A strong account plan outlines the following:
| The Account | The Opportunities | Relationship Management |
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As sales managers, we should expect our salespeople to develop strong account plans and to take a more proactive approach to growing relationships with large accounts. But first, we should provide them the tools to do so. I recommend holding an account planning workshop, which would introduce the process, offer best practices, and set expectations. Once you've held a workshop, I would also recommend making account plan reviews part of your regular one-on-one meetings with your sales team members. Below, you'll find my tips for creating strong account plans, as well as ways Salesforce can help in the process.
Ready? Let's dive in.
How to build a strong account plan
Thoroughly profile the company
Capture historical revenue trends and future revenue objectives. If they're a public company, read up on their financials. Know their target markets and their product lines. Research their market so that you have an understanding of the market dynamics, opportunities, and challenges. Capturing this information in your account plan enables you to play more of a “Trusted Advisor” role, rather than a “Vendor” role. As a Trusted Advisor, ask about their strategic initiatives and how they plan to address their business challenges. This will open the door to more opportunities and expanded relationships at the executive level.
Build an organizational chart
Know who the decision makers, influencers, evaluators, and purchasers are in each division of the company. If you don’t know how the organization is structured, or the names of the key contacts across departments, ask your existing contacts. Draw an org chart right in front of them, and ask them to fill in the blanks. This is also a great time to ask for referrals by simply asking, “Who on the org chart would you suggest I should meet? Can you introduce me?”
| Identify Opportunities |
Define Contact Roles |
Identify the Competition | Consider Your Strategic Value |
| Make a list. Record the existing known “qualified” opportunities, and targeted areas of the business where you think opportunities might exist. | Define the roles of each contact (Decision Maker, Sponsor, Evaluator, Influencer) and their position relative to your relationship with the company (supportive, neutral, negative). | Is this a cross-sell opportunity where there is a competitive relationship that needs to be displaced, or is this an up-sell opportunity where you are the incumbent? | How important is your solution to the customer? How important is this opportunity to you? Consider the impact your solution will give the customer. From your perspective, think about the potential size of the deal, forecasted margin/profitability, and whether this is a lead-in to other, more significant opportunities. |
Rank and prioritize opportunities
Now rank your opportunities. You can’t pursue everything at once. So pick your battles, and focus your effort on the opportunities that will have the most impact on the long-term value of your relationship with your customer.
Schedule quarterly Relationship Management Meetings (RMMs)
The idea here is to meet with your customer without a specific sales agenda. If the only times you talk with your client is when you want to sell them something, you are positioning yourself to be no different than every other salesperson. Schedule a more high-level business discussion with your executive contacts to stay out in front of potential relationship-impacting issues, and to proactively identify new opportunities to expand your relationship with your customer. Here is a sample agenda:
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Relationship Management Meeting (RMM) agenda
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How Salesforce can help
1. Use the “Reports To” feature to define organizational hierarchy (a virtual org chart) for all contacts within your top accounts
2. Customize the Account Record as needed to capture important company information
3. Create a method for ranking opportunities on the Opportunity Record
Use a combination of factors including Stage, Potential Value, Competitive Positioning, Access to a Decision Maker, etc.
4. Track Relationship Management Meetings (RMMs) as a separate meeting type
Use custom views, reports or workflows to remind you when it is time to schedule your next RMM with the C-Level contact in the account. Perhaps even create a custom RMM Event Record to capture relationship management topics.
5. Create an Account Planning section on the Account Page layout
In that section, create a Revenue Goal field that you will populate from your Account Plan. Create another “Actual Revenue” field that you will populate and update from your production reports (perhaps from invoice, order or shipping information). You may want to break out your Actual Revenue into to parts “Recognized” and “Backlog” based upon shipping or invoice status. Then, create a roll-up formula field called “Forecasted Revenue” to sum the value of related open opportunities. From these three data points [Revenue Goal, Actual Revenue (recognized + backlog), Forecasted Revenue], you can easily monitor and report on Performance to Goal on the Account Record. You may decide to create Joined Reports to track progress against your goals in a dashboard view.
6. Browse the AppExchange for account planning apps
Having an account plan and proactively managing the relationships with your most important customers will pay huge dividends over time, and enhance your personal relationships at an executive level. Try coaching your team on creating strong account plans, and watch your business change. Good selling, everyone!
