Mutual action plan template

 

Pick the date you and your buyer want to sign. Add the steps between here and there, who owns each one and how long it takes. The builder works backwards to a dated plan you can share with the buyer, and tells you if the date is realistic.

 

• Start from a small business, mid-market or enterprise template

• Working-day dates that skip weekends and UK bank holidays

• The earliest realistic signature date, and a plan to copy or save as PDF

How to use it

1. Enter your company, the buyer and the target signature date.

2. Start from a typical deal, then edit the steps, owners, leads and durations.

3. Mark steps that can run side by side, such as security and legal review.

4. Copy the plan into an email or save it as a PDF, and agree it with your buyer.

 

How the numbers work

Steps before signature are scheduled backwards from your target date: the last one finishes the working day before signature, and each earlier step finishes the working day before the next starts. Steps marked as running alongside the step above happen at the same time.

The earliest realistic signature runs the same steps forwards from today. Weekends and England and Wales bank holidays are skipped.

 

Questions

What is a mutual action plan?

A mutual action plan, sometimes called a close plan, is a shared, dated list of the steps you and your buyer need to take to reach a decision, with an owner for each step. It turns a hoped-for close date into one the buyer has agreed to.

When should I introduce a mutual action plan?

Once the buyer has agreed there is a problem worth solving and a rough timeline, usually after discovery. Introducing it early makes it a working document rather than a closing tactic.

What steps should a mutual action plan include?

Typically discovery and success criteria, demos or a proof of concept, a business case for the budget holder, commercial agreement, security review, legal review, procurement and final approval, then kick-off and go-live after signature.

How do I get a buyer to agree to it?

Send it as a draft and ask them to correct it. Buyers know their own approval steps better than you do, and a plan they have edited is one they are more likely to follow.

 

More free sales tools

• Pipeline Timing Planner: See when each stage has to happen to hit each quarter, and what to do this week.

• MEDDIC Scorecard: Score a live deal on the six elements and see the question to ask for every gap.

• 30-60-90 Ramp Plan: A dated onboarding plan for a new AE or SDR, with goals, milestones and reviews.

• See all the free sales tools

 

Deals slipping at the last step?

We help sales teams build mutual action plans into their process and CRM, so forecasts are based on dates buyers have actually committed to.