A Comprehensive Guide to Mutual Action Plan Software

From in-depth insights and top 7 mutual action plan software comparison, learn how to effectively utilize the MAP for seamless collaboration across diverse teams and projects.
Published by
Haresh
on
December 12, 2024
.
Last modified on
November 16, 2024
.
Best Digital Sales Room Software

Understanding Mutual Action Plan Software

What is a mutual action plan?  

quote
A mutual action plan (MAP) is a collaborative plan like a simple to-do list that is used by the sellers and buyers during the deal cycle to facilitate the overall sales process by clearly defining who are all involved, what should be done by whom, and when should be done.”

By listing out the required tasks in a common place, both sellers and buyers can track the progress of every step, assign tasks to the respective stakeholder, and meet the milestones within the stipulated deadline. In general, a mutual action plan is a subset of the comprehensive digital sales room platform, which is used for sellers to collaborate with buyers throughout the deal cycle at various stages.  

It is also known as a mutual success plan. Traditionally, sales teams used this shared action plan in static spreadsheets, but it had limitations. This is where a mutual action plan software, with its modern interactive capabilities, comes into play, enabling both sellers and buyers to plan and align more effectively.

Map action points

Key features of a mutual action plan

Collaborative goal setting:

A mutual action plan software allows sellers and buyers to collaborate and mutually set their goals and objectives in a shared common space. Collaborative planning provides a clear understanding of the initial tasks required by both parties.

Map

Assigning responsibilities:

Each stakeholder in the deal cycle bears individual responsibilities. A mutual action plan facilitates the simple assignment of specific action items with clear deadlines, thereby aiding in the visualization of overall accountability among the various stakeholders.

Map

Progress tracking:

The inclusion of deadlines and responsible stakeholders in the list of action items allows for clear visibility of each action item's progress at any given time.

progress tracking

Calendar schedule management:

Every task necessitates virtual collaborative meetings at some point for both the sellers and buyers. By easily managing the schedule, everyone can be aware of other stakeholders' calendars and effectively manage virtual meetings.

Calendar schedule

Centralized document management:

There's no need to struggle to locate a specific document in the sea of emails. Anyone can easily locate the right document without confusion by attaching all relevant documents to their respective action items.

Centralized document

Report and analytics:

With every action tracking system in place, analytics provides actionable real-time insights on how each stakeholder is engaging and trends on task completion in the deal cycle. This data can help sellers identify the roadblocks and take necessary action on time.  

Report and analytics

"Sales enablement is about providing the right information to the right people at the right time. It's about arming your sales team with the tools, content, and knowledge they need to engage buyers effectively and close more deals."

Rowley

Jill Rowley

GTM advisor at Stage 2 Capital
Stage 2 Capital
Mutual action plans provide a structured roadmap, helping sales teams and clients to avoid common pitfalls by setting a sequence of agreed-upon steps that ensure mutual commitment. It’s an excellent approach to reduce any friction in the buying journey.
Adamson

Brent Adamson

Co-author at The Challenger Sale

How do mutual action plans facilitate collaboration?

A mutual action plan software acts as a visual roadmap for sales teams and buyers to plan and create a structured framework to manage the deal cycle. As it enables two-way communication, both teams need to mutually participate in the goal setting, which creates a sense of shared purpose.  

In general, it comes under the process called ‘buyer enablement’, where specific measures are taken by the sellers to simplify the buying process during the purchase journey for the buyers.  

Every stakeholder receives clear responsibilities with due dates, simplifying the process of accountability and tracking. At any time, all the stakeholders stay informed about the status in real-time, which avoids confusion and miscommunication.  

In this way, mutual action plans facilitate overall collaboration by providing a visual representation of the overall deal cycle roadmap, which ultimately drives higher sales engagement and leads to high win rates.

Why mutual action plans are important?

To understand this, let's examine how sales teams, lacking a mutual action plan, are executing in their long sales cycles.

The sellers and buyers engage in a back-and-forth exchange of emails.None of them have a clear understanding of the direction the deal is taking, and the most concerning aspect is that the key decision-makers within the buying committee are utterly oblivious to the ongoing developments in the deal cycle. Eventually, they will abruptly disappear, leaving sellers in a state of abandonment.

