# How should we design discount approval rules so they don't create bottlenecks?

Set thresholds from the actual distribution of past discounts, not from a round number. Route by amount and margin impact rather than by title, and keep the number of approvers per quote to one wherever possible — approval fatigue sets in fast and produces rubber-stamping.

Instrument it: track approval cycle time and the share of quotes approved without change. If almost everything is approved unchanged, the threshold is too low and the control is theatre. Two layers of approval are justified only for genuinely exceptional deal sizes.

## Sources

- **Method** — [CPQ playbook — approval flows](https://www.leanscale.team/knowledge/playbooks/cpq-playbook/)

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Cluster: Cpq · https://www.leanscale.team/knowledge/answers/cpq-discount-approval-design/