Whale Watching: How Rev Uses Rattle to Help Forecast Big Deals

Everyone loves a big deal. (They’re kind of… a big deal.)

But forecasting them? That can be tricky. 

Unlike standard deals, “whales” as they’re often called, can take more time and resources to close, and they can have a big impact on your forecast.

Meg Peterson, VP of Revenue Operations at Rev, the human-meets-AI transcription company, knows this all too well. As the owner of all things revenue and reporting, it's her job to figure out how these opportunities are tracked, modeled, and communicated across the org.

That's why she uses Rattle to stay on top of Rev's pipeline. With up-to-the-minute insights, clear tracking in Deal Rooms, and reminders for reps to update opportunity data, Rattle provides Meg the clarity and control she needs to stay on top of big deals.

Making sure the pipeline stays on track

One thing Meg knows for sure? A pipeline that looks good on paper doesn't always mean things are going to progress smoothly.

"A $12.5 million pipeline for Q1 might look promising," she said, "but that can be a deceiving number. When you dig deeper, you realize a lot of those are big deals, over $500k, and they usually take longer to close – often more than a year. That's why it's important to carefully assess each large deal individually to understand its true timeline, not just the optimistic projection for the whole pipeline."

Rattle's "whale alerts" play a key role here: this automation gives Meg an immediate update when a big deal enters the pipeline, so she's never caught off guard.

With this info, she can finetune her forecasts and start managing expectations with her team – and crucially, leadership – right from the start.

"Rattle's notifications help keep our C-suite informed about any changes in our pipeline," she said. "It allows us to quickly share updates, insights, and reports, so our executive team always has the latest information and forecast changes are never a surprise."

Automated deal monitoring and alerting

At Rev, navigating the complexities of large deals has also become more streamlined thanks to Rattle's Deal Rooms. Triggered when specific milestones are reached, like an AE qualifying a lead, these automated Slack channels are essential for improving collaboration and monitoring deal strategy.

"We were looking for a solution that automatically brings important people into the deal process, improves visibility, and integrates tools like Jira for contracting requirements," she said. "Deal Rooms have been that solution, allowing us to customize and close them as deals move on, keeping everything time-bound."

"They get the right people involved exactly when needed, without any extra effort on our part," she added. "It's where we discuss each deal's strategy, making sure we're all on the same page about how to move forward."

Even better?

"Deal Rooms have been invaluable for alerting us when a deal has been in a certain stage for too long, prompting us to either move the deal forward or adjust its status," she said. "It lets us ask the question: what’s standing in the way of moving this to the next stage? The answer helps us assess the deal’s probability to close, which in turn improves the accuracy of our forecasting."

Start tracking your whales

Tired of gut feelings dictating your big deals? Schedule a demo with Rattle and get powerful tools that will help you predict, track, and close even the largest opportunities.

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