Last Updated: May 24, 2019 by Lisa Magnuson

Must-Have Sales Leader Deal Review Questions

Sales managers and leaders can impact the quality of the sales conversation and improve win ratios by asking the right questions at the right time. Successful sales leaders have a solid deal review guide as part of their Sales Leadership Playbooks. The questions can be used during pre-call planning, as part of 1:1 coaching or during business reviews.

Deal review questions ensure the health of the deal on a regular and predictable basis. They also add rigor to sales forecasting. Here is a sample, from one of my client’s Sales Leadership Playbooks, of some really great questions that a sales manager might ask during the qualify stage of the sales process.

Qualify Stage – Sales Leader Questions

What stage of the sales process are you in?
- How do you know?
Where is your prospect in their buying process?
- Can you articulate a high level overview of their buying process?
Is the customer a good fit for us?
- Why?
What customer problems are you solving?
- What problems is the customer trying to solve?
Do you have evidence of the customer’s pain points and they’re willingness to resolve them?
Can you outline the current and desired state?
- Gaps?
What options does the customer have to solve their problems?
Have you sent a communication to the customer documenting your findings to date?
What is their timeline?
- Why now?
Did you gather enough information to develop initial Win Themes™?
Did you uncover any yellow or red flags so far?
Did the customer commit to the next step?
For large opportunities, have you engaged the internal account team and started or refreshed the Strategy Brief?

The TOP Line Account™ Sales Success Model

Sales leaders should develop a list of validation questions for every stage of the sales process. Also, the very first question a sales manager should ask is, “What stage of the sales process are you in?”

Help your sellers ‘Ring the bell’ more frequently with TOP Line Account™ wins.

Common close ratio: 25%

Add consistent pre-call planning: +20%

Add account strategy work: +20 – 30%

NEW CLOSE RATIO: 65 – 75%

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Lisa Magnuson

Founder & CEO at Top Line Sales

Lisa Magnuson is an expert in corporate strategic sales and TOP Line Account™ revenue building. As a respected sales consultant and author, Lisa works with clients to build successful strategic sales programs that drive revenue from large new accounts and enable growth from existing high value customers. Learn more at www.toplinesales.com.