Are you on the non-plan, plan with your customers and feeling the pain?
The Mutual Action Plan
Anyone selling in the B2B setting with an extended sales cycle can leverage a mutual plan. This could be a to solidify a partnership, sponsorship or to sell your offering.
What is a mutual plan?
A mutual plan at its core is an agreement of expectations that get us from “this could help" to the signed agreement shared between you and your customer. The plan details everything that needs to happen on each side of the relationship including next steps, people involved, people responsible, due dates and important dates.
Why is this important?
Not all buyers are seasoned and know “how” to buy at all, let alone how to buy your offering.
The non-plan, plan leaves too much room for missed steps, misunderstandings, missed decision-makers and delays that can kill the relationship.
Not all buyers have purchased or allocated funds at their current company.
It keeps momentum and highlights areas of urgency.
Budget isn’t always there or in line with the value you provide, so you will have to develop a plan to sell to people who can move money, executive buyers.
It holds both sides accountable to their word, visualizing reciprocity.
When do I use a Mutual Plan?
Depending on the type of sale and relationship you can modify this, but it’s best to use a light version from the moment you determine this is a qualified prospective customer/partner/sponsor for your company. You always want to understand commitments leaving your conversation from both sides, next steps and who needs to be involved in those next steps.
How do I deliver a Mutual Plan?
It can be as simple as a table in your follow up email or a shared google doc.