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Deal Review Meeting Template

Every action typed by the authority it needs, the whole open book in one queue, and what each review changed a fortnight later.

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What you get

Pack of 9 files: 5 documents, 4 spreadsheets

Deal Review Meeting Template
  • Selection RuleDocument
  • Review FormatDocument
  • Question Set by StageDocument
  • Pre-Review BriefDocument
  • Action NoteDocument
  • Review ScheduleSpreadsheet
  • Review LedgerSpreadsheet
  • Deal Risk RegisterSpreadsheet
  • Action TrackerSpreadsheet
RiverDeal Review Meeting Template

Action Tracker · Aldbury field service · open actions at 23 June

Every overdue action owned above the rep has nobody chasing it.

ActionAuthorityOwnerDueOverdueChased by
Map the four stakeholders on the forwarded listrepJ. Okonkwo19 Jun4R. Ivens
Confirm the budget cost centre in writingother functionTheir finance director19 Jun4M. Byrne
Sign off the framework pricing schedulemanagerR. Ivens, Sales Director12 Jun11nobody
Hold the delivery slot until 31 JulymanagerR. Ivens, Sales Director19 Jun4nobody
Call the COO directly and book the twenty minutesexecP. Deniard, VP Sales19 Jun4nobody
Build urgency with the COOnoneno actor existsn/an/acut in the room

The two overdue actions owned by the rep and by another function were both chased inside the week. The three owned at manager and executive level are the ones three deals are actually waiting on, and the chaser column is empty on all three. Nobody chases their own manager, which is why anything owned above the rep leaves the room with a named chaser who is not the rep.

Page one for this query is the meeting and nothing else. Four parts, Why Change, Why Now, Why Not, Feedback and Plan, published with twenty-one questions underneath them. A venture firm ships a downloadable template built on the eight qualification elements. A cadence table splits the weekly one-to-one from the bi-weekly team review. Every one of them ends the same way, with action items carrying named owners and deadlines. None of them asks what the action was worth.

So every action goes to the rep, and a room that cost seven person hours produced a list the rep already had. This pack types each action by the lowest authority that can actually cause it. Authority is delegated and bounded everywhere it is written down, and a sales action is no different. Get twenty minutes with the COO is an executive action once the rep has asked twice through the champion and been refused twice.

The second absence is a queue. Every template assumes the three deals in front of the manager are the right three, and none records what went unreviewed. Auditing settled this: a sample represents a population only when all items in it have an opportunity to be selected. So a census, checkable triggers, and a rotation from the remainder. The worked example finds a deal 214 days in Proposal that no review ever touched. The plan to signature and the scorecard the reviews read are separate jobs.

What ten reviews cost, and which of them changed a deal

One fictional team throughout: Aldbury sells field service scheduling, four reps, fourteen open deals. Every figure ties to the others.

Deal Review Meeting Template
RiverReview Schedule

Review Schedule

Every open deal has a row, including the ones nobody is reviewing. Ten of fourteen shown.

DealValueStageDays in stageDate movesSilentWhy it is in the queueLast reviewed
Calderbank Freight£188,000Proposal3424Census, above £150k12 Jun
Tarnbrook Utilities£164,000Negotiation1912Census, above £150k12 Jun
Pentland Water£96,000Proposal71317Triggered, third close date move5 Jun
Stanmer Borough Council£74,000Evaluation11229Triggered, over 90 days in stage5 Jun
Renshaw Media£41,000Proposal26129Triggered, 21 days of silencenot yet
Fenwick Plastics£33,000Evaluation4406Rotation, drawn this cycle12 Jun
Grendon Facilities£27,000Evaluation61138Triggered, 21 days of silencenot yet
Oakhurst Dental Group£22,000Proposal214452Every trigger fired, none was watchednever
Marchmont Storage£19,000Discovery903Below every threshold, not drawnnever
Heronsgate Estates£14,000Evaluation37012Below every threshold, not drawnnever

The eighth row is the finding. Two hundred and fourteen days in Proposal, four close date moves and 52 days of silence, firing every trigger the rule has, and never reviewed once, because until there was a schedule nothing was watching the triggers. The bottom two rows are why the rotation exists: a census and a set of triggers select for large and for visibly troubled, so a queue built only from those describes large troubled deals and nothing else.

RiverReview Ledger

Review Ledger

What each review cost the team, what it produced by authority, and what the deal did in the fortnight after.

DateDealPeopleMinsPerson-minsRepMgrExecOtherCutWhat changed within 14 days
12 JunCalderbank Freight67545040002Nothing
12 JunTarnbrook Utilities44016011100CFO took our CFO's call, security review released
12 JunVireo Bioscience3257521001Legal named a redline owner, draft back 21 Jun
12 JunFenwick Plastics3309030000Rep booked a session she had already booked
12 JunArdleigh Care Homes3309020010Integration scoped, close date held
5 JunPentland Water56030050003Nothing. Close date moved a third time
5 JunStanmer Borough Council55527521011Route confirmed as a framework call-off
29 MayPentland Water56030040002Nothing. Same blocker named again, reworded
29 MayCalderbank Freight67042050001Nothing. Business case re-sent unrequested
22 MayTarnbrook Utilities44518021000Multi-year term unlocked, moved to Negotiation

Ten reviews, 2,340 person-minutes, 39 hours of the team's week. Calderbank and Pentland took 1,470 of it, produced eighteen actions between them, every single one owned by the rep, and neither deal moved. Tarnbrook took 340 minutes across two short reviews, produced two manager actions and one executive action, and moved both times. The difference is not the agenda. It is whether anybody other than the rep left the room owing something.

