Tag: Account Planning

Measure the Impact of Your Account Planning Solution

Impact of Account Planning Solution This ebook provides ways to assess the efficiency and effectiveness of your Digital Account Planning Solution. From must-have basics to improved data quality & account growth, find out the impact of implementing a Digital Account Planning Solution.

Understanding the Key Account Planning Process

The Key Account Planning Process Nurturing existing customers is a time-tested way of improving business, and for good reason: people who are already in business with an organization are more likely to understand the strengths and advantages the partnership can present. The odds increase while selling to an existing customer, by four to five times – showing how vendor organizations can achieve exponential growth by prioritizing key relationships. And like any relationship, digital tools can help enhance the experience. While B2C organizations have been trying to mass-personalize for years, B2B sales teams can achieve the effect with relatively lesser effort, because the target audience is limited to a number of stakeholders. Creating a key account plan for important accounts develops an effective strategy that fosters an environment of mutual growth.  The ‘What’ of Key Account Planning Process Before understanding what key account planning is, The definition of what ‘key’ accounts are should be established. This is important because not all organizations have the same goals: for some, a key account might be the one with multiple sales opportunities, and for a smaller form – a customer with very high potential might be a key account (even if they’re contributing less). Key customers can also become vendor organization’s evangelists, refer new prospects to the group, and champion vendor’s products because of the difference it makes to their work. A key account plan shows the way to keep these clients’ needs fulfilled. It can be seen as a map that shows the current status of the partnership, what can be done in the future, and what steps can be taken.  As Key Account Management adapts to a fast-paced digital environment, how do you foresee its future? ● What has changed in KAM post-COVID? ● What are the top contributors to a successful KAM program? ● What are some of the key skills required for effective KAM in the future? ● How will digital KAM change the selling experience, going forward? ● What are the kinds of tools important for KAM today and tomorrow? Watch the video below to understand the shifts in the Key Account Management journey. The ‘How’ of Key Account Planning Process Key accounts can be moderate to big projects, and takes a few hours to get started. Once the Account plan and details are in place, the duty of the sales team of the vendor organization is to keep it updated so that the information stays relevant. The process starts with Account overview, which defines the information that is relevant to the account plan. The information leads to setting up of Objectives, which provide insight into the client’s needs, paving way to develop a set of goals or objectives keeping the customer’s targets and vision. Setting objectives allows us to understand how the Solution should be presented. These solutions should be worded/framed or presented in such a way that they answer the questions posed by the customers’ objectives. The Action plan details out how to reach the destination, and earmarks clear responsibilities that provide a defined timeline for task completion. Sub-tasks are also captured in the action plan, if the project involves many stakeholders or teams that need to sign off, they need to be mentioned in the action plan too. Change management is about evaluating positive or negative outcomes of the action plan and assigning a value to it. This gives an understanding of what forces are acting against change, and devise ways to overcome them (or abandon the pursuit if the cost is high). Implementation plans are presented to the customer based on the information and insights gathered previously, So that an agreement can be reached in accordance with the action plan, ownership of tasks, important dates, and other factors. Review of the plan decides the frequency, and the element to be changed in the key account plan. The plan should be flexible enough to accommodate changes like attrition, budget variations, department changes, etc. Depending on the scale of the project, key account plans can be reviewed at any frequency – from weekly to quarterly.   The ‘Why’ of Key Account Planning Process Key account planning affects the bottom line by building long-lasting relationships, creating trustworthy referrals, and improving bottom line – key accounts are spending 33% more than the market average. The results are because of improved customer experience – A Harvard Business Review article noted that customer satisfaction went up by 20% within a few years of the introducing key account management programs, resulting in a 15% profit increase. A Stanford university research shows that Key Account Management programs that have existed for longer than five years, report double the results. Key account management also frees up time of sales executives, so that they can pay the same attention to non-key clients too. Key account management software introduces automated processes and systems into the workflow, while improving efficiency and ensuring equal attention to all clients. Choosing key accounts for key account planning The challenge for many organizations aiming at key account management is defining what ‘key’ is. Selecting the right customers necessitates buy-ins across the organization on the metrics to be used. Some steps that can be taken to ensure the choices are alright, are: Collaboration between different teams can align goals and responsibilities, and results in better solutions for client issues. The act of deciding what services to include should not ride with only the sales team – as the services provided for key customers like priority support, interactions with developers, and others won’t be fulfilled by sales team members. Having those team representatives on the panel while deciding on what services to offer key customers, can result in a perfect customized solution. The teams involved will also understand how they should contribute to the requests of the key clients, and can raise requests for any additional work hours or resources. A collaborative approach aligns the expectations of internal stakeholders, and helps in designing a winning key account program. The act of collaboration gains more prominence

