close-plan

name	close-plan
description	Seller's backward date-plan from target signature through every gate back to today. Trigger: 'close plan', 'path to signature', 'hit our close date'. The shared buyer plan is mutual-action-plan.
origin	ESCC

Close Plan

The seller's backward date-plan: start from the target signature date and work backwards through every enterprise gate to today, with dates and owners per step.

Governing rules:

• rules/lifecycle-stages.md — the close plan is built when a deal enters stage 4 (Proposal/Negotiation); it is updated at every stage advance.
• rules/common/meeting-standards.md — every open deal leaves a meeting with a scheduled, dated next step. The close plan is the source of those next steps.
• rules/segments/*.md — enterprise has more gates (security review, multi-layer procurement, board approval cycles); mid-market has fewer; SMB has fewer still. Apply the segment overlay before setting timelines.
• rules/meddpicc/deal-review.md — a close plan built on red MEDDPICC gaps is a fantasy. Check the deal score before committing dates.

The close plan is the seller's internal sequencing tool. The shared view that a buyer co-commits to is the mutual-action-plan; this is the seller's backward-dated map of every internal and external gate from signature to now. They are complementary, not redundant: the mutual-action-plan shows the buyer a collaborative path; the close plan shows the seller every step and its risk.

When to Activate

Activate this skill when:

• A deal is entering or is in Proposal/Negotiation stage (rules/lifecycle-stages.md).
• A rep asks how to map the path from today to a target close date.
• A manager is inspecting whether a committed close date is credible.
• A deal has a close date in the CRM but no documented steps backing it.
• The target close date changes and the plan must be rebuilt backward from the new date.
• Segment-specific gates (e.g. security review, multi-tier procurement) need to be explicitly sequenced.

Do not activate for:

• The buyer-facing collaborative milestone plan — that is mutual-action-plan.
• Tracking individual legal document status (MSA, DPA redline version) — that is paper-process. The close plan sequences the paper process gates; paper-process tracks each artifact inside them.
• Negotiation tactics and concession planning — that is negotiation-prep.
• MEDDPICC scoring — that is rules/meddpicc/deal-review.md.

Workflow

Step 1 — Anchor on the target signature date and confirm its basis

1. Identify the target signature date. Ask: why this date? A credible close date has a buyer-acknowledged reason (budget cycle, implementation window, board mandate, compliance deadline). A rep-driven date ("my quarter ends") is a planning assumption, not a commitment.
2. Confirm whether the date has been verbally agreed by the economic buyer. If the EB has not acknowledged the date, it is amber — note it and probe at the next EB touchpoint.
3. Check the current MEDDPICC status via rules/meddpicc/deal-review.md. A red EB or red decision process makes the close date structurally unreliable; flag before building the plan rather than embedding the gap into dates.

Step 2 — Apply the segment overlay to identify the gate set

Different segments have materially different gate counts and lead times. Pull the relevant overlay before setting any backward dates:

• Enterprise (rules/segments/enterprise.md): mandatory security review, multi-layer procurement (commercial + legal + finance), potential board approval, executive sponsor sign-off. Typical gate lead times: security review 2-4 weeks, legal redlines 2-6 weeks, procurement commercial review 1-3 weeks, EB final approval 1-2 weeks. Stack these; they rarely run fully in parallel.
• Mid-market (rules/segments/mid-market.md): lighter procurement; legal review often shorter; security review may exist but is faster. Fewer stakeholder layers.
• SMB (rules/segments/smb.md): often no formal procurement or security review; primarily EB decision + standard order form / click-through terms.

Always confirm actual timelines with the champion and decision-process notes from discovery — segment defaults are a planning floor, not a guarantee.

Step 3 — Build the backward date-plan

Start from the target signature date and work backward. Every gate gets:

• Gate name and description of what must be true to pass it.
• Owner (internal rep action, champion action, buyer-side role).
• Target completion date (derived by working backward from signature).
• Status (not started / in progress / complete / blocked).
• Dependency (which gate must complete before this one starts).

