FOR SALES VPs | COUNTRY MANAGERS
What Happened to the Big Deals You Counted On Last Quarter?
Your forecast changes every week. But your biggest deals shouldn’t disappear from management’s radar as the numbers change.
Big Rock Review installs a quarterly management discipline that keeps your biggest deals in focus, tracks management reviews, and accounts for every outcome.
No new sales methodology. No replacement for your CRM.
FOCUS · MANAGE · MEASURE
Jeff Goldstein | Former VP & GM, NetApp Canada | Author of Winning the Six-Figure Sale
4 pages · 5-minute · No email required
We Were Winning 5-to-1. And Still Missing the Number.
Our win/loss ratio looked healthy. We were winning five deals for every one we lost.
Yet we were still missing our quarterly number.
When I looked back at the biggest deals we had counted on, the real problem became clear.
Too many deals weren’t being lost to competitors. They were being deferred or ending in no decision.
Illustrative Big Rock outcomes, based on enterprise sales leadership experience.
The Data Was There. The Management View Wasn't.
We had Salesforce and no shortage of reports. But those reports weren’t giving me the complete picture of what happened to our biggest deals.
These were major opportunities consuming significant sales, technical and executive resources.
I needed more than an updated forecast. I needed a consistent way to know which deals were being reviewed and what ultimately happened to them.
Here’s the question every enterprise sales leader should be able to answer:
Can you show which of your biggest deals received a structured management review — and what happened to each one?
Big Rock Review Closes That Gap.
You don’t need another sales methodology.
You need a consistent management discipline that keeps your most important deals visible, ensures structured reviews take place, and accounts for every outcome.
Big Rock Review works with the sales methodology you already use.
01 — FOCUS
Know which deals matter.
Start each quarter with a list of your biggest and most strategic deals for this quarter and next. Add new deals as needed, but never remove the original ones from the record.
02 — MANAGE
Make reviews visible.
Establish a consistent management review process using your existing methodology. Record which reviews take place.
03 — MEASURE
Account for every outcome.
At quarter-end, see what happened to the original deals and identify patterns across managers and opportunities.
No new sales methodology. No complicated software. Just a consistent management discipline.
One List. Your Biggest Deals. No Surprises.
At the beginning of the quarter, identify the opportunities that deserve management’s closest attention.
Record the deal, its value, the responsible sales rep, and the management review date.
As the quarter progresses, retain the original list and record any deals added later.
Your forecast can change. Your accountability for the original Big Rocks doesn’t disappear.
Illustrative Big Rock Tracker — sample deals and outcomes.
What Will You Learn About How Your Biggest Deals Are Managed?
The value of Big Rock Review goes beyond knowing which deals closed.
It gives you a clearer picture of how consistently your sales managers are paying attention to the opportunities that matter most.
01 — Management Command
Are Your Managers in Command of Their Business?
Who consistently commits deals that slip? Who adds major opportunities late in the quarter? Are your managers giving you a realistic picture of their business?
02 — Review Discipline
Are Structured Deal Reviews Really Happening?
A recorded review date is a starting point. Can your managers produce evidence of a formal review—or was it simply another forecast conversation?
03 — Recurring Patterns
What Patterns Keep Repeating each Quarter?
Which teams consistently win? Where do deals repeatedly get deferred or end in No Decision? Which opportunities keep consuming resources quarter after quarter?
I Help You Put It in Place. Your Team Keeps Running It.
Could your team build the Tracker themselves? Absolutely. The harder part is establishing a consistent management discipline, making formal deal reviews visible, and knowing which patterns deserve leadership attention.
That’s where my experience helps. I bring lessons learned from running an enterprise sales organization—helping you implement the discipline and recognize what your results may be telling you about your managers.
Big Rock Review is a fixed-fee, one-quarter consulting engagement that includes the Big Rock Review Playbook and a ready-to-use Tracker with a built-in Scorecard. Your managers continue conducting their own deal reviews using your existing methodology.
01 — INSTALL THE PROCESS
60-minute working session
Agree on which deals qualify as Big Rocks, who owns the original list, what counts as a formal management review, and how outcomes are recorded. Set up the Tracker and demonstrate its live Scorecard.
