In simple terms
Approval lag is the time between when a deal or decision is ready for approval and when approval is actually confirmed.
Most teams measure sales cycle length.
Almost none measure approval lag separately.
That gap is where revenue quietly dies.
Why approval lag exists in modern teams
Approval lag is not caused by slow people.
It’s caused by how decisions happen.
In most teams:
Approvals happen inside Slack threads
Multiple functions are involved. Sales, Finance, Legal, RevOps
Responses arrive asynchronously
No one owns the approval timeline
Conditions are discussed but not recorded
Slack is excellent for conversation. It is terrible for commitment and memory.
Once a thread scrolls, urgency disappears. Ownership becomes implied instead of explicit.
What breaks later because of approval lag
Approval lag does not just slow things down.
It creates delayed damage.
Here’s what consistently breaks.
Pipeline velocity drops
A five-day approval delay on a sixty-day cycle increases cycle time by over 8%.
That directly reduces how many deals close per year.
This loss is invisible unless approval lag is measured separately.
Reps lose selling time
Reps do not wait passively for approvals.
They chase them.
Pings. Follow-ups. Status checks. Clarifications.
Those hours come directly out of selling time.
Deals die from confusion
Most approvals are conditional.
“Approved if Net 30.”
“Approved pending Legal.”
“Approved assuming the schedule is updated.”
When those conditions are not captured explicitly:
Reps think the deal is approved
Finance thinks it is contingent
Legal thinks it is still under review
The deal moves forward and breaks later.
Accountability collapses
Months later, when a deal is questioned, no one can answer:
Slack threads are discoverable.
They are not defensible. Bottlenecks compound
One slow approval does not affect one deal.
It creates a queue.
This is how approval lag quietly destroys quarters.
What teams usually try (and why it fails)
Most teams respond to approval lag with more effort, not better structure.
They try:
More Slack reminders
More approval channels
More meetings
More check-ins
This works briefly.
Then memory fades again.
Ownership blurs again.
Conditions get lost again.
The problem is not effort.
It is system design.
The minimum viable fix
Teams that reduce approval lag do four simple things.
One clear owner per approval
No group consensus. One named decider.
Explicit conditions captured at approval time
“Approved” is not enough. Conditions must be written.
Timestamps on request and resolution
Approval time must be visible to be managed.
Follow-through tracked separately
An approval with unmet conditions is not complete.
None of this requires more meetings.
It requires making decisions explicit at the moment they happen.
How teams capture approvals in Slack
Most teams already approve deals in Slack.
The problem is not where approvals happen.
It’s what happens after.
Teams that fix approval lag:
Capture the approval as a decision, not a message
Assign one owner
Record conditions explicitly
Preserve the full context
Make the approval durable and searchable
This is exactly what Decision Desk is designed for.
Decision Desk lives inside Slack.
It captures approvals where they already happen, but adds the structure Slack lacks.
Not faster conversations. Fewer regrettable decisions.
If you want to see your approval cost clearly
Most teams underestimate how much approval lag costs them.
The fastest way to see it is to calculate:
How long approvals take today
How many deals wait on them
What that delay costs in revenue
Why this page exists
Approval lag is not a sales problem.
It is not a people problem.
It is a decision system problem.
Teams that fix it do not work harder.
They make approvals explicit, owned, and defensible.