What Does Deal Sheet Mean?
A deal sheet is, in its simplest form, a record of all the deals that an employee, entrepreneur or company has completed in the past.
This list will include all of the deals that the entity or person has been involved with in one capacity or another. In some cases, the person or entity may have been largely responsible for financing the deal, while in others they may have been heavily involved in operating the company.
A deal sheet therefore reveals the experience of the person or entity and shows that they may be an asset in future deals of the same variety. It could be said that a deal sheet is a form of resume; but whereas a resume simply provides a list of job titles and duties performed, a deal sheet will show more in terms of what the person or entity has actually accomplished.
Most deal sheets are prepared by persons or companies that want to further their careers by doing deals in a certain sector of the market. A deal sheet can serve as proof that they have experience in doing deals like this, so this may make them more attractive to others who will need the services that they can provide to do deals in the future.
If you work in investment banking, it is vitally important for you to fully document everything you have accomplished in every deal that you have done. Your deal sheet should contain factors such as the amount of profit that your past actions have generated and the yield per share that you have helped to create. A business owner that wants to hire an investment banker will often request a deal sheet for every member of the team so that he or she can gauge the experience level of the banker.
Divestopedia Explains Deal Sheet
Deals are completed within organizations by joint effort. Investment banking employees should record their input in getting that deal completed and use the information for performance appraisals and/or for potential interviews for other positions.
In either case, a deal sheet will help the employee be prepared and will help the appraiser or interviewer to ask better questions based on the achievements listed.
Instructions for investment banking employees on how to document the experiences in a deal sheet are as follows:
-
If the number of deals worked on is less than three, then this experience can just be added to a résumé, not a deal sheet. But it is important to start making a deal sheet early in your career and not just when you are looking for another job. Make up this list as you go along, because later on you may not be able to remember all of the vital details of your performance in each deal.
-
For a junior associate, a deal sheet must not only include the details of the work, but also the specific work performed. It needs to clearly show exactly how the duties you performed impacted the deal.
-
One must not include any confidential information about a deal.
-
If there is a particular deal that one has worked on, which was complicated, interesting and ultimately offered a unique experience, then that must be described in detail. A proper description, steps taken to make the deal a success, the difficulties faced, and how it all came together must be included in the sheet.
-
The deal sheet must be categorized according to the types of deals. Each category of deals should also be separated by headings.
-
The deal sheet must use bullet points.
-
The deal sheet must contain the dates of each deal and can be in chronological order.
-
Condense similar deals for the same client into one item.
-
Update the deal sheet on a regular basis.
-
The deal sheet can also include deals that did not close, if your experience there still reflects how you could positively impact future deals.
-
Be sure to summarize a series of materially identical deals into one deal. Don’t bore the reader with a redundant list of deals.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, you should always be ready to talk intelligently about the details in your deal sheet so that you can market yourself most effectively.
