In today’s fast-paced and complex sales environments, the deal desk has evolved from a back-office function into a strategic growth engine. Yet many organizations still underutilize its potential -focusing narrowly on approvals instead of enablement, governance, and scalable decision-making. In this session, Alison Donley, Director of Commercial Operations at Tufin, will share how to transform your deal desk into a true center of excellence that accelerates revenue while safeguarding profitability. Drawing from real-world experience leading a global deals desk, Alison will outline practical strategies for streamlining processes, strengthening cross-functional alignment, and driving data-informed deal strategy. Attendees will gain insights into how a well-structured deal desk can unlock efficiency, enhance collaboration between Sales, Finance, and Legal, and become a pivotal force in sustainable, scalable growth.

We hit our number five quarters in a row. Then a take-private, a separation into a standalone company, and a redesign of customer success into account management changed the ground under our forecast, and we missed. Our NRR stayed strong, but board confidence didn’t. Selling only to airlines makes it harder: deals are large, lumpy, and swayed by outside forces like fuel prices. This session shares how we’re rebuilding forecast trust in real time. You’ll leave with a forecast-resilience checklist, a model for aligning RevOps and finance around one version of the number, and a rules-based approach to deal scoring built for a small number of high-stakes deals.