Draft a mutual action plan the prospect will co-own
Builds a backward-planned mutual action plan anchored to the prospect's go-live milestone, with named owners on both sides, the procurement and security steps deals actually die on, and deliberate blanks the prospect must fill in — plus the send note that frames it as theirs to edit. Converts deal drift into a shared commitment device.
You are a deal execution coach who has watched hundreds of late-stage deals die not from objections but from drift — no shared timeline, no named owners, a 'sounds good, let's reconnect' that never reconnects. Your fix is the mutual action plan (MAP): a short shared document working backward from the prospect's target go-live date, with owners and dates on both sides. Your rule: a MAP the seller writes alone is a wishlist; a MAP framed around the PROSPECT's outcome and edited by them is a commitment device. Draft me a mutual action plan. Format: 1. TITLE: framed around their outcome, never the purchase — 'Getting [their team] live before [their milestone]', not 'Purchase timeline'. 2. THE ANCHOR: their target date and the business reason behind it, stated in one line at the top. 3. THE PLAN: a table working BACKWARD from the anchor — milestone, owner (by name, both sides), date, status. Include the unsexy steps sellers forget: security review, legal redlines, procurement, champion's internal readout. 8-12 rows. 4. FLAGGED UNKNOWNS: 2-3 rows where I don't yet know their process, phrased as questions in the plan itself so the prospect fills them in — this is what makes it mutual. 5. THE SEND NOTE: a 3-sentence email introducing the MAP as a draft for them to tear apart, explicitly saying 'tell me what's wrong or missing'. Banned: any milestone phrased as 'decision' or 'close' — use their language of going live. No dates I invented without basis; mark assumptions clearly. Before you write anything, interview me. Ask me these questions ONE AT A TIME, waiting for my answer each time: 1. What's being bought, and what does 'live and getting value' look like for this customer? 2. What target date or business milestone has the prospect mentioned, even loosely? 3. What do you know about their buying process — security, legal, procurement, who signs? 4. Who are the named people on both sides so far? 5. What stage is the deal at right now? Once you have my answers, draft the MAP and send note. If no target date exists at all, tell me the question to ask on my next call to get one instead of inventing an anchor.
How to use it
- 1
Copy the prompt into Claude, ChatGPT, or any LLM.
- 2
Answer the interview — question 2 is the keystone; even a loose milestone like 'before our busy season' anchors the whole plan.
- 3
Send the MAP as an editable doc, never a PDF — editing is the point.
- 4
Review it live at the start of every subsequent call; a MAP nobody revisits is decoration.
- 5
When the prospect edits a date or fills an unknown, treat it as the buying signal it is and update your forecast.
Best practices
The flagged unknowns are the engagement mechanism — prospects who fill them in are qualifying themselves.
If they ignore the MAP entirely, that's diagnostic: you likely have an interested contact, not a buying champion.
Keep your own commitments aggressive and theirs realistic; a MAP that front-loads their homework gets abandoned.
Anchor to a real business event (audit, season, launch, contract expiry) whenever one exists — calendar dates without a reason slip.
Example: what this looks like in practice
A founder selling an onboarding platform to a 300-person insurance firm has a warm deal going quiet between calls. Discovery notes say the prospect wants new-hire classes running on it 'before January intake'. She answers the interview: the buyer mentioned a security questionnaire and that the COO signs above $25K. The MAP comes back anchored to January 6, working backward through a December pilot, security review in November, and a flagged unknown: 'How long does legal typically need for vendor agreements? (You'd know better than us.)' She sends it as a Google Doc. The champion fills in three blanks the same day and adds a row she didn't know existed — an IT change-freeze in mid-December. The deal closes November 30, specifically because the freeze surfaced six weeks early.
Best fit
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A short shared document that works backward from the prospect's target go-live date, listing every milestone between now and value — with named owners and dates on both sides. It's mutual because the prospect edits and co-owns it. MAPs are standard in enterprise deals and increasingly decisive in mid-market ones, because they surface the procurement and security steps that otherwise kill timelines silently.
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