Your deal needs a discount outside the matrix, a payment schedule finance does not normally accept, or a clause your paper does not carry. Before the buyer signs, somebody inside your own company has to. The document that asks for that signature is a deal desk approval request, and most reps write it as a plea, late, with the number buried. A good one clears in a single pass. Here is the workflow and the two prompts that do most of the work.
What the reviewer is actually deciding
A deal desk, a sales VP or a finance partner is deciding three things, roughly in this order: does this set a precedent we can live with, is the revenue real, and who owns the risk if it goes wrong.
Almost every bounced request fails on the first one. A 22 percent discount is rarely refused because 22 is too high; it is refused because nothing in the request explains why this account differs from the next forty that will ask for the same number. The request has one job: make the exception legible as an exception.
The five facts the model cannot invent
Collect these before you open an assistant. A request missing any one of them comes back, and drafting does not fix a missing fact.
- The ask, once, in numbers. Standard term, requested term, delta in annual contract value. One line.
- What you get back. Concessions are traded, not given: longer term, earlier payment, a nameable logo, a reference commitment. If you got nothing, say so. Decide it during the price conversation, which is what the negotiation playbook is for.
- The precedent boundary. The checkable fact that makes this account unlike the others: a committed multi-year ramp, a regulated requirement, a displacement with a documented incumbent renewal date.
- The alternative. What happens if the answer is no. Not a threat, a forecast: the deal slips a quarter, lands smaller, or goes to a named competitor. Reviewers ignore vague doom and act on specific consequences.
- The owner and the date. Who signs, by when, and what the buyer has already put in writing.
If the exception is a contract clause rather than a commercial term, read it yourself first so the request describes the right risk: see reviewing a contract before legal sees it.
Prompt 1: draft the request
Paste the five facts in and let the model do the structure. Keep the output short on purpose.
You are a deal desk reviewer at a B2B software company. I am the account executive. Draft my approval request for the exception below. DEAL: [account, ACV, term length, close date] STANDARD: [the normal term or discount] REQUESTED: [the exception, in numbers, with the ACV delta] IN RETURN: [what the buyer committed to, and whether it is in writing] WHY THIS ACCOUNT IS NOT A PRECEDENT: [the specific checkable fact] IF REFUSED: [the realistic outcome, with a date] APPROVER AND DEADLINE: [name, date] Rules: - Maximum 200 words, after a one-line summary stating the ask and the ACV delta. - Use only the facts above. Where one is missing, write "NOT SUPPLIED" rather than inferring it, and list those gaps at the end. - Label what the buyer committed to in writing separately from what they said verbally. - No adjectives about the opportunity. No urgency language. - End with the decision you are asking for, as a yes or no.
The "NOT SUPPLIED" rule matters most. Every gap the model prints is a question the reviewer would have asked, and you see it first.
Prompt 2: make it argue against itself
Now run the draft back through as the reviewer. This pass saves the second round trip.
Here is my approval request: [paste the draft] Act as the deal desk reviewer who is inclined to refuse it. Then: 1. Name the three weakest claims and the evidence each one would need to hold. 2. Write the precedent argument against me: the case that approving this commits us to the same for similar accounts. Name which ones. 3. Tell me the one sentence to delete because it reads as pressure rather than reasoning. 4. State the smallest version you would approve without escalation, and what you would want in exchange. Do not rewrite my request. Give me the objections and the floor.
Point four is the one reps skip and the one that closes deals. Knowing the smallest approvable version in advance means a refusal is not a dead end, it is a counter you have already drafted.
Common mistakes
- Asking before the buyer has committed anything. An exception requested against a verbal maybe is a far worse ask than the same one against a signed mutual action plan.
- Burying the number. If the reviewer reads three paragraphs to find the delta, you have spent goodwill for nothing.
- Letting the model supply the precedent argument. It will produce something plausible and generic, and a reviewer who knows the account base spots that immediately.
- Confusing the buyer's business case with yours. What your champion carries internally is a different document for a different audience. Build it separately: the business case your buyer can defend and the proposal your champion can sell.
- Treating approval as the finish line. An approved exception that then slips is a forecasting problem you own. Carry the revised date into your pipeline review.
Frequently asked questions
How long should a deal desk approval request be?
Two hundred words plus a one-line summary stating the ask and the annual contract value delta. Reviewers read many in a sitting, and length reads as weakness rather than thoroughness. Attach supporting detail rather than inlining it.
What if I have nothing to trade for the exception?
Say so plainly, because a reviewer who finds the missing trade themselves assumes you hid it. Then use the second prompt to find the smallest version that clears without a trade, and take that to the buyer as your counter.
Can an assistant write the whole approval request for me?
It can write the structure, tighten the language and stress-test the argument. It cannot supply the five facts, and the precedent argument has to come from you, because it depends on which accounts in your book would ask for the same thing. Treat the output as a draft that has been argued with, not a finished submission.
Put it to work
Run both prompts on the next exception you need signed off, and keep the stress-test pass even when the request looks clean. For a prompt built around your role and stage, the free prompt builder puts one together in seconds.