Like a journey with a map and compass in your hand, a mutual action plan remains a standard, common document for everyone involved in the deal cycle that gives them clarity and scope on where the deal is going towards and what's their part to do over the timeline. At any point in time, any stakeholder can get information about the status and progress of the action items in the deal cycle.  

This will result in increased momentum in the sales cycle, align key goals between stakeholders, and enhance accountability for everyone. With this, both sellers and buyers can engage regularly through streamlined processes, and it will ultimately impact their chances of closing deals faster.

quote
Forrester Research Report:
Mutual action plans have emerged as key tools in high-stakes sales, fostering collaborative environments and providing a foundation of accountability. They help sales teams understand client needs better and meet expectations more efficiently."

Choosing the Right Mutual Action Plan

Factors to consider when selecting a mutual action plan  

The following are the key factors to consider when selecting a mutual action plan software for your deal cycle.  

  • Ease of use: With an intuitive design, MAP should be user-friendly and simple to navigate for any new user.  
  • Real-time collaboration: It should enable both sellers and buyers to seamlessly collaborate through options like adding tasks, comments, instant updates, etc.  
  • Task assignment: The system should be able to assign individual tasks with due dates for each respective stakeholder.
  • Central repository for documents: The MAP should provide streamlined access to easily attach relevant documents, like contracts and proposals, to the respective tasks.
  • Stakeholder management: As many stakeholders are involved in a deal cycle, it should be able to represent the right stakeholder under relevant tasks without creating unnecessary confusion.  
  • Security: As critical data is involved in the process, the MAP should be robust enough to handle it securely with password protection and restricted user-level document access.
  • Mobile access: MAP should be easily accessible via mobile devices, enabling sellers and buyers to communicate while on the go.
  • Seamless integration: To streamline workflows with CRM and other third-party apps, check if the MAP has integration capabilities to integrate with tools such as CRM, calendars, and other productivity tools.  

Top 7 mutual action plan software

1.Buyerstage

Buyerstage is a leading digital sales room platform that provides a mutual action plan as one of the key modules for buyer collaboration. With this MAP, you can break down the deal stages into a sequence of steps and offer end-to-end visibility to your buyers' team. The relevant step can have any resource and assign tasks to stakeholders, both internally and with buyers.

Buyerstage

2.Aligned

Aligned is a customer collaboration platform that helps to orchestrate complex deals and enhance buyer engagement. The mutual action plan by aligned helps to align sales and CS teams to take control of the processes by defining goals and timelines.  

Aligned

3.Trumpet

Trumpet is one of the comprehensive platforms that offers a digital sales room to create auto-personalized microsites for buyer collaboration. Trumpet's mutual action plan lets you create a clear overview of the overall deal cycle, from initial steps to the onboarding process. It helps to engage decision-makers and guide buyers to prioritize the significant actions at the right time.  

Trumpet

4.Dock

Dock positions itself as a client-facing workspace where it offers various modules like a content library, e-signatures, and client portals to manage the stages during the sales and beyond the sales. Dock's mutual action plan lets sellers deliver complete context around the deal cycle by assigning milestones and adding necessary resources like slide decks, meeting notes, videos, etc.  

Dock

5.Recapped

Recapped is a client-facing deal room that helps to create customizable deal pages for sellers to engage buyers and guide through the deal cycle. It offers mutual action plan software, where sellers can break down the deal into milestones and include key timelines, making every stakeholder accountable in the process.  

Recapped

6.Flowla

Flowla is a client-facing workspace that offers interactive spaces for customer success and sales teams to offer engaging journeys. Flowla's mutual action plan software turns complex sales processes into a collaborative flow by breaking down into small stages, setting deadlines, and assigning them to the respective stakeholders.  

Flowla

7.Getaccept

Getaccept is an all-in-one dealroom platform that covers various modules to streamline the whole sales process, from initial engagement to contract signing and onboarding. It also offers mutual action plan software that assists in creating a mutually agreed action plan of milestones between the buyer and seller, which delivers a better buying experience and enhanced clarity to the pipeline.  

