Before you sign

Find out if the revenue plan is real before exclusivity ends.

AI crunches the target's CRM records. An experienced operator interviews the people who run the sales engine and gives the judgement. You get a scored assessment, the evidence behind it, and a 100-day action plan.

Book the Deal DD for GTM See a sample report

CHF 20,000

Fixed fee, 15 working days

For: A PE or VC fund with a deal in progress: the deal partner or principal. Paid from deal costs, often recharged to the target at close.
When: A signed LOI or exclusivity, usually a four to ten week window. We start within a week and report inside it.
Boundary: We do not size markets or run customer calls at scale. That belongs to your commercial provider, and this work is built to sit next to it.
Coverage: All ten areas at full depth, including all six functions, with a data-room request and one to two interview days.
Your time: About 2 hours for the deal team, plus one to two interview days of management time and a data pull from RevOps.
Who pays: The fund instructs and pays. Deal costs are sometimes recharged to the target at completion, which is normal. We take no fee from the target and sell no software.
Your data: A read-only export, not access to your systems, under your NDA. Data, AI and independence

Is this for you?

AI crunches the target's CRM records. An experienced operator interviews the people and gives the judgement. You get a verdict your investment committee can use.

Does your deal have a GTM problem?Check all that apply

The revenue plan assumes growth the pipeline cannot obviously supportManagement's forecast history is missing, or nobody will show itOne or two reps, or one customer, carry the numbersThe commercial work covers the market but not the sales engineThe target recently changed its CRO or its sales modelExclusivity ends in weeks and nobody has looked at the CRM

0 of 6 apply.

What you get

Scorecard and assessmentAll ten areas scored 1 to 5, plus the six functions inside Function Assessment, with a Proceed, Adjust or Stop verdict.

Reasoning and evidencePipeline, forecast, retention and pricing rebuilt from the raw records, set against what the CEO, CRO and front line say.

100-day action planPriorities for the first 100 days after close, ready for the value creation plan, each with an owner and a measure.

BenchmarkingScores and key ratios against public SaaS benchmarks, and against our own anonymised scores as that base grows.

Also: A five-page memo for the investment committee
Also: A risk register: each finding tied to price, structure or a condition

We need from you.

A read-only CRM export of all opportunities, eight quarters, with stage history
Weekly forecast snapshots if they exist, plus retention cohorts and the customer and revenue list
The org chart and comp plans
One to two interview days with the leadership team and front line
If data is missing, the affected scores are capped and listed under "not tested"

Book the Deal DD for GTM

How it runs

Fifteen working days from instruction to memo.

Day 0

Kick-off

A 45-minute call with the deal partner and the target's CRO or CMO. We agree the questions that decide the deal, the data we need and who we speak to.

You getAgreed questions and data list

Days 1 to 3

AI crunches the records

You send a request list. We rebuild pipeline, forecast accuracy, retention and win rates from the raw records, not from the management deck.

You getRebuilt pipeline, forecast and retention

Days 4 to 8

Conversations

One to two interview days, 60 to 90 minutes each, never more than five a day: CEO, CRO, CMO, customer lead, two account executives, one SDR, one presales lead.

You getNotes tagged to the ten areas

Days 9 to 12

Scoring and evidence

Ten areas scored 1 to 5, each with the numbers and the conversation behind it. Every risk is tied to a deal consequence: price, structure or condition.

You getScorecard and risk register

Days 13 to 15

Memo and debrief

A five-page memo your committee can read in ten minutes, the full report, the 100-day action plan and a debrief call.

You getMemo, report, action plan

What gets scored

Ten areas, each scored 1 to 5.

Forecasting

What the numbers showForecast against actual by quarter (accuracy and bias) over 4 to 8 quarters, from forecast snapshots and closed-won records.

What experience addsHow does a deal get into commit, and when did a committed deal last fall out? Who challenges the number?

