Mutual Success Plan

TruePlan’s Mutual Success Plan

A centralized, collaborative space where CSMs and customers can align on their partnership and ensure that all ongoing responsibilities are owned and fulfilled.

TruePlan enables companies to manage their entire headcount planning process, from budgeting and forecasting to approving requests and recruiting. Since TruePlan is a comprehensive tool, the implementation process involves numerous steps and stakeholders. That’s why Customer Success Lead Tyler Chapman uses a Mutual Success Plan to manage customer onboarding and ongoing success, and ensure nothing slips through the cracks.

Why should I use this playbook?

With this playbook, CS teams can ensure new customers feel supported and prepared to go live when implementation is complete:

• Share a collaborative plan

Because customers have access to the shared playbook in Accord, they can comment on steps, update agendas, share resources, and actively participate throughout the process.

• Tailor the process to each customer

A focus on collaboration during onboarding means that CS teams can easily adjust the process based on their customers’ unique needs (resulting in better relationships as well!)

• Lay out all the cards from day one

Outlining and agreeing on all the steps in the onboarding process from the start enables both sides to plan ahead – there are no surprises!

What’s in this playbook?

TruePlan’s Mutual Success Plan ensures a smooth internal handoff from sales to CS, and guides new customers through implementation and beyond through four main stages:

1. Pre-Kickoff Internal Alignment – sales passes all relevant customer information to CS
2. Account Setup and Configuration – kickoff call with the customer; create and configure account
3. Training and Rollout – platform training, pilot, and launch
4. Ongoing Partnership – review launch and align on continued partnership
   

Who is this playbook for?

This playbook is for customer success teams who need to guide customers through a multi-step, multi-stakeholder onboarding and implementation process. TruePlan’s customers are typically finance or people leaders at enterprise companies, but the Mutual Success Plan can be applied to other segments as well.

How should I use this playbook?

When using this template, you’ll likely need to adjust some of the stages or steps to fit your own customer onboarding and success process. 

TruePlan’s CS team tries to complete implementations in three weeks or less, so many of these steps are completed back-to-back or live with the customer. If your company has a longer implementation process, though, you can likely turn some of the meetings into async tasks. 

Similarly, TruePlan’s integration step is straightforward, so they typically complete it during their customer kickoff call. However, if your organization has a more involved integration process, you may want to add more steps or resources to the template.

Tyler’s advice on how to get the most out of this playbook:

• The more you use it, the more useful it becomes 

Encourage your customers to get comfortable with using the Mutual Success Plan, and you’ll get more value from it.

• Iterate and improve

Never think of the plan as being complete. Be on the lookout for ways to improve and continuously iterate on your playbook.

• Be flexible 

Use a standard set of best practices as a starting point, but leave room to customize it based on how your customer wants to collaborate.