Getaccept

Tips for evaluating the best mutual action plan for your team  

Although there are various factors involved in the selection of the best mutual action plan, the basic underlying necessity for any sales team to use a MAP is to have an organized roadmap for their deal cycle.  

Ensure security, a collaborative nature, and the ability to track the overall status and progress at any time for each stakeholder. If your selected mutual action plan satisfies these conditions, you can proceed with implementing it for your deal cycle.

Setting Up Mutual Action Plan Software for Collaboration

Step-by-step guide to setting up a mutual action plan  

  1. Deliver the high-level summary

To provide an overall context and set the stage, it is important to first understand the buyer's position and share critical details such as the stakeholders involved, the go-live dates, and other necessary information that everyone in the room should be aware of.

  1. Outline the top-level goals

In the MAP, clearly define the overall objectives and their corresponding steps. Include the relevant success metrics to measure progress.  

  1. Setup the key steps

Under each top-level objective, breakdown into actionable milestones like simple steps or stages to complete the objective.  

  1. Assign tasks to the stakeholders

Assign each task to the respective stakeholder, which includes both the sales team and buying committee members. Fix due dates for each task to ensure accountability.

  1. Add necessary resources

Some tasks necessitate the sharing of resources, like demo videos or other training materials for reference. Attach the relevant resources by including links or uploading the files under the task.  

  1. Collaborate through chats and comments

To facilitate discussions and instant queries, utilize the chat and comment functionalities to ask questions or provide suggestions in the action plan.

  1. Track and monitor progress

Utilize the analytics feature to examine the timely completion of tasks through effective collaboration. This helps to identify the roadblocks and adjust the timelines.  

"Sales enablement is not just about technology - it's about people, process, and content. It's about creating a holistic approach that aligns sales and marketing and provides your sales team with the resources they need to engage buyers effectively."

Cory Bray

Cory Bray

Co-Founder @ CoachCRM & ClozeLoop
clozeloop
"A mutual action plan should reflect a customer-centric approach. When done right, it acknowledges the client’s journey, helping to co-create a pathway to success that suits both parties’ goals and schedules."
Jason jordan

Jason Jordan

Sales Management Consultant

Customizing the software to meet your team's collaboration needs  

A single mutual action plan template cannot serve diverse teams across different industries. Therefore, it is crucial to tailor your mutual action plan to meet the specific needs of your buyers and the collaborative nature of your team.  

Analyzing the respective project needs, participating stakeholders' demands, timelines, and preferred communication channels can achieve this.  

Further, garnering feedback from the team members and buying committee during planning can help tailor the action plan and adjust it based on specific needs and challenges.

Integrating mutual action plans with existing tools and platforms  

Integrating a mutual action plan with the existing tech stack is a must to keep the team’s efficiency high. It leads to streamlined processes and enhanced collaboration.  

Assess what tools your sales team is frequently using to manage their collaboration, such as CRM systems, communication platforms, schedule management tools, and other project management tools.  

Select the right mutual action plan that provides support to the tools that are currently in use. If necessary, make sure to migrate the pertinent data from your current stack to the MAP to obtain the most recent information.

Train your team to seamlessly integrate MAP into their daily tool usage and implement necessary adjustments based on their feedback to ensure smooth operation.

Maximizing Team Collaboration with Mutual Action Plan Software

Establishing clear communication channels  

Start with the primary objective of why and how you are going to handle the communications within the mutual action plan. Set the right expectations for every stakeholder on what they can expect regarding meeting schedules, task updates, etc., in the MAP.  

Select the appropriate platforms where every stakeholder can align and collaborate, like project management tools, document sharing, and communication platforms. Integrate with the right tools and access seamlessly from the mutual action plan.  

Team members can easily carry out their workflows in the MAP without switching thanks to this type of implementation, as they are aware of the integrated communication channels.

Assigning tasks and tracking progress in a collaborative environment  

As previously mentioned, both the sales team and the buying committee should mutually agree upon clear high-level objectives. Next, assign each action item to a specific individual, and make sure everyone in the team understands this accountability.

