A mutual action plan (MAP) is a non-binding shared document between the buyer and seller to drive alignment towards an end goal with clear responsibilities and timelines.
Mutual action plans transform buyer engagement from manual, siloed, and disconnected to data-rich, collaborative, and outcome-driven experience. It is where the selling and buying teams come together to define the mutual business outcomes and continuously align and collaborate on accomplishing those in time. It keeps all parties accountable and focused on the goals, milestones, metrics and the plan that help maximize the potential of the relationship.
Be clear about what value your solution will deliver for your buyer and why is it important for them (connect back to the business problem).
We live in a dynamic world, and you need to constantly context switch between high-level milestones and low-level tasks as you go through the buying process with your champion.
Expose your CSMs, your customer references, professional services along with executive sponsors to their counterparts. Your buyers will love you for doing this.
Elevate sellers role to focus on value selling and delivery and let technology automate buyer Q&A.
Don’t leave your customers when the contract is signed. Participate and lead QBRs; ensure value is being delivered. This will pave the way for massive upsells and more customer references.
A lot of experienced sellers already use Close Plans or Mutual Action Plans (MAP) to plan through the decision and paper processes with their buyers.
Close Plans are designed to help a seller win deals without any explicit need to include the buyer in the process of creating it. MAPs are an improvement from Close Plans in the sense that they are buyer facing, but because the focus is on project management alone, they are usually abandoned after the contract is signed and do not get used for any meaningful buyer value delivery. To that extent, MAPs are Close Plans that get occasionally reviewed with a buyer 2-3 times in the entire sales cycle.
Mutual Success Plan (MSP) is a new way of buyer engagement that is focused on two key concepts – ‘Mutual Success’ and ‘Success Plan’. ‘Mutual Success’ is about establishing a shared understanding of what success means for you and your buyers. ‘Success Plan’ is the shared path that you and your buyer need to take in order to reach the mutually desired outcomes.
MSPs start with value discovery and go all the way through to value realization for the buyers (contract signing is just one step in this process). MSPs are co-developed with the buyers and continuously reviewed with them throughout the relationship to ensure that both parties are always directing their efforts in the joint pursuit of buyer outcomes and make necessary course-corrections in cases of any deviation.
This new way of buyer engagement aligns with modern buyer expectations around self-service and outcome-driven vendor relationships.
BuyerAssist platform helps Enterprise Sellers plan and execute their strategy for winning key deals; by partnering effectively with their colleagues and building trust with their buying team through transparent engagement in the selling process.
We digitize ‘’Mutual Success Plans” to drive transparency and visibility leading to faster value realization.
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