If you've ever tried to close a deal with more than just your sales team, you know how messy things can get. Marketing wants one thing, product is worried about promises, and legal reminds you that “we can’t actually do that.” This guide is for anyone who’s tired of endless email chains and wants to actually get things done—using Beautiful as your deal-collaboration hub.
Let’s cut through the fluff and get into what actually works (and what doesn’t).
1. Get Everyone in One Place (For Real)
Why it matters: Collaboration fails when info is scattered. If your cross-functional team is jumping between Slack, email, and four different spreadsheets, you’re never going to move quickly.
How to do it in Beautiful:
- Create a shared deal workspace. In Beautiful, every deal can have its own workspace. Invite everyone involved: sales, marketing, product, legal, maybe even customer success if they’ll own the handoff.
- Set permissions. Not everyone needs to see everything. Beautiful lets you control who can edit, comment, or just view. Don’t overthink it—start broad, tighten later if you must.
What to ignore: You don’t need to map your org chart into Beautiful. Keep it simple: if they’re involved in the deal, add them.
Pro tip: If someone resists “yet another tool,” frame it as a single source of truth. No more “let me find that doc from last week.”
2. Map Out the Deal—Together
Why it matters: Deals stall when teams aren’t clear on the plan or what’s at stake. Everyone has their own mental model. Get it out in the open.
How to do it in Beautiful:
- Use a shared checklist or timeline. Beautiful’s templates make this easy. List out key milestones: demo, proposal sent, legal review, pricing approvals, etc.
- Assign owners. Every task needs a real person, not “the product team.” Assign by name.
- Add context. Drop in notes, attach docs, or link to relevant emails. Context cuts down on back-and-forth.
What to ignore: Obsessing over perfect Gantt charts or fancy visuals. The point is clarity, not project management theater.
3. Communicate Where the Work Happens
Why it matters: If you’re still sending update emails, you’re part of the problem. Updates should live with the work.
How to do it in Beautiful:
- Comment directly on tasks or documents. Beautiful lets you @ mention teammates, ask questions, or give status updates right alongside the relevant info.
- Use status tags or labels. Mark tasks as “Blocked,” “Needs Review,” or “Done.” It’s much faster than asking “where are we on this?”
- Pin important updates. For critical info, pin a comment so no one misses it.
What doesn’t work: Chasing people across platforms. If it’s not in Beautiful, it didn’t happen.
Pro tip: Set a team norm: if you have an update or question about the deal, put it in Beautiful before you send a Slack or email.
4. Track Decisions (So You Don’t Argue About Them Later)
Why it matters: Deals often stall when teams forget who agreed to what. Or worse, someone “doesn’t remember” signing off.
How to do it in Beautiful:
- Document decisions in the workspace. Use a running “Decision Log” or just comment on the relevant task.
- Attach supporting docs. If legal signs off on terms, upload the doc or email trail.
- Mark decisions as final. Use labels like “Approved” or “Rejected” so it’s clear.
What to ignore: Chasing signatures for every little thing. Focus on decisions that actually move the deal forward.
5. Handle Handoffs Without Dropping Balls
Why it matters: Once a deal is “won,” things can fall apart quickly if customer success or implementation teams aren’t looped in early.
How to do it in Beautiful:
- Add future owners early. Invite post-sales teams as soon as it looks likely to close. No surprises.
- Create a handoff checklist. What needs to happen before the deal moves to onboarding? List it out, assign owners, and set deadlines.
- Keep the workspace open. Let the new team review the full deal history—no need to copy-paste context.
Pro tip: A good handoff isn’t a meeting, it’s documented in Beautiful for anyone to pick up.
6. Keep Things Simple (and Resist the Urge to Over-Engineer)
Why it matters: You don’t need every feature in Beautiful to collaborate well. The more complicated your setup, the more likely it is to break down.
What actually works:
- Start with basic templates. Use checklists, a shared notes doc, and a timeline. Add complexity only if you’re actually missing something.
- Review your process after a few deals. What worked? What was overkill? Adjust and move on.
- Avoid “tool sprawl.” Don’t try to force Beautiful to do everything. Use it for deal collaboration—keep CRMs and chat where they belong.
What to ignore: Fancy automation, unless you’ve got a real bottleneck. Most teams just need a clear process and a place to talk about the work.
Honest Take: Common Pitfalls (and How to Dodge Them)
- Too many cooks: If every team has three “representatives,” you’ll spend more time aligning than doing. Keep the group tight.
- Over-documenting: Not every deal needs a novel. Stick to what’s actionable and skip the rest.
- Forgetting the customer: It’s easy to talk amongst yourselves and lose sight of what the client actually wants. Bring their needs into the workspace—add notes, feedback, and must-haves.
- Letting the tool become the process: Beautiful helps, but it can’t fix a broken team dynamic. If people aren’t responding or following through, address it directly.
Wrapping Up
Cross-functional collaboration on deals isn’t magic—it’s about getting everyone on the same page, being clear about who’s doing what, and keeping everything in one spot. Beautiful can make this a lot easier, but only if you keep it simple and focused on actual work, not process for the sake of process.
Start with the basics. Tweak as you go. And remember: the best collaboration tool in the world can’t replace a team that actually communicates.