The process of assigning tasks should not resemble a typical to-do list. Derive the tasks in terms of outcomes rather than a list of random activities. This can give clarity and drive momentum for the team members upon completion of each outcome.  

Track each stakeholder's engagement with the MAP and the time it takes them to complete the assigned tasks using analytics. Based on the data and feedback, make necessary iterations and timeline adjustments in the action plan to meet the overall goals.  

Leveraging features for real-time collaboration and feedback  

Interactive mutual action plans should support real-time collaboration by offering features like chats and commenting. Encourage the culture of real-time collaboration between sales teams and customers to interact and provide feedback directly through chats and comments instead of time-consuming emails.  

Ensure regular check-ins to review progress and brainstorm solutions to complete assigned tasks. Overall, real-time collaboration through instant chats can generate high momentum and potentially save a lot of time in the sales cycle.

Real time collab

Streamlining Content Creation and Management

Organizing and categorizing content inside a mutual action plan  

Every action item under each objective requires some form of content for reference and execution. You can add these content assets through links or direct uploads to the mutual action plan under the corresponding action item.  

Sales content management based on different task categories like planning, execution, and follow-up can simplify the process further. Ensure that the MAP incorporates a version control option for all content to manage changes over time.

Content creation and management

Managing content workflows and approvals through mutual content plan software  

The team members and the buyers will utilize different content types, such as design, documents, and compliance, during the sales cycle. Certain content may require specific restrictions and confidentiality measures.

To ensure content approval and access control, clearly categorize the content types and create a structured, step-by-step approval process. Establish automated notifications and alerts to notify you when a content piece requires review or approval for access at the appropriate time.

During the meetings, it is essential to collect feedback on each stakeholder’s experience with the workflows and approvals. This will reveal the underlying obstacles and help improve the approval process.

Enhancing Project Management with Mutual Action Plan Software

Using the mutual action plan software for project planning and scheduling  

Mutual action plans are a valuable asset for planning and scheduling projects. Especially when the project has multiple stakeholders involved, proper planning in the actions and timeline is crucial to determining the project’s success.  

Features such as a visual timeline within the mutual action plan facilitate the straightforward breakdown and visualization of the overall project timeline and schedules, thereby simplifying the big picture for all involved. This ensures that everyone understands their role in the execution process.

At the same time, gathering feedback from the members can easily assist in altering certain aspects in the early stages of the project. This can prevent middle-way surprises and help everyone align properly with the project goals.

Tracking project milestones and deadlines collaboratively  

A mutual action plan helps breakdown and simplify the project into significant milestones over the timeline. Different phases, such as kickoff, initial assessment, and crucial implementation stages, can accomplish this.

This gives a visual timeline representation of achievable milestones for the team. For the milestones, set the deadline that is agreeable to both the internal team members and the client’s end.  

This structure of project milestones with corresponding deadlines ensures that everyone is aware of critical timelines and can easily plan how they should collaborate to provide their deliverables.

Integrating project management tools with mutual action plan software  

Integrating project management tools with a mutual action plan is crucial for efficient collaboration and workflow simplification. Choose the right mutual action plan software that provides compatibility to integrate with your project management tool.  

Before planning this integration, we must define why we should integrate and how it will improve team-client collaboration.

The project management tool and the MAP should automatically reflect the tasks added in the MAP and vice versa, ensuring seamless data flow.

Furthermore, it is better to leverage the best templates available in the project management tools that are specifically designed to connect with mutual action plans. This can further improve efficiency by saving time.  

Ensuring Data Security and Access Control

Implementing security measures within mutual action plan software  

As sensitive information is involved in creating the mutual action plan with the customers, it is important to consider the security aspects and data integrity.  

Therefore, make sure that any mutual action plan software you are considering encrypts the transmitted data using the necessary protocols. Verify the encryption of the data both during upload and after storage when attaching the files to the MAP.

Make sure to set up automated backup solutions in the MAP software. This allows for the restoration of crucial information in the event of accidental deletion. The same aspect should be considered for unanticipated events like security breaches or any other system failures.  

