Core Skills

Mutual Action Plans (MAPs)

A complete MAP template — milestones, owners, dates, and dependencies — with timeline visual and guidance on how to get it co-signed by your champion.

A is a written, mutually-owned plan that lists every step, owner, and date between today and signature. The is the most under-used artifact in B2B selling, and the single biggest driver .

This is a sister artifact to the deeper write-up in the module. Use the template below to draft it; use the linked topic to learn how to operate it.

MAP timeline — typical 8-week enterprise close

Each step has an owner on both sides and a hard date.

The template

Send the first draft within 24 hours a strong . Frame it as a working draft for the buyer to edit — co-authorship is the whole point.

Mutual Action Plan — Working Draft

Co-owned by AE + Champion. Reviewed weekly.

Draft

# MUTUAL ACTION PLAN
Customer: [Company]   Opportunity: [name]
Customer lead: [Champion name + title]
Vendor lead: [AE name]
Target signature: [date]   Compelling event: [what + why this date]
Last updated: [date]

## SHARED OBJECTIVE
By [date], [Customer] will have [outcome] in production, delivering [quantified
business impact] to [Economic Buyer's team], with a signed agreement in place.

## MILESTONES
| #  | Milestone                           | Owner (Customer) | Owner (Vendor) | Due date | Dependencies | Status |
|----|-------------------------------------|------------------|----------------|----------|--------------|--------|
| 1  | Discovery confirmed in writing      | [Champion]       | [AE]           | [date]   | —            | ✓      |
| 2  | Technical workshop                  | [Tech lead]      | [SE]           | [date]   | M1           | ◐      |
| 3  | POC success criteria signed         | [Tech lead]      | [SE]           | [date]   | M2           | ☐      |
| 4  | POC executed                        | [Tech lead]      | [SE]           | [date]   | M3           | ☐      |
| 5  | Business case drafted               | [Champion]       | [AE]           | [date]   | M1, M4       | ☐      |
| 6  | Exec readout w/ Economic Buyer      | [Champion]       | [AE + our exec]| [date]   | M5           | ☐      |
| 7  | Security & legal review kicked off  | [Procurement]    | [AE + Legal]   | [date]   | M6           | ☐      |
| 8  | Pricing finalized                   | [Procurement]    | [AE]           | [date]   | M6           | ☐      |
| 9  | Redlines resolved                   | [Legal]          | [Legal]        | [date]   | M7, M8       | ☐      |
| 10 | Signature                           | [Economic Buyer] | [AE]           | [date]   | M9           | ☐      |
| 11 | Kickoff & handoff to CS             | [Champion]       | [CSM + AE]     | [date]   | M10          | ☐      |

## DECISIONS & APPROVALS
- Economic Buyer: [name] — final sign-off
- Technical approval: [name]
- Security approval: [name]
- Procurement approval: [name]

## RISKS & MITIGATIONS
- Risk: [e.g. competing priority Q-end] — Mitigation: [action] — Owner: [name]
- Risk: [e.g. legal backlog]            — Mitigation: [action] — Owner: [name]

## NEXT REVIEW
Next MAP review: [date + time + who]

How to make it stick

Co-author it on a screen-share. Sending a polished for the buyer to 'review' rarely works; building it together in a 30-minute working session does.
Anchor every date to the . Work backward from the target signature date, not forward from today.
Test your with the . A real will challenge dates, add , and ask to share it internally. A will say 'looks good' and never reference it again.
Update weekly. The should be the every recurring deal call — not a side artifact.

Mutual Action Plans (MAPs)

The template

How to make it stick

Key terms in this topic

Related topics