Mutual Action Plan

A Mutual Action Plan is the Decision Process and the Paper Process written down in one place, with a date and an owner against every line, and agreed by both sides. It starts today and ends at the outcome the customer cares about, which is rarely the signature. It is the go-live, the first report, the number moving. Working backwards from that date, through legal, procurement, security, the business case, the evaluation and the executive meeting, is what turns a hope into a plan.

The question it answers: what has to happen, by whom, by when, for this customer to get what they want?

The mistake is building it alone. A plan the seller writes and emails to the customer is a close plan with the word “mutual” stuck on the front. The customer did not agree to it, so the dates mean nothing. The second mistake is anchoring it on your close date. Customers do not care about your quarter. Anchor it on their outcome and the close date falls out of the maths, usually earlier than you feared or later than you hoped. Both are useful to know.

How I use it. I build the plan with my Champion, then I get the Economic Buyer to see it, because an executive who has looked at a dated plan with their name on a line has made a small commitment that is hard to walk back. Then it becomes the deal’s heartbeat. Every slipped line is a question: why, and what does it mean for the rest? A Mutual Action Plan that nobody on the customer’s side has touched in three weeks is telling you something. Listen to it.