Managing user access and permissions for collaborative projects  

Define clear user roles and permissions to authorize the mutual action plan. Always ensure only authorized users are able to access or upload the critical information in the MAP.  

Within the team, members and customers also define the user-level permissions. For example, the sales development representative may have limited access, but the AE would have higher-level permissions to handle the MAP.  

Apart from this, it is crucial to implement multi-factor authentication (MFA) to establish multiple layers of security during user access attempts. Use multi-factor authentication (MFA) wisely by using a work email or an individual mobile number to ensure your MAP has a double layer of security for access and operation.

Best practices for maintaining data privacy and confidentiality  

To consistently maintain data privacy over time, it is important to conduct regular security audits within the MAP software to identify potential vulnerabilities and security threats. During this review, it is important to conduct checks on user access logs, compliance, and permission levels.

While choosing the MAP software, ensure it complies with the security standards, such as SOC2 and ISO compliance regulations, in the respective industry. Tools that passed these security standards have high-level data protection and encourage trust among the clients.  

In addition to the previously mentioned aspects, it is important to organize regular training sessions for all team members on data security best practices, ensuring a strong awareness of data protection within the organization.  

Cover common areas, such as how to use secured passwords, phishing attacks via work email, unknown contacts through work email, etc., to build awareness among every team member.  

Measuring Collaboration Effectiveness in Mutual Action Plan

Key performance indicators for evaluating collaboration success  

Without establishing critical KPIs to measure collaboration success, finding out the collaboration effectiveness would be a challenging puzzle to solve. The whole purpose of the mutual action plan is to enhance collaboration and not the other way around.  

Therefore, establish some of the following metrics that are relevant to your workflows and processes to measure how mutual action plans help your teams and clients to collaborate better.  

  • Reduction in sales cycle: Compare the before and after states of the mutual action plan by measuring the overall sales cycle.  
  • Engagement rate: Check how frequently team members and clients are engaging during the process. You can often measure this by conducting surveys.
  • Customer satisfaction: Gather feedback from the clients on their satisfaction levels regarding collaborating with the sales team members through MAP.  
  • Cross-functional collaboration rate: Like engagement rate, surveys should be done to find out how members across the teams were effectively engaged with the help of mutual action plans.  
  • Project/Milestone completion rate: Measure the percentage of tasks or number of projects completed within the projected timeline. The high completion rate directly reflects the healthy collaboration that happened among the members and clients.  
  • Time taken to complete each step: Track the average time taken to complete each milestone. Reduction at this time can directly impact overall efficiency.  

Using analytics and reporting features within mutual action plan software  

The analytics feature within the MAP facilitates understanding the interactions between sellers and buyers within the action plan and identifying the areas where they are most engaged. This analysis aids sales teams in comprehending their collaboration process and enhancing it for increased efficiency and customer satisfaction.

Analytics helps uncover the buying behavior, which assists sales teams to tweak their strategy, process, and improve tailored follow-ups in accordance with the buyer’s flow.  

Overall, it remains a single source of truth to know how collaboration happens between the stakeholders. With historical performance data, teams can easily compare current metrics with previous ones to identify areas for improvement and introduce new communication channels that are most effective for both sellers and buyers.

Making data-driven improvements to collaboration strategies  

With the above-analyzed data, sales teams can get a high-level picture of their team’s performance and buyer behavior in terms of collaboration. This can provide valuable insights for enhancing the current collaboration process through modifications to communication channels, workflows, content types, and cross-functional collaboration, among other aspects.

Team members will easily become aware of what works best and adapt to the changes, leading to better data-driven decisions instead of being unaware and making assumptions.

To do this effectively, create a centralized dashboard where every team member can easily access the data to learn about their collaboration trends and improve it on a regular basis.  

Training and Onboarding for Effective Collaboration

Developing training programs for using mutual action plan software  

Training programs are essential to leverage the maximum benefits and utilization of a mutual action plan for every team member. To start with this, first assess the existing knowledge of the team members regarding how they can implement and handle mutual action plans in their workflows.  

