Why, What & How of Mutual Action Plans

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In today’s episode of ‘Sales Samurai’ podcast, host Sam Capra, who helps marketing leaders in the retail space go beyond the sale/transaction, talks with guest Mark Fershteyn, CEO @Recapped.io who collaborates with buyers through mutual action plans to accelerate revenue, create repeatable playbooks, and ensure seamless handoffs. He shares the why, what, and how mutual actions plans work.

Episode Highlights

• 01:52 – Mark shares his background. He never thinks they'd have had the opportunity that they have today.
• 02:32 – The number one problem for most sales teams is the lack of process and lack of standardization, especially when you get into scale, states Mark.
• 10:43 - If you do want big changes, it does require big investments. You're not going to get a 20% swing on a 5% effort move, says Mark.
• 12:33 – Mutual Action Plan is a tool, and the internal parties and your customers are to be aligned on what needs to happen, it's a project plan.
• 14:31 - It's getting clear alignment and expectations on what needs to happen.
• 16:19 - Your mutual action plan is almost the business case that you're putting together.
• 20:07 – It’s creating that framework, so that your new reps and people that you bring in an organization, they're able to come in and follow best practices, highlights Mark.
• 22:07 - All of these different paths can converge, that's when you want to start driving the next steps together.
• 23:22 – We should understand that our customers or our prospects barely read our emails. We should not expect that they're going to collaborate with us 100% of the way.
• 26:06 – The deal acceleration is the most popular impact that they have seen by doing this, states Mark.
• 27:10 - If you're able to have a consistent way that everybody sells, it starts giving you visibility and insight into what's happening because it allows you to improve as an organization because you can't improve what you can't measure.
• 32:40 - Mutual Action Plans are essentially enforcement of the ‘Why’ but without a ‘How’ you can't implement the ‘Why’.
• 38:24 – Mark points out, setting a date on a checklist or on a task they found that the chances of that task being completed doubled.
• 42:15 - It's becomes winning what's winnable, and allocating your resources and being strategic with what you're doing, says Mark.
• 43:34 – Start implementing a collaborative selling approach, start working together on an action and implementation plan, and it's going to do wonders for you.

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Three Key Points:

1. If you're looking for a big swing, then you got to take a big swing from an investment standpoint, you have to double down somewhere, or you are not going to get there.
2. Mark recommends that the first thing you do is create a checklist of the high-level things that need to happen. Number two is including an executive summary, and the third one is access to resources.
3. There are different ways we help other customers like you, hear all the different proof points and data points that we can help you with. Here's the business case, shoot this over to your boss, here's my contact information. And if your boss has any questions, I'm right here for you.

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Tweetable Quotes:

• “There's nothing worse than having something fall apart at the finish line….” - Mark Fershteyn
• “The bigger you are the more important step process and standardization becomes.” – Mark Fershteyn
• “The Mutual Action Plan, it's just a way for everyone to make sure you're on the same page.” – Mark Fershteyn