Role: Director of Revenue
Industry: Enterprise IT services
PromiseGuard: What frustrates Revenue about governance?
Director of Revenue: Late surprises. If we learn at the end that a term cannot be supported, we have already socialised it with the customer. Changing it then feels like we are taking something away.
PromiseGuard: So is the problem the control itself?
Director of Revenue: No. I want strong controls. I want them early enough to shape the offer while we still have options.
PromiseGuard: Where does speed get lost?
Director of Revenue: In incomplete escalations. A non-standard term goes to Finance, comes back with a question, then to Delivery, then to Legal. Everyone is working, but the deal keeps moving sideways.
PromiseGuard: What would a better decision look like?
Director of Revenue: Put the important promise in one place. Show me the economics, the delivery dependency, the evidence and the authority required. Then tell me whether it is clear, fixable or genuinely needs escalation.
PromiseGuard: How should a system treat ambitious deals?
Director of Revenue: It should help us shape them. Strategic deals are often non-standard by definition. The answer cannot be “standard or no.” The answer should be “here is the safe version of the ambition.”
PromiseGuard: What would make Sales trust the system?
Director of Revenue: Consistency and speed. If standard good deals move quickly and the hard deals get a useful repair path, people will use it.
PromiseGuard: What is the wrong success metric?
Director of Revenue: Number of deals blocked. If that is the metric, the system will become the enemy. The better metric is how much committed value gets a good decision before it becomes binding.