RiverDeal Risk Register

Deal Risk Register

One row per risk as it was written in the room, with the event that settles it and the authority that can cause that event.

DealRisk as written in the roomFirst namedRenamedWhat would settle itWho can settle itState
Calderbank FreightNo access to the economic buyer29 May0Twenty minutes with the COO, booked, with her in itOur VP Sales, calling heropen
Calderbank FreightChampion may not have real influence12 Jun0A document he sends internally that comes back editedRepopen
Pentland WaterNo compelling event5 Jun2A date on their side that costs them money if it slipsNobody has found oneopen
Pentland WaterBudget not confirmed this financial year29 May0Their finance director naming the cost centre and amountTheir finance directoropen
Tarnbrook UtilitiesSecurity review has no owner22 May0A named reviewer and a date from their CISO's officeOur CFO, calling theirssettled 19 Jun
Tarnbrook UtilitiesMulti-year term outside discount policy15 May0An approval on the non-standard termSales directorsettled 22 May
Stanmer Borough CouncilUnclear whether this needs a full tender5 Jun1Their procurement officer confirming the route in writingTheir procurement officersettled, framework call-off
Oakhurst Dental GroupNobody has ever written one downnever0UnknownUnknownnever reviewed

Pentland's compelling event has been named at three consecutive reviews under three different words, urgency then timeline then compelling event, with the same nobody in the column that says who can settle it. That is a risk being restated rather than managed. Tarnbrook's two risks each named an authority, each got an action at that level, and both closed inside a fortnight.

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What is in the pack

01

Action Tracker

Every action typed rep, manager, exec, other function or none, aged against its due date, with a named chaser on anything owned above the rep.

02

Review Schedule

The whole open book in one sheet, with each deal marked census, triggered, rotation or not this cycle, and the reason left visible in the row.

03

Review Ledger

Each review logged with its attendees, its cost in person-minutes, the actions it produced by authority, and what the deal did fourteen days later.

04

Deal Risk Register

One row per risk as it was written in the room, with the observable event that settles it and the lowest authority that can cause that event.

05

Selection Rule

The census threshold, five triggers that fire on facts rather than opinions, and the rotation draw that stops the queue describing only your loudest deals.

06

Review Format

Twenty-five minutes, three people, four things established in order, and an exit condition that is the written note rather than the clock.

07

Question Set by Stage

Questions answerable only with something the buyer did or said on a date, plus the three common questions that are on no stage list and why.

08

Pre-Review Brief and Action Note

Worked examples on one deal: the page that goes out the night before, and the page written in the room before anybody leaves it.

How it works

  1. 1

    Fill the schedule

    Send the opportunity export for the whole open book. Every deal gets a row and a queue state, and the deals nobody has ever reviewed become visible.

  2. 2

    Write the brief

    Built from the calls and the thread rather than from the rep, leading with what the buyer did, and naming the blocker as one sentence.

  3. 3

    Type the actions

    Each action goes to the lowest authority that can cause it, wishes with no actor are cut, and anything above the rep gets a chaser.

  4. 4

    Record what changed

    A fortnight on, the ledger says what the deal actually did, so the cost of the reviews that changed nothing is one visible figure.

Frequently asked questions

Is this template free?

Yes. Five Word documents and four CSV sheets, downloaded as a zip, no signup. River is the optional half: it builds the brief, fills the schedule and types the actions. Single-shot jobs live in River's tool index and the rest in the template library.

What does typing an action by authority actually change?

It stops the reissue. An action the rep has already attempted twice through the same route is not a rep action, however it is phrased, and handing it back with a fresh due date reads as progress. In the worked example that pattern held one deal in Proposal for four months.

Why does the queue need a random draw?

Because a census and a set of triggers both select deliberately: for large, and for visibly in trouble. Reviews of only those tell you about large troubled deals and nothing else. Two rotation draws a cycle is what lets the rest of the book cycle through instead of never appearing.

Who should be in the room?

Three people. The rep, the manager, and one seat chosen from the risk register for the authority the deal needs. Formal buying processes fix this in advance: the source selection authority is designated and the evaluation team established before the solicitation goes out. How the rep ran the call is a separate meeting on a separate unit.

We already run MEDDPICC reviews. Does this replace that?

No. Keep the framework and the stage questions. What is missing underneath them is the queue that decides which deals get looked at, and the typing that separates an action requiring the room from one the rep would have taken anyway. Those sit around a methodology, not instead of it. Which stage the questions should press hardest on is the conversion diagnostic.

What if the overdue actions are all mine?

That is the usual result, and it is the reason the tracker ages by authority. A rep cannot chase their own manager, so manager and executive actions sit while rep actions get chased inside the week. Every action above rep level leaves the room with a named chaser who is not the rep.

How is this different from a mutual action plan?

Different audience. A mutual action plan is built with the buyer and holds their steps and dates. This is the internal side: which of your deals get inspected, what the inspection cost, and which actions needed somebody above the rep to exist at all.

Sources

  1. Acquisition.gov1.602-1 Authority (opens in a new tab)
  2. PCAOBAll items in it have an opportunity to be selected (opens in a new tab)
  3. Acquisition.gov15.303 Responsibilities (opens in a new tab)

Written by

Chandler Supple

Co-founder & CEO, River

Chandler has spent the last six years working in AI, building tools for millions of users and Fortune 100 companies. In 2025, he co-founded River to build a new kind of operating system for AI agents.

LinkedInGitHubX

Reviewed by

Brian Joseff, Co-founder, River

LinkedInX

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Find out which of your reviews changed a deal

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