Standard enterprise gate sequence (reverse-ordered from signature):

#	Gate	Typical lead time	Owner
0	Signature / order form executed	target date	Buyer EB + Rep
1	Legal sign-off — final MSA/DPA redlines resolved	1-2 weeks before #0	Buyer legal + Rep legal team
2	Procurement commercial approval — pricing and terms accepted	1-2 weeks before #1	Buyer procurement + Rep
3	Security review complete — questionnaire returned + approved	2-4 weeks before #2	Buyer security + Rep SE/security team
4	EB engagement — EB has reviewed proposal and given internal green light	1 week before #2	Champion + Rep
5	Proposal / business case delivered to EB	1 week before #4	Rep
6	Paper process opened — MSA first draft sent	before #3 starts	Rep + legal team
7	Mutual action plan (initiated at Validation/Proof per mutual-action-plan) confirmed/agreed with buyer	before #3 starts	Rep + Champion
8	Commercial proposal and pricing delivered	before #5	Rep + quote-desk

Adjust gate count and lead times for the segment and deal specifics. Mid-market may collapse #2 and #4; SMB may skip #2, #3, and #4 entirely.

Work the dates backward:

• Signature target: [date]
• Legal sign-off needed by: [date - 1 to 2 weeks]
• Procurement approval needed by: [date of legal sign-off - 1 to 2 weeks]
• Security review needed by: [date of procurement - 2 to 4 weeks]
• EB green light needed by: [concurrent with procurement, triggered by proposal]
• Paper process must open by: [date of security review start]
• Proposal delivered by: [date of EB engagement - 1 week]
• TODAY: Are you here or behind?

Step 4 — Identify the critical path and risks

1. Critical path: which gate has the longest fixed lead time and cannot be compressed? For enterprise, security review is typically the critical path gate. Starting it late is the most common close-date failure mode.
2. Risk flags to surface in the close plan:
   • Paper process not started within 6 weeks of target — high risk.
   • EB not confirmed on the close timeline — medium risk.
   • Champion not engaged at procurement / legal — high risk.
   • Security review questionnaire not sent within 4 weeks of target (enterprise) — high risk.
   • Close date with no mutual action plan counterpart — medium risk.
3. Map each risk to a next action with an owner and date, consistent with rules/common/meeting-standards.md (every open deal, dated next step).

Step 5 — Link to the mutual-action-plan and paper-process

• The mutual-action-plan (shared buyer+seller plan) should reflect the buyer-visible milestones from this close plan. The two plans are not identical: the close plan includes internal seller gates (internal approvals, pricing routing, SE resource scheduling) that do not belong in the shared plan. Sync the buyer-visible milestones.
• The paper-process tracks each legal document (MSA, DPA, order form, security questionnaire) individually. The close plan references paper-process as a gate; it does not re-track each document. When a paper-process artifact is blocked, pull the blocker into the close plan as a risk with an owner and date.

Step 6 — Keep the plan live

• Update after every buyer interaction, stage advance, or gate completion.
• Flag any gate slipping more than one week; a 1-week slip in an enterprise deal typically propagates to the close date.
• At each update, re-run the backward date math from the latest known signature date.
• Log close plan updates to HubSpot via crm-operator; a close plan that only lives in a document outside the CRM is invisible to management and forecasting.

Examples

Enterprise deal — close plan built from signature date:

Deal: Example Co Corp, $180k ARR, target signature 2026-09-30 (EB-acknowledged: board
  budget cycle closes Sept).
Segment: enterprise (rules/segments/enterprise.md).
MEDDPICC check: E GREEN (CFO named), D AMBER (multi-step process known but
  board approval cadence unclear), P RED (paper process not opened).

