Conducting Deal Reviews Using Accord

This article covers some of our best practices for conducting Deal Reviews using Accord

Key Takeaways 

1. Spend about 15 minutes on each Accord (5-minutes for presentation, 10-minutes for questions and discussion)
2. There are usually follow up questions, comments, and discussions. Please facilitate these. 
3. The presentation of the Accord should be 5-minutes, and the discussion around 10-minutes (2 to 1 ratio). 
4. Nominate someone to document Playbook refinements and best practices shared during the deal review.
5. With practice the discussion time will decrease and you'll be able to get through more deals per review meeting.

Overview

We recommend that leaders of sales teams that are new to Accord begin conducting their regularly-scheduled deal reviews using Accord.

Nominate AEs in advance so they're prepared to present. 

This approach not only facilitates the sharing of best practices between reps, but also allows for the gathering of valuable feedback to incorporate to the Accord Playbook.

What to Cover

The goal of a rep's Accord presentation should be to:

1. Provide the team with a general overview of the deal
2. What's been done
3. What's coming up next

To do this, we recommend going into the Accord and covering the content, page-by-page:

Summary

• Give a brief overview of the customer's goals and challenges.
• Why is the customer evaluating our solution?
• When does the customer want to have a solution in place by?

Next Steps

• Share the general narrative of the evaluation.
• What are the potential roadblocks? What can we do to mitigate these risks proactively?
• What needs to happen next for the deal to close?

Team

• Review who’s involved in the deal from both your team as well as the customer’s stakeholders.
• [IF APPLICABLE] Review the Stakeholder Map. What are the power dynamics and sentiments of those involved in the deal?

Execution 

• Review which Execution Criteria have been fulfilled.
• What are the Execution Criteria that have yet to be fulfilled, and how can we ensure its completion?

Discussion 

Equally important to the review of the Accord is the discussion. This uncovers best practices and updates to make to your playbook.

You should spend about 2 minutes discussing the Accord for every minute presenting (if an AE spends 5 minutes presenting their Accord expect the discussion to take about 10 minutes).

It's better to go through fewer Accords in more depth. 

Make sure that you keep track of who did not present in the session so they can present the next time around.