Mutual action plan: what it holds and what it proves

01

What a mutual action plan is

A mutual action plan, or mutual close plan, sets out the steps customer and seller agree to take, with an owner and date for each. It runs from the evaluation to a signed contract and the start of implementation.

02

Mutual action plan template and example

A mutual action plan template needs four columns: the step, its owner by name, the date that owner agrees and what shows the step is done.

Agree the applicable steps and their sequence with the customer. In the example below, replace each role with a person's name and enter the date that person confirms. Include the seller's own decision before the proposal as well.

03

Give every customer step a named owner

Each customer step needs one person on the customer's side who will do it.

Write that person's name, not "procurement" or "legal". Where you do not know the person yet, finding out is the next thing to ask. Ask your contact which of the steps in the table their company has, and who runs each one.

04

Set the dates from the customer's date

Work backwards from the date the customer needs the result, and let each step's owner say how long their step takes.

Your quarter-end date is not evidence of the customer's deadline. Establish what the customer needs to achieve and by when before using it to set the plan's dates.

For the length of each step, ask how long it took the last time. HubSpot's guide to close plans suggests asking: "When you and your team last bought a solution like this, what were the steps? How long did legal take to return first cuts?" Then check the answer with the owner of the step. Legal's own estimate of its review is worth more than your contact's guess.

05

When the plan shows buying progress

The plan shows buying progress when the customer's people complete the steps they own.

Treat each customer line the way MEDDICC qualification treats each element: as an evidence claim, with five questions. What do we know, how do we know it, who confirmed it, what remains an assumption, and which conversation or action could create the missing evidence?

Use those questions to distinguish three levels of evidence for a customer step. Agreed by the champion: your champion has accepted the step on someone else's behalf. Confirmed by its owner: the person responsible has confirmed what the step involves, its date and what will show completion. Done: the step has happened and the agreed evidence is available.

Where a step has only been agreed with the champion, the next conversation is with its owner. Completing the seller's tasks does not supply that confirmation.

If a step slips, ask its owner for a revised date and what the delay changes for the later steps. Until that conversation, the completion date is unconfirmed; keep the other evidence of the owner's involvement.

06

Two decisions the Sales Engineer brings into the plan

The account executive and Sales Engineer put two go or no-go points in the plan: before the proof and before the proposal.

The account executive and the Sales Engineer confirm with the economic buyer that the outcomes, the timeline and the step after a successful proof are agreed before technical validation begins. In the plan, that is a line owned by the economic buyer and dated before the proof starts. Write the step after a successful proof beside the other agreements that come before a Proof of Value.

When the proof is done, the team decides internally whether to go to a proposal. That decision is the seller's line, and it rests on the customer's line before it: whether the people who wrote the success criteria have read the results against them.

The plan does not end at signature. When the customer decides, the value presentation and the Proof of Value success criteria become the customer's success plan, so the last lines hand the deal to Customer Success. In GitLab's sales process, the Solution Architect documents customer success criteria. The handbook says the document "should be signed by an accountable individual from both parties".

07

Reading the plan in a deal review

Start a deal review with the evidence for the customer's steps.

Ask three things of each customer line that is not yet done: who owns it by name, who gave the date, and what will show that it is done. Mark the owner and date as unconfirmed until the relevant person has confirmed them. Keep the evidence already established for the other parts of the step.

Then name the next conversation for each open line. For an approval step still unconfirmed, it is a meeting where you ask the economic buyer what they can approve and whose agreement they need. For a security review without a date, it is a call with the person who runs the review.

In my opportunity qualification training, a deal review examines the value hypothesis, the buying group, the MEDDICC evidence, the decision process, the missing evidence and the next step.