Next, identify the target users who will make the most use of mutual action plans in their workflows, such as AEs and customer success managers. This will give you a foundation for training program creation.

Further develop necessary resources through documents or videos, explaining the mutual action plan, the reasons for introducing it, and the end outcomes they can achieve in their workflows. Demonstrating with the help of real-time case studies can help them to deeply understand the real-time applications of mutual action plans in their respective roles.  

Onboarding new team members to maximize collaboration efficiency  

For many teams, integrating new team members into the existing workflows can be a challenge. But with proper onboarding and orientation, new team members can get a broad perspective and easily adapt to the team’s workflow faster.  

In the first place, give them a delightful welcome and introduction to their roles, responsibilities, and expectations within the team. Facilitate meetings with team members both within the core team and cross-functional teams, if needed. Both online and offline practices can benefit from this.

Assign responsibilities and provide necessary support through team members during the initial days to address any help or queries they may need. With this way of handling, new team members can grasp the context quickly and easily sync with the team’s collaboration to move forward.  

Continuous learning and skill development for collaborative planning  

The company's culture should embed collaboration, not treat it as a task. Encourage a healthy culture and platform where team members can communicate efficiently and share their ideas and feedback in one common place. Every team must take this first step to foster collaboration both within the team and with customers.

Moreover, it is crucial to leverage technology to provide continuous learning support, enabling team members to conveniently access it and regularly learn about collaborative measures.  

Upon the completion of each project or deal, team members should convene, engage in a candid discussion about the most effective strategies, and be prepared to adapt and utilize these collaborative experiences in their future projects.

Integrating Mutual Action Plan Software with Other Tools

Seamless integration with project management software  

As previously mentioned, the software you choose for your mutual action plan should be compatible with integrating with project management tools.

Particularly in organizations with a large workforce, they heavily depend on project management tools to oversee their daily tasks. Therefore, it would create significant friction if they were required to track each task separately using both mutual action plans and their own project management tools.

Ensure the MAP and the respective project management tool seamlessly integrate and keep the workflow smooth without any friction.

Project Management Tools

Connecting mutual action plans with communication tools  

Integrating mutual action plans and communication tools with real-time alerts helps team members get regular updates and keep them aligned on the respective tasks they are working on.  

This integration helps them to handle tasks from their chats instead of switching between applications. To implement this wisely, select a mutual action plan that supports widely used communication channels such as Teams, Slack, etc.

Integrate with the MAP and leverage features like bots to get real-time alerts on the task updates and assignments that happen inside the mutual action plan. This is not only helpful to streamline tasks but also increases the engagement rate between the stakeholders, which ultimately impacts overall collaboration and accountability.  

Communication Tools

Enhancing collaboration through third-party app integrations  

Today, people are using thousands of different applications for various use cases. A wide range of third-party app integrations has become a must-have for any tool to foster efficiency.  

The mutual action plan that has been selected should be flexible enough to integrate with popular third-party apps, thereby streamlining all data and workflows. With this integration, various teams such as marketing, sales, and customer success can effortlessly utilize their current tools to collaborate on their respective tasks.

This flexibility will aid in scaling operations without requiring additional effort for custom development to meet evolving needs. Therefore, mutual action plans should be compatible with popular apps to empower teams to streamline their workflows and improve collaboration toward common shared goals.  

Benefits of Mutual Action Plan Software

Mutual action plans serve as more than just a shared to-do list between buyers and sellers. It's simple yet powerful to build relationships between sellers and buying committee stakeholders by setting the right expectations and healthy collaboration during the deal cycle.  

Following are the significant benefits that both seller and buyer teams can get by implementing a MAP:

MAP implementation

  1. A single source of truth for everyone  

Mutual action plans remain a transparent, clear roadmap for everyone involved in the deal cycle by defining every action and milestone. This can serve as a reliable source of information at any given time, preventing miscommunication through email threads.

  1. Clearly defined accountability  

Various priorities at different points in the timeline within a deal cycle require contributions from various stakeholders. To maintain a strong central focus, a mutual action plan facilitates the assignment of responsibilities within a clearly defined timeline, ensuring transparency for all parties involved in the deal cycle.