Account Mapping 101: The Complete Guide to Sales Account Mapping

Guide to Sales Account Mapping Account-based marketing (ABM) has been gaining more and more attention in recent times. Many organizations and sales teams see it as the shining new toy that can change their fortunes for good. But the practice is a streamlined approach to existing ad-hoc processes followed in sales – and chances are service provider organizations are already doing some form of account-based marketing even if they don’t realize it. It might not be fully structured or intentional, but the underlying principles can be very similar. When done correctly, accounts-based marketing can allow sales processes to be extremely customized and personalized for different customers. The bespoke approach leads to a better experience for prospective customers, and sales team members of the vendor organization.  The knowledge and skills required to handle different accounts might vary widely, but the underlying theme of account-based marketing – to provide value to customers and extract value for their organization – usually leads to more closed-won deals. Account-based marketing demands a lot of work from sales teams (and the rest of the organization too – but to a smaller extent), and one of the important parts of that work is sales account mapping.  What is account mapping? The process of representing customer-centric data points and relationship dynamics in a visual way is known as account mapping. Account mapping is used by sales team members to understand how customer organizations work, identify key decision-makers, champions, detractors, and plan their course of action. It can be seen as a focused version of Org Charts, as it takes informal hierarchies into account and helps team members arrive at the best sales path for that customer. The process focuses on expanding the network and helping sales executives make the most of their foot in the door, even if the leads are only marginally qualified. As a result, a well-constructed account map provides a holistic view of customers and the opportunities that lie ahead. Knowing the preferences of key decision-makers, the issues they’re facing, and the kind of solutions they use can foster professional relationships that lead to long-term business relationships. Why is account mapping important? The task of charting external organizations adds details to the enterprise memory of a vendor organization, so that all of the sales team can use the information at any point in the sales cycle. It fills in the data gaps in the customer relationship management (CRM) tool used by sales executives and gives them a head start, especially in case of complex or enterprise accounts. Some more ways in which account mapping can help are listed below. 1. Builds a great first impression A Statistics from Salesforce shows that 85% of customers are not happy with the way their phone conversations go with sales executives. The overwhelming negativity of the sentiment aside, the reason for it happening is not that the sales teams are not putting in the required efforts but the number of different customers they pursue or manage at any given time. Any sales team worth its salt would want to handle multiple clients successfully, but the reality is that an employee, no matter how gifted and/or dedicated, has only a certain number of hours they can give a customer in a day or week. Field service management software can help maximize these hours by efficiently tracking field workers, ensuring they are where they need to be and that their time is used effectively. Spending this time in finding out more about the customer while handling their requests is not feasible in the long run – and eventually, sales team members just react to the requests instead of proactively finding solutions for newer customers. The pitches get normalized too, with general talking points about product or solution making, presentations are generic and uninspiring. Research dries down to scanning customer websites and going through marketing collateral; 42% of sales executives feel that they call up prospects with less than adequate information about the organization they’re calling and what solutions they might need. An account map at this stage can help the executive immensely to get insights into the prospect organization, the kind of customers it serves, and what are the problems currently ailing them. It provides details about key personnel that can help the sales pitch stand out from run-of-the-mill sales calls, if used properly. 2. Reach the ones with influence & power Talking to the right person matters in sales, and more so in software solutions – as preferences of different people may vary hugely. The person a sales executive talks to might get convinced – but if that person has to take someone else’s go ahead and fails to convey the advantages – the sale won’t go through. Even in cases where the product doesn’t match the expectations during the pitch, the team can always go back and see if building those into the product/solution is in line with the bigger vision. An account map that is updated regularly provides enough actionable information for sales team members to strategically build rapport with the decision makers in case of new contracts, and develop the business further with existing contacts. 3. Look for fallbacks Sales teams are at risk with a single organization contact – people quit their jobs in the middle of the deals all the time, and in most cases, the deal gets shelved eventually. The task of rebuilding goodwill falls on the sales team, and they have to start from zero all over again. It’s important to have a wider network so that there are fallback options. Account maps usually have a way around this, as they detail the internal structures with details filled in, so that multiple people can be contacted and kept in the loop at the same time. This is especially helpful in enterprise sales, where multiple stakeholders have to give their go ahead on any purchase of significant size. The additional context provided by the details in the account map leads sales teams closer

