── SKILL
mutual-action-plan✓ APPROVED

Give the deal a dated path to signature.

Builds a close plan with the champion: milestones, owners, dates, and exit criteria, written to send.

Inside: The backward-from-signature plan, owners and dates, and exit criteria.

01 / HOW TO USE

Install it in one line, or paste it in.

1
In Claude Code (one command)
Copy the install line, paste it into your terminal, and restart Claude Code. The skill installs itself to ~/.claude/skills/ and runs automatically when it is relevant.
2
In Claude, ChatGPT, or a Project (no terminal)
Open the file, then upload it to your chat or paste its contents in. A skill is just a markdown file of instructions, so any capable AI can follow it.
New to skills? A skill is a plain-text file that teaches your AI a workflow. Point any capable assistant at it and it follows the steps, on your data.
02 / MAKE IT YOURS

Connect your context. Set it to your motion.

CONNECT YOUR CONTEXT · AND WHY IT HELPS
a CRM

it reads the close date, the stage, and the contact roles, so the plan lines up with the deal the pipeline already believes in.

Sharper connected to a meeting or email tool

it pulls what the champion already agreed to, so the plan reflects commitments, not hopes.

SET IT TO YOUR MOTION

This was built for a B2B SaaS org running a committee sale. Set these to your stack:

Build the plan around your real buying process, not a generic template. The skill puts a name and a date on every step and shows you the ones you left blank.

Set thisWhat it isDefault / Example
CLOSE fieldthe target signature dateOpportunity.CloseDate
STAGE fieldthe opportunity stageOpportunity.StageName
MILESTONE setyour standard path to signedevalbusiness caselegalsecurityprocurementsign
ROLESwho owns which stepAEchampionEBlegalITprocurement
EXIT criteriawhat proves each step is doneyour definition of done per stage
BUFFER daysslack before the close date5 (re-tune to your cycle)
03 / THE FULL SKILL

Everything the skill does, in full.

── WHAT THIS DOES

Builds the plan that gets a deal from today to signed, jointly, with your champion. It lays out the milestones between here and signature, puts a name and a date on each one, and states the exit criteria that prove the deal is actually moving. It writes the whole thing as something you can send, so the buyer commits to real steps instead of vague enthusiasm.

── THE METHOD
  1. 1
    Backward from the signature date

    Start at the target close date and work backward, placing each milestone so the whole chain lands on time with a buffer. If the steps do not fit before the date, the date is the fiction, and the plan shows it now instead of at quarter end.

  2. 2
    An owner and a date on every line

    Every milestone has exactly one owner and one date. "The team will handle legal" is not a plan. "Champion sends the agreement to legal by the 14th" is. A line with a missing owner or date is flagged, because that is where deals stall.

  3. 3
    Exit criteria, not activities

    Each milestone states what proves it is done, not just that it happened. "Security review complete" is an activity. "Security signs off in writing, no open items" is an exit criterion. The plan tracks the criteria.

  4. 4
    Shared, not sent one way

    The plan is built with the champion and owned by both sides. Half the milestones belong to the buyer. That shared ownership is the test: a champion who will not take a single dated step is telling you the deal is not real yet.

  5. 5
    Written to send

    The output is drafted as something the buyer reads, reacts to, and edits. Concrete steps give them something to push back on, and the pushback is where you learn what the deal actually needs.

── QUALITY GATES
  • No milestone without one owner and one date. Blanks are flagged, not hidden.
  • At least one buyer-owned step early, as a live test that the champion will act.
  • Exit criteria are written as proof of done, never as "in progress."
  • The chain fits before the close date with a buffer, or the date is flagged as at risk.
── OUTPUT (EXAMPLE)
EXAMPLE OUTPUT
MUTUAL ACTION PLAN · illustrative deal · target sign: end of quarter
#  Milestone                     Owner        Date     Exit criteria
1  Confirm success criteria      AE + champ   day 0    Written, both agree
2  Business case to committee    Champion     day 5    On the committee agenda
3  Security review               IT / vendor  day 12   Signed off, no open items
4  Legal + redlines              Legal        day 20   Redlines resolved
5  Procurement + PO              Procurement  day 26   PO issued
6  Signature                     EB           day 30   Contract signed

Flags:
  - Milestone 2 owner is the champion. If they will not take it, the deal is not real.
  - No date yet on procurement contact. Get the name before milestone 3.
── EXAMPLE CHAT
EXAMPLE CHAT
You
Build the MAP for Acme. Target close is end of quarter, and we're heading into security review next.
CLAUDE
Backward-planned from the sign date, buyer-owned steps flagged. 2 Business case to committee Champion day 5 On the committee agenda 3 Security review IT / vendor day 12 Signed off, no open items Flags: - Milestone 2 owner is the champion. If they won't take it, the deal isn't real. The catch worth naming: milestone 2 is the test, not a formality. It's the first buyer-owned step, and it's early on purpose, if the champion won't commit to a dated action this soon, that's a live signal the deal is softer than the stage says, weeks before it would show up in a forecast call. One sharpener: connect your CRM so the close date and stage come from the real opportunity instead of the number you typed in.
04 / GO FURTHER

Where an operator takes this next.

The plan is step one. Here is where an operator takes it once the manual version proves out.

You built the plan once, now the slippage gets caught in real time.

01
Send it and track opens

Drop the MAP into a doc or email tool that reports when the champion opens and edits it, so you know if it's being used or ignored.

02
Flag slipping milestones automatically

Wire a scheduled Claude task to check each dated milestone against today and post to Slack the moment one goes overdue.

03
Roll the pattern up across the pipeline

Pull every open MAP from Salesforce and report which champions are missing their buyer-owned steps this week, so a sales leader sees the soft deals before the forecast call.

05 / PART OF A BIGGER PLAY

One skill is the on-ramp.

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