields that show status, momentum, and risk:

  • Next Call

  • Deal Warning

  • ARR Impact Amount (or Amount, Expected Contract Value, etc.)

  • Close Date

  • Trial Expiration Date

  • Stage

  • Company Tier

  • Opportunity Owner

Configure warnings

Keep tight thresholds on warnings, as you’re looking at a smaller pool of vitally important deals:

  • No activity for 7 days

    • Is your rep driving this deal to a current quarter close?

  • No response on the prospect side for 10 days

    • Is your prospect ghosting your rep? Do you need to intervene?

  • Only 1 or less active prospects for 14 days

    • Ensure your reps are engaging enough individuals to mitigate deal risk.

  • No Vice President level or above active on the prospect side for 60 days before close date

    • Do your reps have access to power?

Subscribers

Subscribe your team to this board to ensure they have regular reminders of key risks related to their top deals for the month or quarter.

Observers

  • VP of Revenue Operations

  • SVP Sales

  • Head of Solutions Engineering

Try building this board yourself.

2. Renewals

Stay on top of your team’s renewals by creating a deal board to see all account activity in one place. Use this deal board to get a pulse on your most important renewals and ensure that you can step in to help an account that may be at risk.

Renewals.png

Click here to learn how to create a renewals deals board

Here’s a suggested configuration, which you can modify to fit your needs. You may not have all of these CRM fields available to you. It depends on how your organization has set up your CRM and which fields are being pulled into Gong. If you’re missing a field, get started with the fields that you have, and get in touch with your Gong technical admin for help. You add fields to a board at any time.

Default to the right initial filters

Default to open opportunities, and look a little ahead:

  • Default Close Date: Closing this quarter (or Closing next quarter)

  • Default Deal Status: Open deals

Use Additional Filters to see the right opportunities

Home in on the opportunities that fit your priorities:

  • Opportunity Type: Renewal (or Upsell)

  • Account Health: Yellow, Red

Customize the columns in your board

Choose fields that give you a snapshot of the account:

  • Amount

  • Close Date

  • Next Call

  • Warning

  • Stage

  • Account Health

  • Opportunity Owner

  • CSM

Configure your warnings

  • No activity for 10 days

    • Set your activity warning based on SLAs and expected account activity.

  • No response on the prospect side for 3 days

    • Ensure your customers are not going dark just before the renewal is complete.

  • Close date in the past

    • Stay on top of lapsed contracts or bad CRM hygiene.

  • Only 2 or less active prospects for 15 days

    • Is your rep engaging multiple people and teams in the renewal process?

  • No Vice President level or above active on the prospect side for 30 days before close date

    • Set this criterion based on internal executive requirements or SLAs for leadership engagement.

    • Depending on the renewal size, you will want to ensure your team engages executive leadership well in advance of the renewal, so determine these parameters and executive level accordingly.

Subscribers

  • Subscribe your team to this board to give them a weekly update of risks to this quarter’s renewal pipeline.

Observers

  • Customer Success Managers

  • Customer Success Leadership

Try building this board yourself.

3. Next qtr pipe

Most reps are laser-focused on hitting quota this month or quarter, but for sales leaders, building a strong pipeline is key to long-term success. Create a custom deal board to ensure your reps conduct the right type and amount of activity on pipe generation.

Next-qtr-pipe.png

Click here to learn how to create a next quarter pipe deals board

Here’s a suggested configuration, which you can modify to fit your needs. You may not have all of these CRM fields available to you. It depends on how your organization has set up your CRM and which fields are being pulled into Gong. If you’re missing a field, get started with the fields that you have, and get in touch with your Gong technical admin for help. You add fields to a board at any time.

Default to the right initial filters

Default to open deals, and look out to a future period:

  • Default Close Date: Closing next quarter

  • Default Deal Status: Open deals

Use Additional Filters to see the right opportunities

Select qualified early stage deals where you can ensure the deal foundation is being laid:

  • Stage: Discovery, Qualification, Presentation 1 (or the equivalent stages in your process)

Customize the columns in your board

Focus on whether reps are doing the right things to drive business problem alignment:

  • Amount

  • Deal Warning

  • Initial Buyer Persona

  • Identified Pain

  • Next Call

  • Close Date

  • Stage

  • Opportunity Owner

Configure your warnings

Set looser warning thresholds to fit the typical cadence of your earlier stage deals:

  • No activity for 10 days

    • Has your rep forgotten about this early-stage deal?

  • No response on the prospect side for 14 days

    • Is your prospect ghosting your rep?

  • Only 1 or less active prospects for 30 days

    • Ensure your reps are multi-threading early in the deal cycle.

  • No Director level or above active on the prospect side for 30 days before close date

    • Do your reps have access to power?

Subscribers

  • Subscribe your team to this board to give them a regular nudge to keep moving their deals along for next quarter.

Observers

  • Marketing

Try building this board yourself.

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