A mutual action plan is a shared, dated list of the steps both the buyer and the seller will take from today to the buyer using what they bought. The account executive builds it with the buyer's champion, usually after discovery, in one 30-minute working session and a few edits after. Its value comes from the buyer writing part of it.
A plan only the seller wrote is the seller's forecast in a nicer format. A plan the buyer has edited is evidence that they have thought about how they buy. That difference is why the mutual action plan matters in deal coaching: it is one of the few documents that shows what the buyer intends to do.
What a mutual action plan is for
A mutual action plan makes the buyer's buying process visible to both sides, with names and dates. Deals often slip late because of steps the seller did not know about: a security review, a budget sign-off, a legal queue.
- Earn it
- Offer it as help to the champion
- Start from the buyer's date
- Draft the steps together, live
- Ask for the steps the champion does not own
- Put a name and a date on every step
- Hand it over and review it every call
Salesloft's guide suggests breaking the process "into seven to nine milestones" and naming people and roles for each (Salesloft). That is a sound shape. The harder part is getting the buyer to write the steps only they know, and that is what the procedure below is built around.
How to build one in seven steps
Step 1. Earn it
Do: propose a plan only once the buyer has described the problem in their own words and put a number on it. Before that, a plan is paperwork about a project the buyer has not committed to.
Good looks like: the rep can quote what the problem costs, and who said it.
Step 2. Offer it as help to the champion
Say: "You'll have to take this through your side. Could we spend 30 minutes mapping the steps from here to your team using it, so nothing surprises either of us?"
Good looks like: the champion agrees to a working session. If they decline, ask why. "We're not there yet" is useful evidence about the deal's real stage.
Step 3. Start from the buyer's date
Say: "Is there a date this has to be working by? What happens on that date?"
Do: anchor the plan to an event on the buyer's side: a season, a launch, a contract renewal, a board meeting. Work backward from it.
Good looks like: a date with a reason the buyer gave. A close date the seller picked is not an anchor.
Step 4. Draft the steps together, live
Do: share a document on the call and type as the champion talks. Start with the steps the champion knows: their evaluation, their team's sign-off, the budget owner.
Good looks like: six to ten steps, most of them on the buyer's side.
Step 5. Ask for the steps the champion does not own
Say: "Who in IT or security will need to review this, and how long does that usually take?" "Does anything over a certain amount need Finance or procurement?" "Who signs the contract, and what does legal usually ask for?"
Do: add each answer as a step with an owner, even if the owner is "unknown, champion to find out".
Good looks like: at least one step the rep did not know existed. That is the plan earning its keep.
Step 6. Put a name and a date on every step
Do: every row has an owner (a named person on either side) and a date. Seller steps go in too: proposal, security documentation, reference call.
Good looks like: buyer names on most buyer steps. A plan full of "Customer" in the owner column has not been written with the buyer.
Step 7. Hand it over and review it every call
Do: leave the plan in a place the champion can edit, and open it at the start of every buyer call: "What's changed on your side since last time?"
Good looks like: the champion edits it without being asked. In the weekly deal review, the manager asks one question: "Which steps did the buyer add or change?"
A worked example (illustrative)
The account, people and figures are fictional.
The deal. Leah sells to Corbel Retail, 40 stores. Her champion, Mateo, Head of Store Operations, has said stock counts cost each store about 12 staff hours a week.
Step 1. Leah has the number from Mateo, so the plan is earned.
Step 2. Leah: "You'll have to take this through your side. Could we spend 30 minutes mapping the steps from here to your stores using it?" Mateo agrees.
Step 3. "Is there a date this has to be working by?" Mateo: "Before peak season. Stores lock down changes on 1 November." The plan is anchored to 1 November.
Step 4. Leah and Mateo draft: pilot in two stores, results review, sign-off from the Retail Director, rollout to all 40 stores in two waves.
Step 5. Leah asks about IT. Mateo: "Oh, anything that touches the store network goes through Hamid's security review. That takes about three weeks." Leah asks about Finance. Mateo: "Over $50,000 needs the CFO." Neither step was in Leah's forecast. Working backward from 1 November, the security review must start within ten days.
Step 6. The plan now has nine steps, six owned by named people at Corbel, with dates.
Step 7. At the next call, Mateo has added a step himself: a store managers' briefing before wave one. In Leah's deal review, the manager asks which steps the buyer added. Leah can name two, and her close date moves from the 30th of next month to a date that fits Hamid's review and the CFO meeting. The forecast is later and more believable.
Where it goes wrong
Sending a template cold. The rep emails a MAP template and asks the buyer to fill it in. It comes back blank or not at all. Fix: build it live on a call, typing as the champion talks.
Too early. A plan proposed on the first call, before the buyer has priced the problem, reads as pressure. Fix: Step 1.
The seller's close date as the anchor. The plan works backward from the end of the seller's quarter. The buyer has no reason to keep to it. Fix: anchor to a buyer event.
"Customer" in every owner cell. The plan looks complete and nobody at the buyer owns anything. Fix: a name in every row, or a named person to find the owner.
Written once and left alone. The plan sits in a shared folder and goes stale. Fix: open it at the start of every buyer call and check it in every deal review.
Checking every deal's plan
The plan is only as good as the weekly question about it. A manager can ask "which steps did the buyer change?" on the deals they review each week. Most of the book goes unasked, and a plan nobody checks fills up with "Customer" in the owner cells.
Our AI sales experts ask it on every deal a rep brings. The rep talks the deal through with Caty on a call; she asks which steps the buyer owns and which the buyer has edited, names the ones still missing, and plans the conversation with the champion that fills them, in the team's methodology. A rep can type when they cannot talk. The manager gets the read across the team from Bryce. For a copyable format, see the mutual action plan template; for the seller's internal version, how to write a close plan. If a plan is stuck on a step the buyer has stopped answering, start with how to coach a stalled deal.
FAQ
What is a mutual action plan in sales?
A mutual action plan is a shared, dated list of the steps the buyer and seller will each take from today until the buyer is using what they bought. Each step has a named owner and a date. It is built with the buyer's champion and edited by both sides as the deal moves.
When should you introduce a mutual action plan?
Introduce it once the buyer has described the problem in their own words and put a number on it, usually at the end of discovery or after a first demo. Earlier than that, the buyer has not committed to solving the problem, and a plan reads as pressure.
What should a mutual action plan include?
Every step from today to the buyer using the product: evaluation, internal sign-offs, security and legal review, procurement, contract, onboarding. Each step needs an owner by name, a date and a status. Anchor the plan to a date that matters to the buyer.
How do you get a buyer to use a mutual action plan?
Build it with them, live, on a call, starting from their own deadline. Ask the champion for the steps only they know, give every buyer step a buyer name, leave it somewhere they can edit and open it at the start of every call. A plan the buyer helped write is one they tend to keep.
What is the difference between a mutual action plan and a close plan?
A mutual action plan is shared with the buyer and lists both sides' steps to go-live. A close plan is the seller's internal plan for what has to be true, by when, for the deal to sign. The close plan often draws on the mutual action plan.
How many steps should a mutual action plan have?
Usually six to ten. Salesloft suggests seven to nine milestones. Fewer than six often means the steps the champion does not own, such as security or procurement, are missing. Many more than ten usually means the plan is tracking seller tasks the buyer does not care about.