Key Account Management Strategy: 4 Successful Account Management Strategies for Account Planning

A major portion of a company’s sales typically come from a small group of customers. Or, as the saying goes, around 80% of a company’s profit will come from 20% of its clients or accounts. We’ve all heard this management adage time and again. However, it continues to hold for many businesses around the world, no matter their size or the industry in which they operate.  That’s why it’s critical to have proper strategies in place to ensure you, as a company, manage 20% of your clients with extra care than you normally would. How do you do that? By strategizing and picking the best account management practices for your firm. But despite the best account managers, Key Account Management strategies and approaches are failing.  The main reasons behind a failed key account management strategy are a few critical mistakes that organizations tend to make. Those include a misguided selection of key accounts in the first place, overburdening key account managers, and wasting of resources, according to a study by Gartner published earlier this year. By resolving these issues, sales teams can greatly improve their key account growth, the study adds. source: Gartner What is Key Account Planning? Key Account Planning or Strategic Account Planning is a business process that entirely deals with the administration of these strategic key accounts. The best way to administer key accounts is to nurture them into long-term relationships. Key accounts are not just those that are bringing in the most money to your company right now, but can also offer the most promising prospects for growth.  The Key Account Management process, in short, involves employing key account managers to maintain, develop and nurture those key accounts, and strategic customer relationships. It requires more in-depth and specialized handling than the role performed by the larger sales team. The popular saying is that in sales, you sell. But when it comes to Key Account Management, you help customers buy.  What are the benefits of Account Planning? Key account planning offers a few important benefits for businesses, especially small and medium-sized ones, that make it a must-have. Account Planning is considered one of the most effective ways to both grow revenue and safeguard current sales. In other words, with Account Planning, in one stroke, an organization can protect its present while simultaneously working towards the future.  By using Account Planning strategies, your business gains opportunities to cross-sell and upsell additional products or services to existing customers. Can you do this without Account Planning? Perhaps. But it would be a haphazard process. Account Planning ensures that your key account managers or sales reps know exactly which products or services to pitch, and which existing client to pitch it to.  As we mentioned above, Account Planning also allows you to protect your existing customer base. It helps curb customer churn. When you use Account Planning strategies, your key account managers and sales rep are armed with the right tools. They can offer personalized solutions to customers who matter. In the process, what occurs is a mutually beneficial transaction between your organization and your key accounts.  How do you use key account planning in your business? In the rest of this article, we give you a starting point by examining four best account planning strategies that will benefit your organization. Four Successful Key Account Management Strategies for Account Planning 1. Select the right key accounts How do you identify your key accounts? That should be the first question that comes to your mind, before you can even think about what Key Account Management strategies you need to implement. Key accounts or strategic customers aren’t only the ones that are bringing you the largest chunk of revenue.  There are several other parameters that you need to consider before you can designate a client or customer as a key account. Here’s a look at some of those factors you need to consider to arrive at your own list of key accounts or strategic customers: Historic data: How much revenue has an account brought in over the years? How has its ratio of contribution to your company’s profits/revenue expanded (or shrunk) with time? Answering questions like these give you a more accurate and comprehensive description of key accounts in terms of revenue contribution. Growth potential: Now that you have an idea of how much revenue an account has historically contributed to, the next step is to map out its growth potential. How much more can your company earn from an account? Is there enough long-term potential? Do you believe that the organization is financially sound and will remain so for the foreseeable future? Value potential: Does the company offer you opportunities for growth that’s not necessarily based on numbers? For example, does the company have an extensive network or connections that you can tap into? Does it have access to resources you may need, or come with a stellar industry reputation that makes them a value add to your portfolio of customers? Match potential: Of course, it goes without saying that any account you are looking to classify as a key account must be a fit with your own company. For example, the solutions you currently offer (and plan to in future) must, obviously, be a match with what the other organization wants. Often, the culture of a strategic customer also ought to match your own, as it makes it easier to do business with them.   As you implement a selection strategy to identify your strategic customers or key accounts, it’s very important to remember not to go overboard. It may be tempting to create a large portfolio of key accounts under the assumption that it boosts your company’s credentials. But the process is meant to be a narrow, selective one.  You don’t want to end up with a long list of key accounts that may not be strategic for your company. When you do that, you run the risk of having to remove or demote some accounts, and that can cause unnecessary

