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Copy My Mutual Action Plan Template for Your Deals
Published about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Copy My Mutual Action Plan Template for Your Deals
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A few years back, in my first Enterprise selling role, I had a major mindset shift that I believe seriously altered the course of my selling career.
At the time, I was working with an incredibly talented VP of Sales, who was investing a lot of time in helping me with my mindset. What was the mindset shift you ask? To begin approaching deals as projects to be managed and not deals to be closed.
Up until that point in time, my career was selling smaller, transactional deals with 1-3 stakeholders/buyers. I'd not yet worked on a six or multiple six-figure annual deal with 5+ stakeholders, high complexity, high competition and a tight timeline to launch. With this mindset shift also came the need for a process to manage the key milestones in the project (evaluation).
Enter the mutual action plan... Introduced to me by the same VP of Sales mentioned above, this play gave me the ability to collaborate with my Champion, technical buyer, exec sponsor and the many other stakeholders in a strategic deal.
My Basic Mutual Action Plan Template for Managing Deal Milestones
The mutual action plan gave me a document to collaborate with my buyers on steps, meetings, action items while adding dates and assigning ownership on both the prospect's side and our side.
It's a professional way to hold everyone internally and externally to deadlines (i.e. complete infosec review, budget approval, sign order form). In the years since I was first introduced to the project manager mindset and mutual action plan framework, I've closed many high ARR deals using this exact template. It's helped me to introduce good friction into my deals and be an expert and advisor to my prospects vs. just being a sales rep.
Implementing a mutual action plan in your deals is something of an art form and may feel awkward at first, but I can promise you it will completely change the way you sell. When large budgets are being spent on tech, the mutual action plan will set you apart from your competition, add credibility and help everyone stay aligned.
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Sales Players is on a mission to reach 1,000 reps, founders, and operators in tech with FREE weekly content that explores the mindset, skills, trends, and tools used by the industry's top players to win at the game of tech sales.
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