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Did you catch Caitlin Clark's epic performance last night? Dropping a cool 41 points to take her team to the Final Four, she's not just playing the game; she's changing it for every player on the court.?
In the spirit of Caitlin's game-changing moves shaking up viewership and sparking conversations about women's basketball, we're about to dive into how sellers are shaking up the sales game with Mutual Action Plans (MAPs). These aren't just tactical outlines; they're blueprints for syncing seamlessly with our clients and driving home successful deals with confidence.
So to all the sellers out there, it's time to harness the same clarity and drive of Caitlin Clark. Lean into MAPs, and let them guide each interaction towards the ultimate goal: a partnership that's as successful as a record-setting game. Here's to more wins!
How to Use a MAP
How to use Mutual Action Plans. Created by: 30 Minutes to Presidents Club
Quote: “The whole idea behind a mutual action plan is that it is built with your MUTUAL success in mind. It's not just about getting the deal done, it's about getting the customer to the promised land.”
- Outline the steps needed to guide prospects to a successful close with detailed descriptions. Instead of broad terms like "legal review," break down each part of the process, including contract drafting, compliance checks and signing process.
- Start Mutual Action Plans (MAPs) early and keep them as living documents that are updated and referred to in every meeting, avoiding delays in the sales process.
- Use a template that illustrates how your team typically interacts with potential buyers, but be open to their input and make the process as customer-centric as possible.
- Ensure the MAP is end-to-end, involving the customer success team in the execution of action steps to deliver the promised value to the customer.
- We are adopting several of these recommendations at Klue and are in the process of integrating them on our teams. Our focus is on developing easy-to-use MAP templates that our team members can utilize in every customer conversation. At the same time, we are bridging any hand-off gaps to CSMs, making sure that the business case, action plan and implementation plan are consistently carried through the entire customer lifecycle.
Step-by-Step Guide to Mutual Action Plans. Created by: Tom Williams?
Key Quote: “Sales is a series of small wins. Present each milestone as having value by describing what the buyer gets out of investing time and resources on this specific milestone.”?
4 Steps to Creating a Mutual Action Plan:
- Focus on your Value Proposition: Create a 20-30 word tight value prop that speaks directly to your buyer's needs at the beginning of your MAP. It's the hook that'll get the plan shared and taken seriously up the chain.
- Be Customer-Centric at Every Step: Our MAP needs to revolve around the customer's key events. And remember, the deal closing isn't our payday; it's when they start seeing the real benefits.
- Break the Process into Seven to Nine Milestones: Keep the main milestones lean but meaningful – enough to guide but not overwhelm. Execs have 30 seconds to review your plan. Those who want the nitty-gritty can always zoom in for more.
- Identify People and Roles for Each Milestone: Who's involved in each play? Spell it out and get everyone involved early, especially customer success. Adding a VP touch point to the plan helps to up credibility.
- Our team has leaned into VP touchpoints throughout the buying process. Having a VP sponsor on our deals and leveraging our execs internally to help deals progress has been hugely impactful for our sellers. Our senior leaders ensure the customer sees value and has confidence in the partnership that Klue will offer them throughout their customer journey.
Implement a Mutual Action Plan. Created by Andy Mewborn
Link to Original Voice: MAP Template
Quote: “It's not just about sealing the deal. It's about: Trust. Commitment. Shared vision.”
- As Benjamin Franklin says, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!”
- But even if you plan well, if your plan isn’t shared transparently with your customer and mutually agreed upon, you will still fail.
- This is where a strong MAP comes in. It should outline a clear path and milestones that create accountability with mutual agreement.
- A MAP ensures you are on the same page about what will be purchased and delivered.
- You may think you are selling software, but customers buy solutions, partnerships and confidence.
- We know that a strong MAP is created out of understanding our customers, their problems and helping them understand how we solve these types of problems. We leverage strong discovery and positioning to do this. By taking our time in this process to land on real problems, real solutions and outcomes that drive real value, we build credibility. We document this in a business case, co-authored with the customer. We see the MAP living in the business case to start and being highlighted in emails with 3 clear next steps. Eventually the MAP can evolve into internal process documentation for the customer on what they did in terms of diligence in researching and vetting solutions.
How the Experts Use MAPs?
Keep your Buyers on Track. Created by Mike Fiascone
Quote: “Sellers know this process well after dealing with many buyers. You need to educate buyers on the typical steps to evaluate, procure, and implement a solution.”
- Most buyers don’t understand their purchasing process and benefit from a MAP that provides a clear roadmap, ensuring resource planning is aligned and the complex buying process is managed effectively.
- Sellers should lean into their familiarity with the typical sales cycle to educate buyers on the necessary steps for evaluating and implementing solutions. Presenting the MAP early and identifying a buyer-side coordinator establishes the seller as a strategic advisor and ensures smooth progression.
- To build urgency, set a target go-live date and plan backward from that point, making buyers aware of the timeline and necessary pace. Regularly revising the MAP to reflect changes, sometimes multiple times within a single deal, helps maintain the momentum and importance of each step.
- A major area of focus for our enablement team is training sellers to collaborate on Mutual Action Plans with their buyers. Sellers will be equipped with targeted questions to uncover key steps in the customer's purchasing journey. To facilitate this, we are providing discovery training that includes live practice sessions during enablement sessions.
Leaders: How to Avoid Happy Ears. Created by Elizabeth Italiano
Quote: “Look for things like movement on a Mutual Action Plan, discussion of kickoff dates, and discussion on who the contract is being reviewed by today.”
- Sellers and CSMs are hopeful their deals will move. In fact, they NEED them to move to hit quota.?
- Often this leads to overconfidence in forecasting.
- As a manager, you will need to inspect what you expect in your team’s committed deals.
- A well-executed MAP is a great tool for managers to stay close to as it is a sign of a strong deal.
- Signs of a weak deal when reviewing a MAP:
- With the assistance of AI, we are investigating ways of using tools in our tech stack to give managers updates on key deals to improve forecasting confidence. MAPs will be a primary data source.
Why Your MAPs are Falling Short. Created by Mick Gosset
Quote: “The prospect DOES NOT CARE about your process! Hopefully, this is not news to you. The goal is to align the lingo with what the prospect's processes are. It's so that your Mutual Action Plan can travel externally and be shared with the rest of the buying committee.”
- What you call the steps of your mutual action plan matter.
- Use labels the customer would use internally, not your own internal labels.
- Whether it is a Mutual Action Plan, business case or implementation plan, we believe that best practice is co-authoring with our customers in language that makes sense to them. Clear communication and expectation setting is the key. Unspoken, undocumented and unagreed upon expectations are bound to be unmet.
As we continue to spot trends, we'll keep you updated. See ya next month!
Manager, Revenue Enablement @ Klue | Competitive Enablement for Every Enterprise.
11 个月I see you with the 3 point reference ??