Backward date-plan:

  Gate 0: Signature — 2026-09-30 | Owner: CFO (EB) + Rep
  Gate 1: Legal sign-off (MSA + DPA) — 2026-09-16 | Owner: Buyer legal + Rep legal
    Status: not started | Risk: paper not opened — CRITICAL, open this week.
  Gate 2: Procurement commercial approval — 2026-09-09 | Owner: Procurement lead + Rep
    Status: not started | Depends on: legal sign-off in progress by 09-09
  Gate 3: Security review complete — 2026-08-19 | Owner: Buyer InfoSec + Rep SE
    Status: not started | Lead time: 4 weeks | Risk: must send questionnaire by 08-19
  Gate 4: EB (CFO) green light — 2026-09-02 | Owner: Champion (VP Ops) + Rep
    Status: in progress | Champion briefing scheduled 2026-07-22
  Gate 5: Proposal delivered to EB — 2026-08-26 | Owner: Rep + quote-desk
    Status: quote-desk routing in progress
  Gate 6: Paper process opened (MSA first draft sent) — 2026-07-25 | Owner: Rep
    Status: NOT STARTED — RED. Action: open paper-process today.
  Gate 7: Mutual action plan agreed — 2026-07-29 | Owner: Rep + Champion
    Status: in progress

Critical path: security review (Gate 3). Must send questionnaire by 2026-07-25.
Top risk: paper process not opened. Owner: Rep. Due: 2026-07-25 (today).

Mid-market deal — abbreviated plan:

Deal: Beta Inc, $28k ARR, target signature 2026-08-15.
Segment: mid-market. No formal security review required.

  Gate 0: Signature (order form) — 2026-08-15
  Gate 1: Legal sign-off (standard MSA) — 2026-08-08 | 1 week
    paper-process status: first draft sent 2026-07-18, one redline outstanding.
  Gate 2: EB approval (VP Finance) — 2026-08-05 | Proposal delivered; champion
    confirmed EB has budget.
  Gate 3: Pricing confirmed (quote-desk) — 2026-07-30 | Done.
  Gate 4: Mutual action plan shared with buyer — 2026-07-22 | Done.

No critical path risk today. Monitor MSA redline; expected back 2026-07-25.

Close date credibility check (deal inspection):

Manager: This deal is committed for Q3 close. Walk me through the close plan.
Rep: Target signature 2026-09-30. Let me map the gates...
  [builds backward plan — see enterprise example above]
  Current gap: paper process not opened, security review not started with 10 weeks
  to close. For enterprise, security review alone is 4 weeks. If we open paper
  process today and send the security questionnaire this week, we have a credible
  path. If either slips 2 weeks, we are at risk.
Manager verdict: amber — credible if actions taken this week; re-inspect in 7 days.

Anti-patterns

• Building a close plan without checking MEDDPICC. A plan with dates on top of a red economic buyer or unknown decision process is not a plan; it is a close-date decoration. Run rules/meddpicc/deal-review.md first.
• Rep-driven dates with no buyer acknowledgment. "My quarter ends" is not a buyer-anchored close date. The EB must acknowledge the timeline; absent that, the date is a forecast assumption, not a commitment.
• Skipping the segment overlay. An enterprise deal with no security review gate in the plan will miss the close date. Apply rules/segments/enterprise.md before setting timelines.
• Confusing close plan with mutual-action-plan. The mutual-action-plan is the shared buyer+seller document; the close plan includes internal seller gates the buyer does not need to see. Sync buyer-visible milestones; do not merge the two.
• Re-tracking paper-process artifacts here. The close plan references the paper process as a gate (is it unblocked?); it does not duplicate the per-document status that paper-process owns.
• Static plans. A close plan updated once and never touched again provides false confidence. Update after every buyer interaction; re-run backward date math at each update.
• No critical path identification. A list of gates with no critical path analysis misses where the plan is fragile. Identify the longest-lead gate and watch it weekly.

Related

• mutual-action-plan — the shared buyer+seller milestone plan. The close plan references it; the close plan is NOT a replacement for it.
• paper-process — tracks individual legal document status (MSA, DPA, order form, security questionnaire). The close plan sequences paper-process as a gate block; paper-process tracks each artifact inside.
• negotiation-prep — the seller's commercial preparation playbook; complements the timeline this skill produces.
• rules/lifecycle-stages.md — stage definitions and entry/exit criteria.
• rules/segments/enterprise.md, rules/segments/mid-market.md, rules/segments/smb.md — gate count and lead-time overrides per segment.
• rules/common/meeting-standards.md — every open deal, dated next step.
• rules/meddpicc/deal-review.md — deal health scoring; must be checked before committing dates in the close plan.