#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