#98 Deal Desk Best Practices – with Kunal Pathak, Deal Strategy, GTM & Rev Ops at ServiceNow

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RevOps Lab

Weflow

101 episodes

1 day ago

Welcome to the RevOps Lab - a podcast exploring the art & science of Revenue Operations. Every week, Philipp & Janis host RevOps professionals to discuss best practices and lessons learnt building scalable revenue engines. This show is for everyone interested in processes, tooling, enablement, and strategies to supercharge your GTM play. To find more episodes and resources on scaling your revenue engine, visit getweflow.com/revops

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#98 Deal Desk Best Practices – with Kunal Pathak, Deal Strategy, GTM & Rev Ops at ServiceNow

RevOps Lab

42 minutes 2 seconds

2 weeks ago

#98 Deal Desk Best Practices – with Kunal Pathak, Deal Strategy, GTM & Rev Ops at ServiceNow

Kunal Pathak, Director of Deal Strategy & Operations at ServiceNow, joins Philipp to unpack what it really takes to run a world-class Deal Desk. With experience building deal operations at Salesforce, DocuSign, and now ServiceNow, Kunal shares how the function evolved from a transactional back office into a strategic control tower for revenue execution.

We cover:

- What a Deal Desk is and how it’s evolved into a strategic function

- When it’s time to introduce Deal Desk (hint: when your CEO reviews every deal)

- Balancing governance and deal velocity: the CFO vs. CRO charter

- Why a bad policy is one that creates constant exceptions

- The 70/30 rule: when to automate vs. when to go high-touch

- The ideal team setup and where Deal Desk should sit (Finance vs. Sales)

- How to collaborate with Legal, Finance, and Pricing Strategy

- Building commercial constructs that make it easy to buy

- Using AI and automation to move from reactive to proactive deal strategy

- How to start a Deal Desk from scratch—and what to prioritize first

Kunal Pathak on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/kunal-pathak-66b27317/

Weflow: ⁠getweflow.com

⁠RevOps Chat Community: ⁠getweflow.com/community⁠

RevOps resources: ⁠getweflow.com/revops⁠ Janis on LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/janiszech⁠ Philipp on LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/philippstelzer

Chapters:

(00:00:00) Intro & Meet Kunal

(00:02:29) What Is a Deal Desk and Why It Matters

(00:06:58) When to Introduce Deal Desk

(00:09:15) Top Challenges When Setting Up the Function

(00:11:21) Balancing Governance and Deal Velocity

(00:14:27) Policies, Exceptions & the 70/30 Rule

(00:16:06) Where Deal Desk Should Sit (RevOps vs. Finance)

(00:18:38) Building the Right Team & Hiring Profiles

(00:21:20) Legal Collaboration & Ownership Boundaries

(00:24:48) Partnering with Pricing Strategy

(00:27:59) Value Engineering and Deal Economics

(00:30:12) The Future of Deal Desk – AI & Automation

(00:35:30) How to Start a Deal Desk From Scratch

(00:37:01) The First Hire & Key Priorities

(00:40:01) Resources, Books & Final Thoughts