---
name: mutual-action-plan
description: "Builds a mutual action plan (shared close plan) for a B2B deal: a one-paragraph why-now summary, the agreed success criteria, a dated timeline of buyer and seller steps working back from the buyer's go-live date, owners on both sides, risks and the decision process. Use once a buyer agrees to evaluate seriously, when deals with several stakeholders stall, or when a close date keeps slipping."
license: MIT
metadata:
  title: "Mutual Action Plan"
  category: "sales"
  author: "esther"
  summary: "Co-write a dated close plan with the buyer, working back from their go-live need, with owners on both sides and named risks."
  tags: "mutual action plan, close plan, deal management, buying committee, enterprise sales"
  version: "1.0"
  updated: "2026-10-19"
---
# Mutual Action Plan

Produces a shared plan the seller and buyer both edit: why the buyer is doing this, what success looks like, every step from evaluation to go-live with a date and an owner on each side, and the risks that could derail it. A good plan is short enough for a champion to forward to their boss and specific enough to show when a deal is slipping.

## When to use

- After discovery, once the buyer agrees there is a problem worth solving and wants to evaluate.
- Deals with three or more stakeholders, a security or legal review, or procurement.
- A close date has moved more than once and nobody can say why.
- The champion is enthusiastic but you have not met anyone else.
- Before committing a deal in the forecast.

## What you need

Ask for these before drafting:

1. **Buyer context:** company, the problem and its cost, and the date or event driving urgency (a contract expiring, a launch, a new team starting, a budget deadline).
2. **Stakeholders:** names and roles on the buyer side you know, and roles you suspect are involved but have not met.
3. **Buying steps you know of:** evaluation, technical review, security, legal, procurement, budget approval, signature.
4. **Your side's steps:** demos, pilot, proposal, reference calls, contract drafts, onboarding kickoff.
5. **Current stage** and target close date, and how that date was set.
6. **Deal risks you already sense.**

## Process

1. **Start from the buyer's date, not your quarter.** Ask: when do they need to be live and getting value, and why? Work backwards from that date. A plan anchored on the buyer's deadline survives scrutiny; one anchored on your quota does not.
2. **Write the summary paragraph.** In the buyer's language: the problem, what it costs, what they want instead, and why now. This is the part the champion will forward internally, so keep it under 120 words.
3. **Agree the success criteria.** Three to five measurable outcomes the buyer will use to judge the decision (and later the implementation). These also become the agenda for evaluation steps.
4. **List the steps in phases.** For example: Evaluate, Validate, Decide, Contract, Launch. Each phase gets three to six steps. Each step has a description, an owner on the buyer side, an owner on your side, a target date, and a status.
5. **Include the steps buyers forget.** Security questionnaires, data protection review, vendor onboarding in procurement, legal redlines, budget sign-off by finance, signature authority. Ask the buyer how their last similar purchase went; it reveals the real process.
6. **Add buffer before critical dates.** Legal and procurement steps routinely take longer than buyers expect. Put slack before the signature date, not after it.
7. **Map the decision process.** Who recommends, who approves, who signs, and the criteria each person applies. Flag any role you have not met yet and add a step to meet them.
8. **List risks with mitigations.** Typical ones: champion changes role, budget frozen, competing priority, security finding, a new stakeholder with a different preference. Each gets an owner and an early warning sign.
9. **Agree how the plan is used.** Who updates it, when you review it together (weekly or at each milestone), and where it lives (a shared document or a deal room). Draft it, then review it live with the buyer; never send it as a finished ultimatum.
10. **Use slippage as a signal.** If buyer-owned steps keep slipping, the deal is at risk regardless of what the buyer says on calls. Raise it openly and re-plan.

## Output format

```
# Mutual Action Plan: [Buyer] and [Seller]   Last updated [date]

## Why we are doing this
[under 120 words, buyer's language: problem, cost, desired outcome, why now]

## Target outcome date
Live and delivering value by [date] because [buyer reason]

## Success criteria
1.
2.
3.

## Decision process
| Role | Name | Criteria they care about | Met? |

## Plan
| Phase | Step | Buyer owner | Seller owner | Target date | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Evaluate | ... | | | | | |
| Validate | ... | | | | | |
| Decide | ... | | | | | |
| Contract | ... | | | | | |
| Launch | Kickoff | | | | | |

## Risks
| Risk | Early warning sign | Mitigation | Owner |

## How we will use this plan
Review cadence, location, who updates.
```

## Quality checklist

- The timeline works backwards from a buyer-driven date with a stated reason.
- The summary is under 120 words and in the buyer's words.
- Success criteria are measurable.
- Every step has an owner on both sides and a date.
- Security, legal, procurement, and budget steps are included or explicitly ruled out.
- The decision process names unmet stakeholders and a step to meet them.
- Buffer sits before the signature date.
- The plan says how and when it will be reviewed with the buyer.

## Common mistakes

- **A seller-only plan.** If every step is owned by the seller, it is a sales activity list, not a mutual plan.
- **Working back from quarter end.** Buyers see through it, and the dates collapse at the first delay.
- **Skipping the boring steps.** Deals rarely die in evaluation; they die in procurement and legal steps nobody planned for.
- **Sending it as a contract.** A plan the buyer did not shape will not be followed. Build it together.
- **Never updating it.** A plan that is not reviewed weekly becomes a historical document.
- **Ignoring slippage.** Buyer steps sliding by a week each time is the clearest early sign of a dying deal.
- **Too long.** Fifty-line plans do not get forwarded. Keep phases and steps tight.

## Example prompts

- "Draft a mutual action plan for a deal with a 2,000-person insurer. They need to go live before their January renewal season."
- "Our champion is keen but we have not met finance or IT. Build a close plan that gets us there."
- "This deal has slipped twice. Help me build a plan to re-anchor the timeline with the buyer."
- "Write the summary paragraph for a mutual action plan my champion can forward to the CFO."
- "What steps do buyers usually forget between verbal yes and signature?"