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