02 — KEEP IT ON TRACK
Two 30-minute check-ins
Review implementation progress, address questions, and ensure the Tracker and management-review process are being used consistently.
03 — UNCOVER THE INSIGHTS
60-minute executive review
Examine the quarter-end scorecard together. Identify management patterns worth investigating, discuss what they may reveal about your sales leadership team, and establish priorities for the next quarter.
The standard Big Rock Review engagement is US$5,000. One quarter. Fixed fee, plus applicable taxes.
My work is guaranteed. If you don’t feel the engagement delivered what we agreed, I’ll refund your fee.
Your team owns the process. The discipline stays in place.
Built on Real Enterprise Sales Leadership Experience.
I’ve led enterprise sales organizations, including serving as VP & General Manager of NetApp Canada.
I developed Big Rock Review from firsthand experience managing the deals that could make or break a quarter. It helped me keep critical opportunities in focus, hold managers accountable, and see beyond the forecast to identify recurring execution problems.
I’m also the author of Winning the Six-Figure Sale, which explores the inspection, assessment, and coaching practices behind effective deal management.
What Sales Leaders Say About Jeff's Approach.
“I’ve brought Jeff’s deal execution to 3 different sales teams at 3 different organizations now, and each time, we’ve seen a dramatic improvement in our big deal management and win rates.”
Greg Onoprijenko
Director of Cloud Sales, U.S.
Ingram Micro Cloud
“Jeff’s Big Rock Review is useful in ‘ruthlessly’ qualifying opportunities and focusing your time on what will truly make you successful.”
Benny Cifelli
General Manager
NetApp Canada
“The process reminded us that being deliberate regarding our key ‘Must Win’ deals is what will make us get the results we are targeting. A simple and effective approach for selling.”
Alex Talmor
President
GlassHouse Systems Canada
The objective isn’t more reporting. It’s better management visibility and accountability.
Frequently Asked Questions
Not quite. Forecast calls focus on which deals are expected to close and when. Those expectations change throughout the quarter.
Big Rock Review preserves the original list of your most important deals, tracks whether they’re receiving formal management reviews, and accounts for what happened to each one.
Your forecast changes. Your Big Rock record stays intact.
You could build the tracker yourself, and many VPs intend to. The value isn’t the spreadsheet. It’s knowing what to look for. After years of running enterprise sales teams, I know which patterns matter: managers who over-commit, managers who sandbag, reviews that never happened, deals that roll from quarter to quarter. I help you see them in one quarter instead of three, and I ask the questions your managers can’t sidestep.
The standard Big Rock Review engagement is US$5,000. One quarter. Fixed fee, plus applicable taxes.
It’s a focused, one-quarter consulting engagement that includes:
The Big Rock Review Playbook, Tracker / Quarterly Scorecard
A 60-minute installation session to establish the process
Two 30-minute check-ins during the quarter
A 60-minute quarter-end executive review to examine results, key insights and lessons learned
No hourly billing, and my work is guaranteed.
Keep using it. Big Rock Review doesn’t replace your existing methodology.
Your methodology helps managers assess and coach individual opportunities. Big Rock Review adds the leadership discipline to ensure the right deals are identified, receive management attention, and are accounted for at quarter-end.
It’s about management accountability, not another sales methodology.
The original Big Rock list is never erased. New deals can be added during the quarter, with their addition dates recorded.
When a deal is Won, Lost, Deferred or ends in No Decision, its outcome stays on the record.
Deals originally expected to close next quarter remain visible without being incorrectly classified as deferred.
Very little additional administration. Big Rock Review is designed to fit into your existing management routines, not create another layer of meetings.
Your sales managers continue conducting their own deal reviews. The additional work is maintaining the Big Rock list, recording formal reviews, and examining outcomes at quarter-end.
The time spent reviewing individual deals depends on your organization’s needs.
Big Rock Review includes a ready-to-use spreadsheet that makes it easy to establish the process without changing your CRM.
If your organization prefers to maintain everything within Salesforce or another CRM, your Sales Operations team can implement the same tracking rules there.
What matters is preserving the original deal list, recording formal reviews, and accounting for every outcome—not which software you use.
Your Biggest Deals Deserve More Than a Forecast Call.
Let’s talk about how to keep your biggest deals in focus, ensure they get the management attention they deserve, and account for every outcome.