  1. Track the overall progress in real time

At any time, getting through the mutual action plan can give you the up-to-date status of each milestone completed by the respective stakeholders. This will improve communication and provide prompts to guide the stakeholders in completing their assigned tasks.

  1. Forecast the pipeline and risks earlier

Overall, this trackable process can enable a repeatable plan for every account that sellers are working on, which helps to accurately forecast their pipeline and identify the risks earlier in the deal cycle. This avoids wasting time and effort on insignificant tasks.

Best Practices for Mutual Action Plans

Craft tailor-made MAPs for each deal

Mutual action plans are not a universally effective template. Based on your accounts and industry type, some customization is always required for it to efficiently work.  

Consider each account and determine their unique set of objectives, the average number of stakeholders to manage, and the timeline for the deal cycle.

With this craft, your customized mutual action plan, incorporating your branding, can establish a deeper connection with your buyers and quickly capture their attention from the first touch.

Establish MAP as the single source of truth and updates

Mutual action plans are the most common thing among the sellers today. However, many buyers remain unaware of this practice during the deal process.

A lot of friction and confusion happens during the deal cycle, just because of the poor establishment of communication channels between the sellers and buyers.  

From the start, after properly introducing the mutual action plan to every stakeholder in the buying committee, strongly establish it as the single point of contact for everyone to collaborate.  

Regular check-ins and iterations  

MAP will become a living, dynamic document for both sides if stakeholders on both sides are active and regularly check-in to engage.  

Establish a collaborative environment where we listen to everyone's feedback and incorporate it into the MAP.

Integrate with the relevant tools  

Always keep in mind that a mutual action plan serves as the central hub of your deal cycle. To maintain this source and effectively progress towards other tasks, it is crucial to integrate the Mutual Action Plan (MAP) with the necessary tools.

Start integrating first with your CRM, and then move on to other third-party tools to expand your integrations. In this way, you don’t need to switch between apps and a mutual action plan to regularly check-in and engage, which keeps your efficiency high.  

Adapt to the evolving needs and requirements  

Whatever the plan we create, don’t templatize it for the long run. Today’s buyer expectations are so dynamic, and it is imperative to listen to their feedback and adapt to the changes on the go.  

Always give space to observe the needs and requirements for each account and shape the mutual action plan based on the objectives.  

Conclusion

Recap of the benefits of mutual action plan software for collaboration  

In a nutshell, as the acronym mutual action plan (MAP) indicates, it is truly a living map that guides the north star direction for sellers and buyers at any moment in the deal cycle. Many failed deals often stem from inefficient collaboration, becoming lost in the middle, and executing in the wrong direction.

A mutual action plan gives the right clarity and alignment by establishing common goals and heavily reduces miscommunication. With clearly defined responsibilities and timelines, everyone involved is aware of their contributions and priorities to advance the deal. That being, it helps to set the right expectations and impacts for better pipeline management and forecasting.  

Overall, MAPs enhance your collaboration with a repeatable process by establishing clarity and streamlined processes that drive your deal’s momentum with every account in the long term.  

Final tips for maximizing collaboration using mutual action plan software  

  • Customize the mutual action plan based on specific objectives and participating stakeholders.  
  • Utilizing standard templates is a beneficial start, but you've got to customize it to elevate the buyer experience.  
  • Use MAP as a tool to regulate regular check-ins and status updates in your workflow.  
  • Have a clear vision and establish clear objectives for everyone in the deal.  
  • Integrate with your tech stack and also assist members of the buyer’s team to integrate with their tech stack to eliminate unnecessary frictions.  
  • Make sure that everyone regularly updates the MAP to reflect every discussion.
  • Add relevant visual resources for better and easier consumption that can boost collaboration.  
  • Acknowledge every stakeholder’s queries or updates within the stipulated time and celebrate the milestones achieved during the deal cycle to keep the momentum onward and upward.  

By signing up, I accept T&C and Privacy Policy.
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
By signing up, I accept T&C and Privacy Policy.
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.