Hey, 👋 Scott from The Sales Mastermind here.

Today’s edition only takes 2 minutes.

"You don't need a mutual action plan, except for the deals you want to win." - Ricky Pearl, Leader of Tech Sales ANZ community (ask me for an invite if you're in tech sales in ANZ)

This week we'll cover:

• Clarity
• MAPs
• Examples
• Create you own

Clarity

When everyone on the buyer's side agrees, the paperwork starts.

And depending on the complexity of your sale, you may be in for 1-3 months of procurement, legal, and other compliance paperwork. Or it could be as simple as the buyer signing an agreement and paying an invoice.

Remember, buyers spend 90-99% of their time doing anything other than buying - whereas sellers spend 90-99% of their time leading buying journeys. Therefore, the seller must maintain momentum, clarity, and deadlines to close the deal.

That's where MAPs come in.

MAPs

MAPs, or Mutual Action Plans, are collaborative documents that include the steps, responsibilities, and deadlines to complete the deal. Think of MAPs as pre-sales project plans.

The key to a successful MAP is scrutinizing and agreeing upon every step with required stakeholders, especially leaders. For example, if your product requires a testing phase, the testing leaders should be included in planning those steps and deadlines.

Sometimes, MAPs are overkill during the early sales process, especially if you sell a simple product with only one or two stakeholders.

However, even the most basic MAP is valid towards the end of the sales process as there are often many minor areas to agree on and clarify, where any delays can push the final close by days or weeks - which can compound to delay the buyer's outcome by months or quarters.

Examples

In my consulting business, the sales process ends when my buyers agree to purchase a simple, low-commitment product (often an audit or a workshop).

The below is a real example of a MAP at the end of the sales process. You'll see the next step is the buyer picking a date for the workshop and the steps that will follow:

Once the buyer confirmed the date, I sent a calendar invite to all participants, and an excerpt of the following email looked like this:

While basic, the point of this MAP is to clarify the steps required before we start working together in context. It prevents delays, and its creation alone is a strong buying signal.

Another example is from earlier this week. Below, we are launching a group training program with a tight deadline and getting buy-in from several organizations. Again, it is basic but clear to all involved what the steps are and who is responsible:

Create your own

Now you know what it is; creating your own is simple. Your buyers will be grateful for the transparency and clarity.

At a minimum MAPs need to include the following:

• A list of the steps required for a deal to close
• Each step is assigned to a single person
• Deadlines, ideally specific dates, at least particular weeks

Then, as you work through the buying journey, each email should cross out any completed steps and clarify those remaining.

Send me your MAP, and I'll provide feedback.

Until next week,
Scott Cowley

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