mutual-success-plan

name	mutual-success-plan
description	Mutual success plan / close plan: align buyer and seller on milestones, stakeholders, timeline, success criteria

Mutual Success Plan Skill

When to activate

• You're in late-stage evaluation and need a structured path to signature
• A deal is stalling and you want to give both sides a shared close plan to create momentum
• You want to get the buyer to commit to specific actions (procurement intake, security review, exec call) on a documented timeline
• You need an artefact to share with the economic buyer that demonstrates mutual commitment
• Post-sale: onboarding and success milestone documentation for the first 90 days

When NOT to use

• Early stage (Discovery / Demo) — MSPs are for late-stage deals; early-stage buyers won't commit to them
• Very small deals (<$10K ACV) — the overhead of an MSP isn't justified; use a simple follow-up email
• When you're the only one who fills it out — an MSP that only the AE touches is not mutual; it's a close plan. Both sides must agree to the content.
• As a substitute for champion development — if you don't have a champion, an MSP won't fix it

Instructions

Full Mutual Success Plan document

Create a mutual success plan for [opportunity name].

## Deal context
Buyer company: [name]
Buyer stakeholders:
  - Champion: [Name, Title]
  - Economic buyer: [Name, Title]
  - Technical evaluator: [Name, Title]
  - Procurement/legal: [Name, Title, if known]
Seller: [AE name] — [company name]
Deal size: $[ACV/TCV]
Target close date: [date]
Current stage: [Evaluation / Proposal / Negotiation]

## Produce this document:

---

# Mutual Success Plan
## [Buyer Company] + [Seller Company]
**Date:** [today]
**Version:** 1.0

---

### Why this plan exists
This document aligns [Buyer Company] and [Seller Company] on the shared steps needed to evaluate,
decide, and (if it's the right fit) implement [solution]. Both parties commit to completing their
respective actions by the agreed dates.

This is a living document. We will update it after each milestone.

---

### What success looks like
The buyer's goal for this engagement:
> "[Specific, quantified outcome the buyer is trying to achieve — written in their language,
>  not the vendor's. E.g.: 'Reduce invoice processing time from 4 days to same-day for the
>  AR team, eliminating the manual export step that currently takes the team 3 hours/week.']"

We will measure success against this outcome at [30 / 60 / 90] days post-implementation.

---

### Key stakeholders

| Name | Company | Role in this process | Contact |
|---|---|---|---|
| [Champion Name] | [Buyer] | Primary evaluator and internal sponsor | [email] |
| [Economic Buyer] | [Buyer] | Budget owner and final approver | [email] |
| [Technical] | [Buyer] | Security and integration evaluation | [email] |
| [AE Name] | [Seller] | Account Executive | [email] |
| [SE Name] | [Seller] | Solutions Engineer | [email] |
| [CSM Name] | [Seller] | Customer Success (post-sale) | [email] |

---

### Evaluation and close milestones

| # | Milestone | Owner | Target Date | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Technical deep-dive / architecture review | SE + Technical Evaluator | [date] | Scheduled / Complete |
| 2 | Security questionnaire submitted | [Seller SE] | [date] | Pending |
| 3 | Security review completed | [Buyer IT/Security] | [date] | Pending |
| 4 | Reference calls (2 customers in similar vertical) | AE + Champion | [date] | AE to schedule |
| 5 | Commercial proposal reviewed | AE + Economic Buyer | [date] | Proposal sent |
| 6 | Procurement intake initiated | [Buyer Procurement] | [date] | Pending |
| 7 | Legal review completed | [Buyer Legal] | [date] | Estimated [N] weeks |
| 8 | Executive alignment call | AE + Economic Buyer + [Champion] | [date] | To schedule |
| 9 | Contract redlines returned | Buyer Legal | [date] | Pending |
| 10 | Contract signed | Economic Buyer | [date] | Target close |

---

### Open questions and decisions

Track outstanding questions that must be resolved before the deal can close:

| Question | Raised by | Owner | Due date | Answer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [Question 1 — e.g. "Does the integration support SSO?"] | Buyer / IT | [Seller SE] | [date] | [Answer once known] |
| [Question 2] | | | | |
| [Question 3] | | | | |

**Unresolved questions must be resolved before [evaluation milestone].**

---

### Mutual commitments

**[Buyer Company] commits to:**
1. Provide a named point of contact for the security review by [date]
2. Complete the security questionnaire review within [N] business days of receipt
3. Initiate procurement intake by [date]
4. Provide written feedback on the commercial proposal by [date]
5. Ensure the economic buyer attends the executive alignment call on [date]

**[Seller Company] commits to:**
1. Respond to all technical questions within [N] business hours
2. Provide [N] reference customers in [industry] within [N] business days
3. Submit a redline-ready contract by [date]
4. Guarantee pricing holds until [date]
5. Assign a dedicated CSM by signature date