Pipeline management

What the numbers showCoverage after removing stale (no activity in 60 days) and overdue deals.

What experience addsWalk me through a deal that sat in one stage for three months. What did you do about it?

Sales process rigour

What the numbers showStage definitions and exit criteria in the CRM.

What experience addsShow me the last lost deal. At which stage should it have been disqualified, and who decided?

Talent evaluation

What the numbers showQuota attainment by rep over 8 quarters (distribution and concentration), ramp time for reps hired in the last 24 months, regretted and non-regretted attrition, win rate by rep and by stage..

What experience addsWho would you rehire tomorrow, who would you not, and what does the next hire need that the last one lacked?

Sales and marketing tech stack

What the numbers showTool inventory with cost, owner and renewal date.

What experience addsWhich tool would you cancel tomorrow, and which number on the dashboard would you not trust?

Outbound

What the numbers showPipeline and opportunities by source for 8 quarters.

What experience addsIf you doubled the outbound budget, where would the money go and what would you expect back?

Process and AI maturity

What the numbers showInventory of AI tools in live use (users, frequency, measured effect).

What experience addsWhat AI is in production today, who uses it daily, and what changed because of it?

GTM operating model

What the numbers showWin rate and deal size by segment.

What experience addsWho owns pipeline, who owns the forecast and who owns retention, and do they agree?

Function assessment

What the numbers showPer function, from the records: presales win contribution and technical win rate.

What experience addsInterviews with each function lead and one practitioner. What do they need that they do not have?

A10

Planning

What the numbers showPlan against capacity: headcount, quota, ramp and attainment history.

What experience addsHow was this year's number set, who challenged it, and what would you cut if the first quarter missed?

Why now

Returns now come from growing revenue, and holding periods are long.

Revenue growth drove 71% of the value created in 2024 private equity exits, up from 64% a year earlier¹. Buyout holding periods have stretched to around seven years, against five to six in 2010 to 2021². At the same time, 42% of B2B executives surveyed fell short of their 2025 growth goals, up from 32% in 2024³.

So “can this team deliver the plan?” has moved from the margin of a deal to the middle of it. Chief revenue officers last 1.8 years on average, level with chief marketing officers and far below chief executives⁴, and about 60% of general partners have stepped up diligence on AI disruption risk⁵.

Moonfare, 2026 private equity outlook.
Bain, Global Private Equity Report 2026.
Bain, 2026 B2B Growth Agenda.
SaaStr.
EY, Private Equity Pulse, Q1 2026.

Questions about the Deal DD for GTM.

How does it fit next to commercial due diligence?

They answer different questions. Commercial work tests the market. This tests whether the sales engine can capture it. We share one request list early so the target is asked once.

Can it run inside an exclusivity window?

Yes. Kick-off within a week of instruction, interviews in days four to eight, memo by day fifteen. Rush delivery is possible; ask when you instruct.

What if the target will not share CRM data?

We score what can be verified and flag the rest as unproven. Reluctance to share a CRM export is itself information.

Who pays, and is it independent?

The fund instructs and pays. Deal costs are sometimes recharged to the target at completion, which is normal. We take no fee from the target and we sell no software. If we recommend a partner company, we say so, and we disclose any referral fee. The independence page explains the conflict policy.

Can it be faster?

Fifteen working days is the standard run. Faster delivery is possible on request: tell us the date exclusivity ends at the first call.

Does it work for targets that are not software companies?

The method is built for B2B companies that sell through a sales team and keep their records in a CRM: software and tech-enabled services, from roughly CHF 5M to 100M in revenue. For services businesses, pipeline is read against delivery capacity as well as the revenue target. Outside that range we say so at the first call.

Contact

Tell us the company and the date that matters.

A short note is enough: sector, rough revenue, and for a deal, when exclusivity ends. We reply within one working day.

Book the Deal DD for GTM contact@ddscale.com

Due Diligence / Data-Driven / Double-Digit