What is a mutual action plan
A mutual action plan turns a vague "we will get back to you" into a concrete, shared roadmap with owners and dates on both sides.
Its real power is engagement: a buyer willing to co-build and own a MAP is a buyer who is serious.
Short answer
A mutual action plan (MAP), sometimes called a close plan, is a shared, dated timeline of the steps required to go from evaluation to signature and launch, built and owned jointly by the buyer and seller. It aligns both sides on what happens next, surfaces hidden steps like procurement, and dramatically improves close rates and forecast accuracy on complex deals.
What a MAP includes
A joint roadmap to signature and beyond.
- Every step from now to signature: evaluation, approvals, security review, legal, procurement.
- An owner for each step, on both the buyer and seller side.
- A target date for each milestone, working back from the compelling event.
- The launch or onboarding steps after signature, so the buyer sees the full path.
Why it works
A MAP aligns both sides, surfaces hidden steps like a long security review before they cause a slip, and creates mutual accountability. Crucially, a buyer's willingness to co-own a MAP is itself a strong qualification signal: serious buyers engage with it, while a buyer who will not is telling you the deal is not real.
How Ardovo runs this
Ardovo turns this from a slide no one opens into how the work actually happens. The stages, exit criteria, and plays live in the deal object, and Rook flags any deal that skips a step, drafts the next artifact, and keeps the data honest, so every enterprise deal has a live mutual action plan gets followed instead of forgotten.
Frequently asked questions
What is a mutual action plan?
A shared, dated timeline of the steps from evaluation to signature and launch, built and owned jointly by the buyer and seller. Also called a close plan, it aligns both sides on what happens next, surfaces hidden steps like procurement, and improves close rates on complex deals.
Why does a mutual action plan improve close rates?
Because it aligns both sides on the path to signature, surfaces hidden steps like a long security review before they cause a slip, and creates mutual accountability. It also qualifies the deal: a buyer willing to co-own a MAP is serious, while one who resists it is signaling the deal is not real.
What should a mutual action plan include?
Every step from now to signature, including evaluation, approvals, security, legal, and procurement, plus an owner and a target date for each, and the post-signature launch steps. Working the dates back from the buyer's compelling event keeps the whole plan anchored to a real deadline.