Do I need defined processes before starting?

No. It's the first part of the work, not a prerequisite. The four questions get answered in the first meetings and left written down.

How long does it take to put the criteria in order?

The basic rules — discounts, minimum margin, who approves — come out of the first meetings. Customer-specific terms get loaded afterwards, as they show up in real deals.

Does this take autonomy away from my salespeople?

The opposite: writing down how far each person can decide is what lets them decide without asking. Today their only safe way not to get it wrong is to check with you.

What if my rules change often?

That's expected in B2B, especially with moving price lists. The rule gets updated once, with your approval, and applies on its own from the next quote onward.

Does this work if we still use Excel spreadsheets?

Yes. Most rules and customer terms live in spreadsheets or in someone's memory. They get taken from wherever they are.

What to do when your sales processes aren't defined

Antonella De Lazzari · CEO and co-founder

Updated August 15, 2026

The short answer

No B2B company arrives with its sales processes written down, and you don't need them written to start putting them in order. The criteria already exist: they live in your head and in the heads of the two or three people who have known for years what price to give each customer. What's missing isn't judgment, it's judgment the rest of the team can reach. Writing it down takes a few meetings, not a months-long project.

When keeping it in your head is enough

With two or three salespeople and you involved in every deal, nothing is broken. Whoever has a doubt walks over and asks, the answer arrives immediately, and the same criteria apply across the ten deals of the month. Writing that down would be paperwork with no reader.

As long as you can look at everything before it goes out, you're fine. The problem doesn't come from billing more: it comes when more people need your judgment on the same day than you can attend to.

Where it breaks

There's the one who asks and the one who doesn't: Two salespeople quote different prices to the same customer in the same week. The customer notices before you do, and negotiates from the lower number next time.
You become your own company's bottleneck: Ten people in the field waiting for you to answer a voice note so they can close. Your day goes into repeating what you already know by heart.
Exceptions leave no trace: A discount above the usual gets approved on a Saturday over WhatsApp. Three months later nobody remembers why, and that price became that customer's price.
The criteria leave with the person: The day the person who knew which supplier sends bad codes and which customer isn't charged freight resigns, twenty years of field knowledge walk out with them.
The margin shows up late: The deal closed in March and you see the real number in May, when there's nothing left to correct.

What changes once it's written

Writing the criteria down doesn't take them away from anyone or replace them with a formula. What changes is who can reach them.

The salesperson stops depending on who they ask: That customer's terms and the discount they can give are where they're selling, before the price goes out.
The exception stays an exception: It can still happen, but with the amount, the resulting margin, and the reason attached. You stop approving blind.
You look at what falls outside the rule, not everything: Whatever fits what you defined goes out without passing through you. Your attention is left for the rest.

The same discount, with the rule written down: what fits goes out on its own, what exceeds it arrives with context.

Putting it in order means answering four questions

You don't need a procedures manual. In practice, the whole commercial criteria of a B2B company fits into these four answers, and most owners answer them from memory in a single meeting.

How much discount can each person authorize without asking you?: It can be one number for everyone, or vary by salesperson, category, or volume. What matters is that the number exists.
Which margin is untouchable?: The floor per deal. Below that, the sale doesn't go out without your approval even if the discount is within the limit.
What has each customer agreed to, and where does that live today?: Terms, allowances, agreed prices. Usually split between the ERP, a spreadsheet, and someone's memory.
Who approves an exception, and with what in front of them?: Who decides when something falls outside the rule, and what they need to see to decide in two minutes instead of two days.

Signs you've already crossed the line

You answer the same question several times a week: If you give the same price or the same terms more than twice, that answer is already an unwritten rule.
You find out about discounts after invoicing: You learn the number once the deal is closed, not while it was being decided.
There's a salesperson you can't replace: Not because of their customer relationships, but because they're the only one who knows how a price gets built.

How we work through this at Patio

None of the companies using Patio today arrived with this solved. Putting it in order is the first part of the work and we do it with you: in the first meetings we answer the four questions above and leave them written and running, without your team stopping sales in the meantime.

After that, those rules live where decisions happen. The salesperson sees the customer's terms and the discount they can give before the price goes out; anything outside the limit reaches whoever approves, with the amount, the resulting margin, and the reason. The criteria stay yours: what changes is that they stop depending on you being available.

Antonella — The exception as it reaches whoever approves: account, amount, resulting margin, and reason.

What to do when your company has no defined sales processes

When keeping it in your head is enough

Where it breaks

What changes once it's written

Putting it in order means answering four questions

Signs you've already crossed the line

How we work through this at Patio

Frequently asked questions

Keep reading

Probalo con tu forma de trabajar.