Strategic Account Planning Template: How to Create Account Plan Templates for Account Managers

It’s universally accepted that getting new customers in the door is a more expensive exercise than retaining existing ones. When customer retention can directly be linked to profitability, doesn’t it make business sense to increase customer retention? A report from Bain & Company suggests that a 5% increase in customer retention results in a 25% increase in profit for companies in the financial sector. While these statistics may change for different companies and across sectors, what’s important to focus on is the impact of retaining your customers. The statistics here show a direct link between increased revenue and existing customers. Based on the report, existing customers are 50% more likely to try new products and spend 31% more than new customers. But to retain your existing customers, you will need to spend time and effort to get to know them, understanding what measures you need to take and what resources you need to allocate. Both strategic account management and strategic account planning, are important processes geared towards developing better relationships and retaining your customers. Strategic Account Management v/s Strategic Account Planning Though the two are sometimes confused, strategic account planning is the next, and more focused step after strategic account management. Strategic account management is practiced at a macro level. It takes into consideration all key accounts and then focuses on those that should be given more attention and higher priority. It is an important process because it involves the utilization of limited resources available. Strategic account planning, on the other hand, is practiced at a micro level. It examines relationships with specific existing accounts. This process is fluid because the company-client relationship keeps evolving and changing and the plan must accordingly shift to accommodate those changes. This approach takes into account a holistic picture i.e., it analyzes data and information gathered from customers, competitors, partners, collaborators and the industry. It is thus able to address concerns and challenges and offer meaningful solutions to customers. A strategic account plan is as significant to the company as it is to the customer. Benefits of Strategic Account Planning to the Company Among the many benefits of strategic account planning to sales and account management professionals are: 1. More Efficient Closing Closing is, to sales what oxygen is, to breathing. And closing becomes more effective when sales professionals have a better understanding of what the customer needs, what motivates the buying decision or what objections they need to overcome to close the sale. With a strong strategic account planning process in place, sales professionals are better equipped with the information they need to do their jobs effectively. Since this is an evolving process the information available is also updated and current.  2. Prioritize Key Relationships The focus in strategic account planning is on customers already in the system. The strategy is to prioritize important accounts and maintain those relationships. By combining hard data with the knowledge o customers’ goals and priorities, sales professionals are better able to focus on those accounts that will yield profitable results. They are also able to identify gaps with more ease and offer products and solutions at the right time and in the most appealing manner.  3. Research Strategic account planning, especially with the help of a strategic account plan template provides an opportunity to gather and organize information in a structured manner. Through research and a proper study of the various parameters, it encourages better learning of the key accounts. Gaps are easier to identify and can be matched with opportunities. Objections can be identified and successfully addressed. Valuable solutions can be offered – customized to needs. This process helps sales professionals gain a better understanding of customers’ needs, objectives and indicators of success. It also helps them offer relevant solutions at the right time and in the right manner to add value to the customers’ needs. Benefits of Strategic Account Planning to Customers The process of strategic planning wouldn’t be as effective without the customers benefitting from it too. Here are some ways strategic account planning adds value to important customers: 1. Customized Solutions The main objective of strategic account planning is to gain a better understanding of key accounts. This information, if used effectively, can be used to present customized solutions to customers. Sales representatives can proactively offer solutions relevant to the customers’ needs and business objectives. 2. Enhanced Relationships It’s easier to maintain and enhance existing relationships than build new ones. This also works well for customers. For the customer, building and maintaining a relationship means familiarity with the people, products and processes of the company. It could mean that requests are attended to more quickly, orders are processed quicker and transactions are generally smoother. Any issues that may crop up will be addressed and handled efficiently. 3. Increased Satisfaction  Prioritizing and developing relationships with customers means that the company is focused on the immediate needs of the customer – which builds customer satisfaction. Identifying gaps and offering the appropriate solution at the right time increases this customer satisfaction. Especially if the solution is customized and tailored for the customer. Now, that the need for a strategic account plan has been established, let’s look at how best this can be implemented in your organization. The best and easiest way to start is to develop an account plan template. Download Now: 9 Steps to Build a Rock-Solid Key Account Management Process Why do Strategic Account Managers need an Account Template? There are several reasons why a strategic account plan template is relevant and important. An account template: 1. Saves Time Account Managers are busy. They are most focused on meeting budgets, closing sales, and achieving revenue goals. Putting together reports on key accounts – no matter how promising they appear – is not something that’s high on their priority lists. Having an account template doesn’t negate the need to actually put some work into filling it. It does, however, help with structured research and organizing the details required. It also makes it easier to input, refer to and update the information as needed. 2. Increases Consistency Through research, it has been estimated that an average adult makes about

