War-game a deal desk rule before approval matrices, discount floors, and exception talk tracks harden into how every nonstandard deal gets cleared.
Deal desk rules fail when the matrix invents speed the queue never had, when exceptions dual-count the same discount as approved and as "one-time," when reps still close in private Slack, and when finance cannot reconcile approved terms to the contract. A neat RACI chart is not evidence.
Freeze the package
State the proposed approval bands, which term classes require deal desk, who owns SLA and audit, what success looks like after two quarters of cycle time and margin integrity, and the kill criteria if shadow exceptions or approval lag past a named threshold. Attach the current exception log, sample deals, SLA design, and the measured lag from request to posted approval. If sales, finance, and legal disagree on whether the desk buys margin or just slower closes, reconcile before seating.
Name the decision you will make if the war game finds nothing new, and the hold criteria if any term class still lacks a named approver or a measured audit path.
Seats
- Enterprise rep. Fear that the desk still sits on a deal while a competitor closes without the same gate.
- Finance. Discount math that looks clean while the contract cannot show the same floor.
- Legal. Nonstandard terms that land without a timed counsel review.
- Deal desk. SLA claims that invent capacity the queue will not clear.
- Skeptic. The claim that looks strongest and is least sourced.
Optional RevOps seat if CRM stage rules bind the form. Same pack for every seat.
Run the loop
Feed Pingpong the deal desk memo and exhibits. First pass steelmans the bands. Later passes attack from the seats above. Final pass turns surviving objections into clearer floors, a published approval SLA, or a hold. Delete invented "reps already follow this" claims and dual-counted exception rates.
Force a day-after narrative: what happens if a board slide quotes margin the desk never enforced, if Slack exceptions never log, or if a customer screenshots uneven discounting. If those stories are stronger than your mitigation plan, fix the package before you enforce it. Separate a deal desk rule from a discount policy or a pricing floor so each decision stays testable.
Ask every seat to mark which steps are optional in practice. Optional post-deal audits become skipped within a month if nobody names the owner and the time box. Related: war-game a discount policy, war-game a pricing floor, war-game a B2B pricing negotiation, pretend you are the head of sales, and the war-game decisions hub. Process: how to run a Pingpong.