The One Page Mutual Action Plan Doc That Closes Deals

Good Morning. If you've been on the internet in the last 24 hours, you've probably seen that Allbirds (yes, the shoe company) is pivoting to AI. This feels like the new version of every company adding ".com" to their name in the 90s, or pivoting to crypto in 2021. Or like that sales rep who tells every prospect that the feature they want is on the "roadmap”. Sometimes it works, but usually it doesn't. Now, let's get into today's Follow Up. (:

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Imagine if you could hand your prospect a doc that told them exactly how you were going to sell them, and then they followed it to a T.

The good news is that doc is a real thing, and real sales reps use it.

The bad news is… most reps have no idea how to use one, or that they even exist.

Think about the last time you had a deal slip that you were confident about closing.

The champion is excited, the demo went well, and procurement is "looking at it." Then nothing. The thread goes quiet. You send the polite follow up. Still nothing.

The real problem is that nobody ever wrote down what was supposed to happen, when, and who was responsible.

That's what a mutual action plan fixes.

A mutual action plan, or MAP, is a shared one-page document between you and your buyer that lays out exactly what needs to happen for the deal to close.

It should cover the big milestones, the owners of those milestones, and dates.

It's signed off on by both sides, and it lives in a place where everyone can see it.

Think of it like a project plan that you and your buyer build together so that you both have skin in the game on hitting the close date.

Outreach research found that deals where account executives use a mutual action plan have a 26% higher win rate than deals without one. For a lot of people, that's the difference between hitting your number and missing it.

Not every deal needs a MAP. (plz don’t try to force one).

If you're closing a $5K deal in two weeks with one decision maker, skip it. The overhead isn't worth it.

But if you're working an enterprise deal that has multiple stakeholders, a longer sales cycle, or a price tag that's going to require finance, legal, security, and procurement to weigh in, you should definitely use one.

That may look like deals over $30K for transactional teams and deals over $100K for enterprise teams.

The right time to introduce a MAP is after discovery, once you've established mutual interest and your champion has agreed there's a real reason to evaluate.

The best MAPs are short. One page. Five sections at most.

Start with the goal. One or two sentences on what the buyer is trying to accomplish and by when. If you can, anchor the date to something real on their side, like a project launch, a contract renewal, or a fiscal year. Don't anchor it to your sales quarter, unless there’s a special discount in-quarter that they’ve said they want.

Then list the buying committee or stakeholders. Names, roles, and what each person is responsible for. If there are gaps in your committee, write "TBD" next to the role. Those gaps are super important because they tell you what you don't know yet.

Next, work backward from the close date. Every big milestone needed to get there: technical validation, security review, legal redlines, procurement, and signature. Don’t go overboard on this and list out every single call. Just cover the big stuff, and make sure each one gets a date and an owner. Some are on you. Some are on the buyer.

Then list the deliverables. What does the buyer need from you, and what do you need from them? Reference customers, ROI analysis, integration documentation, and an IT review. Make it as clear as you can.

End with the implementation timeline and expected outcome. When the contract will get signed, but also when they’ll start to get the actual results from using your product. This helps reframe the doc around their value, not just your commission.

The biggest mistake reps usually make with MAPs is sending a finished one over email and asking the buyer to "review and sign off." If you do that, I wish you good luck getting the buyer to follow it.

Instead, build it together on a call. Share your screen, walk through a draft, and ask them to fill in the gaps. When they're filling in the dates and names in the document with you, they take more ownership of it.

Once it's built, reference it constantly. Open up your meetings with a review of where you’re at. Update the dates in real time.

And if a milestone slips, call it out. "We're now 10 days behind on the security review and that's pushing our go live into Q3. Is that still acceptable on your end?" You want them to feel the accountability.

But there’s one big caveat to this whole thing. **

Always remember, it’s your job as the sales rep to guide the sales process. Never expect a prospect to care about the MAP as much as you do.

You need to build it, make the updates, and use it to hold everyone accountable. A MAP only works if you take ownership of it. And that’s why they pay you the big bucks. (:

Check out The Follow Up Guy on LinkedIn.