 In
the Customer 3.0 world, the account plan is the
blueprint for a successful relationship. Unlike
a blueprint, however, the account plan is not a
static document describing a building or other
physical item that once built, is complete.
Most
companies are stuck in this paradigm of account
plan as "deliverable." They remain focused on
compliance – how many account plans were
completed this quarter, what percentage of
accounts have account plans, how many reps have
filed account plans, etc. As with most sales
metrics, you get what you measure – if you
measure the number of account plans filed, reps
and account teams will struggle to file plans
and the quality of those plans will be spotty at
best.
Account
planning is
not
a document residing on the shelf or in the sales
force automation system. Account planning is a
series of processes designed to modify or
influence other processes (mostly buying and
selling processes).
Account
planning is not opportunity planning; one
outcome
of good account planning is the identification
of new opportunities and the three Ws
(Who/What/When) critical to the development of
those opportunities. It is similar to
territory planning
in that both provide the basis of resource and
investment planning.
Account
planning is not a monologue: good account
planning incorporates the voices of multiple
people within the organization, from sales, to
marketing, to product management, to tech
support, and others as appropriate.
Importantly, as we've counseled before, in our
work on
rostering and coverage,
effective account planning requires the active
participation of the customer.
Great
account planning requires a lot of coordinated
effort. As we discussed in recent Account
Planning BoF client calls, to deliver high value
results, an account planning process requires a
regular flow of high value inputs, including,
but by no means limited to:
-
Company
background information
- Industry
trends
- Customer
spending data
- Company focus
and direction
- Relationship data
- Customer psychographics – attitudinal
information (early adopter, conservative,
free spending, gadget focused, etc)
- Individual contact details
 With
this composite view of the company, its
opportunities, challenges and appetites, the
account team (and the extended account planning
team) can develop and rework the strategic
relationship map. This is where the process
moves from science to art – good account
planning requires that the team focus on
analysis and strategic opportunity
identification, without becoming sidetracked by
short term revenue opportunities. Those
opportunities must be cataloged and developed in
subsequent opportunity planning discussions.
Good
account planning is not about revenue. Revenue
comes later
While important, those short term revenue
opportunities are not central to the account
planning process. Account planning builds and
documents the direction and structure of the
relationship, while opportunity planning fills
in the details.
Opportunity planning becomes an
offshoot of the account planning process, and in
fact, one key measure of the quality of account
planning is the number, size and close rate of
new opportunities surfaced by the account
planning process. A second key measure is the
change in share of wallet resulting from the
process.
However, we believe that the "best" measure of
account planning is the degree to which the
process drives increased innovation and
"intimacy" between the vendor and customer and
ultimately shareholder value for both firms.
How Are
You Doing?
IDC is available to conduct an account planning
audit for your organization. Through these
audits, we identify opportunities for process
improvement and provide feedback on the process
from various internal and external participants
(including customers). If you'd like more
information on our account planning audit
capabilities, please let me know.
Upcoming Events
Please consider joining
us in early June for a discussion of the
Software as a Service (SaaS) marketplace and the
unique sales engagement requirements of the SaaS
buyer. We're holding two briefings, one in
Boston and a second
in
San Francisco.
You can also register
for upcoming June telebriefings on sales metrics
best practices and an update on sales enablement
via our
Upcoming Events page. Links to these
telebriefings will be posted in mid-May.
I'm looking forward to
your participation! |
