Module 4 — Running the Deal · Lesson 4.4
Proposals, Mutual Action Plans and Closing
Make it easy for a dozen people to say yes, in order
What you'll learn
- Write a proposal structured around the buyer's problem, value and decision, not your product
- Build a mutual action plan with named owners and dates on both sides
- Use pilots and trials with written success criteria and a pre-agreed path to purchase
- Close by making the decision smaller and safer, and track the path to signature in Kavanah
Many deals die after the buyer has said yes. The champion agrees, then legal has questions, security sends a questionnaire, procurement wants different terms, the economic buyer goes on holiday, and the quarter ends. None of these steps was a surprise to the buyer's organization; they were only a surprise to the seller, who had never asked what happens between 'yes' and a signature. The final stage of a deal is a project, and it deserves to be planned like one.
A proposal the buying group can use
A proposal is read mostly by people you have not met. The champion will forward it, excerpt it into an internal business case, and present it to colleagues who were not in any of your meetings. Write it for them.
That means leading with the buyer's situation and problem in their own words from discovery (Lesson 4.1), then the outcome and how it will be measured, then what you propose, then the investment, then the plan and the risks and how they are handled. Your company history belongs at the end, if anywhere. Every claim should be one your champion can defend, which, as Forrester's 2026 research makes clear, matters more than ever: buyers are risk-averse and far less forgiving of claims without proof.
Nick Toman, Brent Adamson and Cristina Gomez argued in Harvard Business Review in 2017 that B2B buying had become so complicated that suppliers needed to make it easy for customers to buy. A proposal that a champion can lift straight into an internal approval document does exactly that. A proposal that requires translation leaves the translation to someone who may get it wrong.
The mutual action plan
A mutual action plan is a shared, dated list of everything that must happen, on both sides, between now and the start of the work. Who reviews security, and by when. When legal receives the contract, and who on your side answers their questions. When procurement needs the vendor forms. When the economic buyer signs. When implementation starts, and who from each side is involved.
Its value is in the asking. Building the plan forces conversations the seller would otherwise avoid: 'Who else needs to approve this? Has your organization bought something like this before, and how long did legal take?' Procurement deserves particular attention; Forrester found in 2026 that procurement acts as a decision-maker in 53% of buying cycles, and its requirements are among the most predictable sources of delay if you learn them late.
Keep the plan short, shared and current. A plan that lives only in the seller's notes is a forecast, not a plan. A plan both sides can see, with owners from both organizations, is a commitment, and it gives the champion something concrete to push internally.
Pilots, trials and the path to purchase
Buyers increasingly ask to try before they buy. Forrester's 2026 research found that more than 60% of business buyers use some form of trial, and 78% of buyers making purchases of $10 million or more trial first. Trials reduce risk, which Lesson 2.3 showed is what most hesitant buyers need.
They also carry a warning. In the same research, just over a third of buyers who had purchased a trial planned to convert to a full purchase with the same provider. A trial without agreed success criteria and a pre-agreed path to purchase easily becomes a way of not deciding.
So agree three things in writing before a pilot starts: what will be measured and what result counts as success, who will judge it and when, and what happens on success (the scope, price and date of the full agreement). Put the pilot's end date and decision meeting in the mutual action plan.
Closing without pressure, and running it in Kavanah
Closing techniques built on pressure do not work reliably in large sales; that was one of Rackham's SPIN findings in 1988, and Matthew Dixon's 2022 research went further, reporting that fear-based pressure tends to make buyers more indecisive. What closes complex deals is the opposite: a clear recommendation, a decision made smaller (a first phase, a pilot with a defined path), and risk taken off the table through terms, references and a credible plan. In Dixon's data, high performers won close to 60% of their deals against an average of 26%, and the gap was largest with the most hesitant buyers.
In Kavanah, run the mutual action plan as tasks. A small project per large deal, or a set of tasks in an existing customer project, with each step as a task carrying an owner and due date, gives you reminders and visibility; steps owned by the buyer can be recorded as next steps on their contact records on the deal, and anything your own side owes can be tracked with track_waiting_on.
If you connect the XDocs integration, contracts can be prepared and sent for signature from Kavanah, and a deal-document-signed automation trigger lets you act the moment a document is signed, for example by moving the deal to Won and creating the onboarding tasks. Whatever you use for signatures, move the deal into your won stage the day it is signed and record the final amount and terms with update_deal, so the forecast and the next lessons' metrics start from the truth.
Plan the path to signature
- 1
Draft the proposal from discovery
Ask the agent: 'Draft a proposal outline for deal X from its discovery notes: problem, outcome, proposal, investment, plan, risks.' Edit it into your template.
- 2
Build the mutual action plan as tasks
Create a task per step between agreement and start, each with an owner and due date. Ask your champion to confirm the buyer-side steps and dates.
- 3
Record the buyer's steps on their contacts
Set each buyer-side owner's next step and due date on the deal with update_deal_contact.
- 4
Automate the moment of signature
If you use XDocs, create an Automations rule on the deal-document-signed trigger to move the deal and create onboarding tasks.
From yes to signature
- Mutual plan coverage
- Share of deals in your Proposal stage or later with a written mutual action plan that the buyer has confirmed.
- Healthy signal: Our suggested target is 100% above your large-deal threshold.
- Verbal-to-signed time
- Days from a deal entering your Committed stage to it reaching Won. Compute from the deal timeline.
- Healthy signal: Track the median and its spread. A long tail usually points to procurement or legal steps learned too late.
- Pilot-to-purchase conversion
- Share of pilots with written success criteria that convert to a full agreement on the pre-agreed terms.
- Healthy signal: Compare against Forrester's finding that only about a third of trial buyers planned to convert with the same provider.
Key takeaways
- ·Write proposals for the colleagues your champion will forward them to, with claims they can defend.
- ·A mutual action plan with owners and dates on both sides turns 'yes' into a project.
- ·Agree success criteria and the path to purchase before any pilot begins.
- ·Close by recommending clearly and reducing risk, then record the signed terms immediately.
Module 4 covered the single deal. Module 5 steps back to the whole machine, starting with forecasting: turning a pipeline of individual deals into a number a business can plan on.
Sources
- 1.The New Sales Imperative
Nick Toman, Brent Adamson, Cristina Gomez · Harvard Business Review, March–April 2017 · 2017
B2B purchasing has become too complicated; suppliers must make it easy for customers to buy.
- 2.Forrester's 2026 Buyer Insights: The State Of Business Buying
Forrester · Forrester press release, January 21, 2026 · 2026
Procurement are decision-makers in 53% of buying cycles; more than 60% of buyers use a trial, 78% for purchases of $10M+.
- 3.The State Of Business Buying: Risk-Averse Buyers Demand Proof, Not Promises
Barbara Winters, Forrester · Forrester blog, January 21, 2026 · 2026
Buyers far less forgiving of claims without proof; only just over a third of trial buyers planned to convert with the same provider.
- 4.The problem of customer indecision and how to get over it: interview with Matt Dixon
CustomerThink · CustomerThink, October 12, 2022 · 2022
Average win rate 26% vs close to 60% for high performers; fear-based pressure increases indecision; taking risk off the table.
- 5.SPIN selling (catalogue record)
Neil Rackham · McGraw-Hill; library catalogue record · 1988
Closing techniques effective in small sales are unreliable in major sales.