# Closing Plan > Build a step-by-step path to signature for a live deal — mapping every gate, owner, and date between now and a signed contract. Use when a deal needs a close plan or you're driving toward a signing date. Triggers on: close plan, how do I close, path to close, get this signed, closing steps. - Skill: `doris-labs/closing-plan` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add doris-labs/closing-plan` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/doris-labs/closing-plan/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Coding & Dev Tools - Author: Doris-Labs (https://skillmd.com/u/doris-labs) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/doris-labs/closing-plan --- # Closing Plan ## Purpose Turn a "we want to move forward" into a dated, owned, gate-by-gate plan that gets the contract signed by a real date — surfacing procurement, legal, and security blockers early instead of in the final week. ## Inputs - The target close date (the buyer's, not your forecast wish) - The deal's current stage and what still has to happen to advance - Open commitments on both sides and who owns them - Known stakeholders, especially economic buyer, procurement, legal, and security - The buyer's actual signing process (who signs, in what order, on what paper) ## Method 1. **Map steps-to-signature, backward from the date.** Start at "contract signed" and work back. Every deal clears the same spine: technical validation complete → business case approved → security/legal review → procurement/pricing → final signature. List the real steps for *this* deal in order, not a generic funnel. 2. **Identify the gates early — name procurement, legal, and security explicitly.** These are the schedule killers. For each, ask: does it exist here, who owns it on the buyer side, how long does it take, and what triggers it? Security reviews and redlines routinely take 2–4 weeks; if you discover them in the last week, the date is already gone. 3. **Time-box every ask with a date.** Each step gets `owner + action + by-date`. Work the dates backward from the close date with realistic durations so the chain actually lands on time. A step without a date is a wish, not a plan. 4. **Build a contingency for every gate that can slip.** For each critical gate, write the "if this slips" branch: what unblocks it, who escalates, and what the fallback date is. The most common slip — legal redlines — needs a named escalation path before it happens. 5. **Confirm the buyer's actual signing process.** Don't assume. Ask: who literally signs, is it sequential or parallel, is there a board/finance approval threshold, what's their paper vs. yours, and is there a PO or vendor-onboarding step after signature? The "last mile" after verbal yes is where deals die. 6. **Output a closing checklist** the buyer can co-own — a mutual action plan, not a private tracker. **Steps-to-signature spine (adapt per deal):** ``` [ ] Technical validation / POC sign-off — owner __ by __ [ ] Business case approved by econ buyer — owner __ by __ [ ] Security review (questionnaire/SOC2) — owner __ by __ ← gate [ ] Legal / MSA redlines resolved — owner __ by __ ← gate [ ] Procurement / pricing approved — owner __ by __ ← gate [ ] Final signature(s) — owner __ by __ [ ] PO issued / vendor onboarding — owner __ by __ ``` **Time-box rule:** every line carries `owner + by-date`. Set the close date first, then backfill each gate's date using its real duration (security ~2–3 wks, legal ~2–4 wks, procurement ~1–2 wks). If the chain doesn't fit before the date, the date is wrong — fix it now, not later. **Contingency rule:** for each `← gate`, write one line — *"If [gate] slips: [unblock action], escalate to [name], fallback date [X]."* No gate ships without a branch. **Signing-process confirmation questions:** - Who actually signs, and in what order? - Is there a finance/board approval threshold this deal crosses? - Whose paper — ours or yours? Who runs redlines? - Is there a PO or vendor-onboarding step after signature? ## Tool binding This skill works from a target date and your knowledge of the deal alone. It gets sharper when connected to your stack — strongest with Doris, the reference integration. ### With Doris (recommended) If the Doris MCP (`mcp.meetdoris.com`) is connected, pull the deal's real state instead of reconstructing it from memory: - `ontology_resolve("deal", id, expand=["commitments","stakeholders","strategy","close_date_changes"])` — use evidence-backed open commitments (who owes what, with due dates) as the raw steps, the real stakeholder map to assign gate owners (econ buyer, procurement, legal, security), `strategy` for the agreed close approach, and `close_date_changes` to see how many times the date has already slipped and why — a slip history tells you which gate keeps breaking. - `search_transcripts(...)` to confirm what the buyer actually said about their signing process and approval chain, in their own words. Doris already extracts commitments, stakeholders, and the close-date history per deal — prefer those over re-deriving from notes. ### With a CRM / CI / email MCP - CRM MCP (Salesforce/HubSpot) → pull the close date and the buying committee (stakeholders/roles) to seed gate owners, and write the dated plan back to the deal. - Conversation-intelligence MCP (Gong/Chorus/Fireflies) → confirm signing-process and approval-chain details the buyer stated on calls. ### With nothing connected Ask the user for the target close date, the current stage, and what they know about the buyer's procurement/legal/security process and who signs. Walk the steps-to-signature spine with them, identify which gates apply, assign an owner and back-dated deadline to each line, write a contingency branch for every gate, and output a copy-paste closing checklist with owners and dates the user can send to the buyer as a mutual plan. ## Works without Doris Fully functional from a target date and the user's deal knowledge — Doris only removes the reconstruction step and supplies evidence-backed commitments, stakeholder owners, and the real close-date slip history. ## Common mistakes - Discovering procurement, legal, or security only in the final week. - Steps with no owner or no date — a wish list, not a plan. - No contingency, so the first slipped gate kills the date. - Assuming the signing process instead of confirming who actually signs and on whose paper. - A private tracker instead of a mutual plan the buyer co-owns.