Using Launch Plans to bring deals in on schedule
In this week’s newsletter I am going to show you how you can use Smartsheet to build and manage a project plan to help your larger deals come in on schedule.
It will help keep your stress levels down, build a stronger relationship with your customer, and keep your manager happy.
I like to think that closing a deal is a lot like landing a plane on the runway. There is a lot that needs to happen, involving a lot of people, and if you don’t get it right the plane can miss the runway, or come careering off the end of it missing the end of your quarter or financial year.
Often, this is caused by sellers trying to juggle multiple workstreams in their heads:
Product workstream - is the solution a good fit
Commercial workstream - does the pricing work for both parties
Legal workstream - can we get a contractual agreement
Executive workstream, customer reference workstream, implementation workstream, holiday workstream and on and on.
Too often on the 28th of the month a salesperson gets derailed by something they have missed.
Launch Plans instead of Close Plans
Your customer does not care what date your contract is signed.
It is a step on the way to them getting to what they do care about - the launch of the solution or the start of the project.
Think about the new phone or car you might buy. You aren’t focused on when you sign the contract, but on when you get in the car and drive it out the showroom.
I also shy away from the phrases “Mutual Action Plan” or “Joint Activity Plan”. For me these are close plans in disguise - “Let’s use the word ‘Mutual’ to not very subtly remind our customer they need to do something.”
I use “Launch Plan” as this is what the customer is focused on, and it ensures we build the plan out until they do launch, and not stop on the day we get a signature.
Smartsheet
I have built Launch Plans out in a number of tools, but I always come back to Smartsheet - and I’ll show you why shortly.
Firstly - get yourself an account. Your company might provide you with one, or just get a personal plan for around $10 a month and expense it.
They do a free 30 day trial so that gives you plenty of time to use this on one of your deals.
Once you are in you will see it looks a lot like a spreadsheet - Google Sheets or Excel.
Step 1 - Build your workstreams
Start to add in every possible activity that you might do in a sales process. Down to the atomic level of detail.
This can seem overly complex - but the reality is that you will need to go through these steps, and they will take time, so it makes sense to plan it out up front.
Add all of these in for each of your main workstreams.
You don’t need to add any dates in yet - you are just laying down every possible activity.
Step 2 - Add in dates and dependencies
This is the bit where Smartsheet comes into its own and leaves a normal spreadsheet behind.
You will see some columns for a start date, duration and predecessors.
Consider the activities I described above.
The customer cannot review the proposal until you have sent it to them. That is a dependency.
The ‘customer review’ row has the ‘send it to the customer’ row as a predecessor.
Dependencies can be finish-to-start (as in the image below),
But they could also be start-to-start (both start at the same time), finish-to-finish (both end at the same time), or they could have a finish-to-start with a delay (can only start 5 days after the previous item has finished.
Why this is important to you, is that if you now send the proposal to the customer one day later (or earlier!) the plan will automatically update the activities that come after - almost impossible to do in a spreadsheet.
Imagine you expect the customer to send back initial redlines by 20th December, and then you find out their lawyer is on holiday until 3rd January.
Do you think your deal is still on track to sign on 10th January? Absolutely not.
By updating your Smartsheet as you go it will let you know what changes down the line to your signature date and the customer’s launch date.
Step 3 - What-If Scenarios
Now you have added in all your dates and dependencies you can start to model What-If Scenarios with your customer and your own leadership.
The Smartsheet will tell you on what date the project will get started, and when the contract will be signed.
What if the lawyer is away for the week when we want to finalise the contract? What if the implementation partner cannot start on the suggested week?
Now you can update dependencies and durations of activities with your customer and look at what the impact will be on when they get to start their project.
Often they will not have this level of detail in their own planning - as this will likely be the first time they have purchased this type of solution.
You can really be a guide and coach.
What you will often find, by focusing on the launch date, is that that motivates the customer to align their teams in a different way to meet or beat that date - and that has a knock on effect to your signature date.
Step 4 - Use on every call
I open up each customer call with the Launch Plan.
“This is our current understanding. Is there anything that has changed from your perspective?”
This is when the customer might tell you about that lawyer’s upcoming holiday or that another project has priority before this one can be started - all important information you’d rather know now.
After each call I will share back an updated version of the Smartsheet.
“Based on what we discussed this is my understanding of where we are and what we still have to do to get your team live - is there anything I have got wrong or that you would like to change?”
Working with your customer through a launch plan changes the seller/buyer relationship:
But, don’t assume your customer will update anything in the plan - it is your plan that you own and manage - they provide input to it but are not going to update it.
Keep your leadership informed
Launch Plans are fantastic for giving your manager the information they need to pass up the chain.
You are likely to only use Launch Plans for the big deals that could swing your and your manager’s month or quarter - and those will be the deals they are also being interrogated about by their senior leaders.
Being able to provide them with this Smartsheet (or even better keep it linked in CRM) will put their mind at rest, safe in the knowledge that you know where the runway is, and you have a detailed plan to bring the plane in to land on schedule and without careering of the end of the runway.
That’s it. It looks more complicated than it really is - once you have built your first Smartsheet template, it will work for your other deals.
See you next week,
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