---

### Implementation plan (post-signature preview)

Show the buyer what happens after they sign to reduce perceived risk:

| Phase | Timeline | Key activities |
|---|---|---|
| Onboarding kickoff | Week 1 | Kickoff call, access provisioning, CSM introduction |
| Integration setup | Weeks 1-2 | [Specific integrations] connected and tested |
| Team training | Week 3 | Admin training ([N] people), end-user training ([N] people) |
| Go-live | Week 4 | First use in production, hypercare support period |
| First value checkpoint | Day 30 | Review against success criteria defined above |
| Full adoption review | Day 90 | Measure ROI against baseline; expansion discussion if applicable |

---

### Risk register
Risks that could delay the plan and how we'll manage them:

| Risk | Likelihood | Impact | Mitigation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legal review takes longer than [N] weeks | Medium | High | Initiate legal review before commercial terms are finalised |
| Security review uncovers a gap | Low | High | Schedule pre-review architecture call with our security team |
| Stakeholder change (champion leaves / new approver) | Low | Critical | Get economic buyer engagement before close; document decisions |
| Budget freeze in [buyer's fiscal quarter] | Medium | High | Confirm budget availability with economic buyer at executive call |

---

### Revision log
| Version | Date | Changed by | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | [date] | [AE name] | Initial draft |

---

**This document is mutually agreed upon when both parties confirm via email or signature.**

[Buyer champion name] — [Company]: ___________________________ Date: ___________
[AE name] — [Seller company]: ___________________________ Date: ___________

---

MSP email to champion (sending the document)

Write an email to [champion name] at [company] introducing the Mutual Success Plan.

Context:
Champion: [name, title]
Their goal: [what they're trying to achieve]
Target close date: [date]
Biggest obstacle: [what's slowing the deal down]

Email goals:
1. Frame the MSP as a buyer-centric tool, not a seller's close plan
2. Make it clear this is collaborative — they should edit it, not just receive it
3. Create urgency around the close date without being pushy
4. Get confirmation to share with the economic buyer

Email template:
Subject: Shared plan — [Buyer Company] + [Seller Company] evaluation

Hi [Name],

Based on our conversations, I've put together a shared plan that maps out the remaining steps on
both sides to get you to a confident decision by [target date].

It covers: [3-bullet summary of MSP contents]

A few things I want to flag before I share it more broadly:
- I've included [economic buyer name] as a stakeholder — does that match your expectation?
- I've estimated [N] weeks for your legal review — is that realistic or should we start earlier?
- I've committed [specific seller commitment] on our side — confirm that's what you need.

Can you take 10 minutes to review and let me know if anything looks off before we share it with
[economic buyer]?

I'll send the full document as an attachment. If it looks right, I'd love to get [economic buyer]'s
eyes on it before [date] so we can confirm the timeline together.

Thanks, [Your name]

MSP for renewal / expansion (existing customer)

Create a mutual success plan for a renewal or expansion conversation.

Account: [company name]
Current ARR: $[X]
Renewal date / expansion opportunity: [date or trigger]
CSM: [name]
Champion: [name, title]
Expansion opportunity: [additional seats / new product / upsell tier]

This MSP should cover:
1. Value delivered to date vs. original success criteria (did we hit the goal?)
2. Current usage health (adoption rate, feature utilisation, active users)
3. Expansion use case and business case
4. Renewal / expansion milestones and timeline
5. Commercial discussion parameters (pricing, term options)

Format the document the same as the evaluation MSP above, but:
- Lead section 1 with "What we've achieved together" — this is your proof of value
- Section 2: "Where we're going next" — the expansion case
- Section 3: Renewal / expansion milestones
- Use language that assumes a continuing partnership, not a re-evaluation

Example

User: Create a quick MSP for Riverstone Capital, $95K ACV, closing end of June. Champion is Kelly (VP Ops). Economic buyer is the CFO (haven't met yet). Competing against Workato. Security review and legal review not started. Target close June 30.

Output (milestones section):

# Mutual Success Plan — Riverstone Capital + [Seller]
**Target close: June 30, 2026**

### Success definition
Automate Riverstone's finance operations workflows to reduce manual reconciliation time from
12 hours/week to under 2 hours/week — freeing the ops team to focus on reporting instead of data entry.

### Evaluation milestones

| # | Milestone | Owner | Target Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CFO introduction and 30-min alignment call | Kelly (VP Ops) + AE | June 6 |
| 2 | Security questionnaire submitted by [Seller] | Solutions Engineer | June 7 |
| 3 | Workato competitive Q&A session | Kelly + AE | June 9 |
| 4 | Security review completed | Riverstone IT | June 16 |
| 5 | Commercial proposal reviewed with CFO | AE + CFO | June 12 |
| 6 | Legal redlines submitted | Riverstone Legal | June 20 |
| 7 | Final redlines agreed | Both legal teams | June 25 |
| 8 | Signature | CFO | June 30 |

**Note: Security and legal are on the critical path. Both must start by June 9 to hit June 30.
CFO introduction is the most urgent unresolved step — every other milestone depends on it.**

### Risk: June 30 is at risk without CFO engagement by June 6
If the CFO introduction doesn't happen this week, the June 30 close date is no longer realistic.
Legal review alone takes 2-3 weeks from initiation. AE to flag this to Kelly today.

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