Template Management

Overview

Use the template editor to make small adjustments and improvements to your MAP templates over time. 

An Administrator can make changes to existing templates or remove them. Templates require maintenance and updates. Be sure to update your templates or make versions of your templates based on feedback from your internal teams, customers, or changes to processes.

This article covers: 

1. Editing Templates
2. Adding a Close Date to a Template
3. Template Snippets
4. Assigning Templates to a Hierarchy Node

Related Articles

Check out these articles for related instructions: 

Host a Template Workshop

Creating a MAP Template

How To Create a Private Template

Read on to learn more about Template Management. 

Edit Templates

An Align admin can access to MAP Templates—where they can create, update, and remove templates.


 

Template Editor

a. Add new templates
b. Edit or delete existing templates 




 

Add a Close Date to a Template

If your template doesn't have a close date, be sure to add one. 

When a MAP is created from an opportunity in Clari that does have a close date, Clari defaults to this date. But, you can easily update or edit your close date if needed. 

To edit a close date:

1. Click Edit Template Details
2. Choose a close date

When you edit a close date, make sure you Save any changes.

Template Snippets

Can’t decide on the template to use, but want to start using a plan? No problem. Now you can add a template after you’ve already built out a few milestones with “Add From Templates.” You can build your mutual action plan incrementally as the deal progresses, and you learn more about the buyer. Additionally, you can make smaller templates to cover a small part of the deal.

Template Snippets Use Cases

1. Your buyer asks for an implementation timeline. Add an implementation template (3 milestones) at the end of the plan, and tag your implementation and PS team on the last 3 milestones to bring them into the conversation.

2. You speak with the buyer for the first time and only have one milestone with demos as the action items. Now the buyer shows real interest in buying, so you add in a Commercial Sales Cycle template at the end of the first milestone.

3. You built out a couple of milestones, but the buyer mentions they also want to include Proof of Value. You can now add on a Proof of Value template (which includes 3 milestones) at the end, and then re-arrange the milestone order to accommodate your buyer’s process.

These are just a few ways you can use Align to quickly adapt to your buyer’s process.
 

How To Add Snippets from Templates

1. Open your MAP and go to the Timeline tab. Then, select Import from Template at the bottom.

2. Choose the template you want to add from the left menu. Click Apply to make the changes to your MAP timeline. 

Your plan now has the additional milestones added following the last milestone

Note: Adding a template to a plan only adds the milestones to the plan. Objectives, roles, and library content will not be added to the existing plan.

Assign Templates to a Hierarchy Node

When enterprise organizations are setting up Align, they often want to use different templates for different teams. For a team of 1,500 sellers, there can easily be 40 templates or more created.

Org Admins can organize templates according to the Clari hierarchy. So that, for example, the eastern team will only see the 3 templates that the eastern team needs — not templates for all the other teams. This helps admins keep templates organized, and reps streamline the decision-making when choosing a template for end users. Read our article on how to assign templates to a hierarchy node to learn more.