Here is a proven Sales Account Planning Template that can help businesses close millions of dollars in revenue. This blueprint has been continually refined over the years, using best practices across multiple industries. It is designed for success and can be used by any business to benefit from the account planning process framework.
1. Build an account planning image
It’s surprising how many salespeople struggle with account planning and often ask for guidance on where to start. The first step in this process is to create an Account Plan Snapshot, which is crucial to gather information about the account, key executives, existing customers, and current revenue. This snapshot provides a clear overview of the account and serves as the foundation for the rest of the planning process.
The second step is conducting a SWOT analysis to identify the account’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It’s important to involve the whole team in this process and recognize that not all answers may be available at this early stage.
1. Strengths are the things the company does well, such as making money or having great products.
2. Weaknesses are areas where they are lacking, such as bad press or losing out to competitors.
3. Opportunities are potential avenues for growth, such as positive press or expanding into new markets.
4. Threats are external factors that could harm the company, such as industry changes or increased competition.
Conducting research is critical while doing a SWOT analysis. It helps you understand the market, competitors, and potential opportunities. By sharing this analysis with executives, you can work together to improve the company’s strengths and address its weaknesses, threats, and opportunities.
2. Map the top initiatives
Once you have completed your SWOT analysis, the next step is to list out the top initiatives based on your SWOT findings. You need to prioritize these initiatives and come up with short, middle, and long-term sales goals. For each initiative, you should fill in the following template list:
– Who are these initiatives for?
– Why are they necessary?
– What are some dates we can connect to tasks?
This is a crucial step where you start aligning with compelling events and other trigger events. However, it’s important to note that you are still in the research phase and have not yet reached the forecast stage. Your focus should be on building an account strategy and plan.
3. Conduct a business unit analysis
Once you have finished working on the top initiatives, it’s time to start building the Business Unit Initiatives Analysis.
1. Start by listing all the business units or departments of your company.
2. Then, fill in relevant information for each business unit, such as the number of employees, company goals, the executive that owns it, and when you last contacted that executive.
Creating this business unit analysis will help you prioritize your time, your team’s time, and focus on goals that make bottom-line sense. This step is essential to determine where you should invest your resources to execute the account strategy and the account plan that you created based on your research and collaboration with your team. You should now align ACTION with your great research.
4. Build an organizational chart
It is incredibly important to build an organizational chart as it is a critical aspect of the sales process. For many sales leaders and teams, understanding the political landscape of a company and the decision-making process is crucial to establish if a deal will really happen. Taking the time to map out who you know and who you are connected with, will pay rewards in the long run.
When creating an organizational chart, always make sure to include all decision-makers,both direct and indirect. For each person, list their “buying roles” such as decision maker, user, or approver. Also, mark their “relationship status” as supporter, mentor, neutral, or non-supporter.
There are many templates available for org charts, but it’s best to keep it simple.
1. Build out your chart to get a sense of the political map.
2. Answer questions like: Who has power? Who reports to whom? And how do decisions get made?
3. You can use a tool if you have one, or simply draw it on a whiteboard or in a document.
However you choose to do it, a solid org chart is a must-have.
5. Develop a connect-the-dots outline
First, we have conducted a SWOT analysis and identified the top initiatives. We also have a good understanding of the executives and which initiatives they are responsible for. Additionally, we have created an org chart.
Now, we have to determine who in our company or network is connected with the people in the account we are targeting. We should map out the executives and their connections, and then build this strategy.
We can ask for referrals and plan our approach to reach out to these executives. We need to be mindful of who we are targeting and be strategic in our outreach efforts. Building relationships with strategic accounts requires thoughtfulness, research, and a clear purpose.
6. Create an opportunity planning map
We’re almost done! The next step is to create your opportunity map. So far, we’ve completed a lot of work in the account planning process, including identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. We also have a good understanding of their top priorities, organizational structure, and decision-makers. We’ve even developed a strategy to connect dots.
Now, it’s time to identify potential deals and start projecting them. You can list out some deals that we can pursue based on what we’ve learned from the account. Then, we’ll create an opportunity map where we can jot down and discuss potential deals. This will give us a better idea of what a bigger deal could look like.
Once you have the opportunity map, review it with your team. This brings us to the next point:
7. Manage an action plan
We have reached the final step of the account planning process. At this stage, all the information you have gathered is used to create a plan of action that includes specific personnel and dates. This plan should detail who will be connecting with whom, who will be handling which tasks, and what the timeline for completion will be.
It’s crucial to remember that while the salesperson takes the lead on the account, it’s a team effort. Everyone on the team must play a role in the process to ensure its success. By assigning specific roles to each team member, ownership is distributed across the entire team, and multiple people are responsible for follow-through, ensuring that we see the expected results.
The key to success is being very specific in your action plan. This makes the difference between a plan that is developed but never put into action and one that is put into action and results in bigger deals.
As you put your strategies into action, it’s essential to cultivate a culture of accountability. Ask tough questions during sales team meetings. Once you’ve identified and validated the pain points through executive interactions and conversations, shift the focus to managing the opportunity. At a certain point, after an opportunity has been identified and qualified, the focus shifts from account strategy work to sales process work. These accomplishments are great motivators for the team to create their own qualified opportunities by being strategic with their accounts.