Step-by-step guide: How to select the right sales account planning tools?

Importance of Account Planning Tools Any solutions provider organization worth its salt understands that its customers are not looking for vendors, but strategic partners who can provide insights on market trends, customer preferences and more. Planning of key sales accounts, therefore, has become a necessity to monitor and manage the sales pipeline – for small businesses and large enterprises alike. Solution provider organizations are catching up to the task too, and are adopting – or considering adopting – tools to manage the practice better. But adopting the latest solutions does not equate to success, as there are plenty of factors that organizations need to consider. What are sales account planning tools/software? Account planning has become a necessity for sales organizations: It helps sales and marketing team members understand their customers and make better use of their time. This is especially important in today’s fast-paced world, where organizations are forced to be more agile and responsive. It also allows employees to gain insight into the customers’ needs, which can help them improve their service offerings and increase revenue – as well as reduce costs by streamlining processes. Traditionally, these tasks have been done using easily available tools or software – pen and paper, spreadsheets, or even text documents. In Gartner’s Future of Sales 2025 report, it predicts 80% of B2B sales interactions will occur in digital channels by 2025. As B2B sales become more digital, technology and digital tools become central to Account planning. Sales account planning tools take the haphazardness out of maintaining account data, and help sales teams organize, prioritize and plan their activities. They can be used by any type of organization—not just the traditional B2B industry. There are several different types of sales account planning tools available, from software that comes equipped with a built-in CRM system (which incorporates all the customer data into one place), to enterprise applications that integrate with multiple platforms including email marketing automation, social media management, and lead management systems. Checklist: How to Select the Ideal Digital Account Planning Tool Why do we need sales account planning tools / software? Planning sales accounts is a strategic process that helps in the activities, focus on the right accounts and resources, and ultimately help achieve the goals set. Account planning tools help sales managers and executives understand both the current market situation and plan where they can be in three or four years. LinkedIn State of Sales 2021 found out that 77% of sales professionals say their sales org plans to invest more in sales intelligence tools. Such account planning tools also provide insight into how well each account fits within the overall strategy for achieving specific objectives—for example, if an engagement isn’t generating enough revenue per month (or quarter) then it may not be worth continuing because there’s no way for those funds spent on this client wouldn’t have been better spent elsewhere. Real-time tools are vital to success because they provide information on strategic accounts, and cross-platform tools are easier to use, and they churn out results faster by integrating data across departmental silos. They enable rapid-response decisions, by providing detailed analyses in visual forms like graphs and charts. They not only provide a lifeline for organizations to stay in business, but also build revenue and market share. What are the core functions of strategic account planning? Account planning strategy involves identifying key stakeholders, relationships, and opportunities that usually go unrecognized. These data connections are analysed and studied in graphs and charts. They aim to simplify complex information, so that sales teams and other stakeholders can take accurate decisions. Learn More: The Practical Guide to Sales Opportunity Management In order to do so, they have to perform several activities to understand the need and the issue faced by their clients. To strengthen the relationship and grow existing accounts, critical information needs to be captured to align features with customer priorities, and deliver value consistently. Account managers then draft action plans and collaborate with their customers to execute projects – and rise to the level of a trusted advisor. The number of different elements at play in sales account management, means sales professionals have to approach the process in a structured way. Understanding the parts which make the sales account planning process is essential to establish a working structure, and adopt  tools that suit the needs of sales teams and their organizations. Analysing industry trends throws out information on issues that may impact the customer in the future. Sales teams can understand their need for change through this – be it changes to market sentiments, resource challenges, competitor issues, government regulations, or something else. Identifying areas of customer’s priority can help the sales team in formulating the bare bones of a working solution. Maintaining healthy customer relationships opens up avenues, like new divisions or business units – that should be documented. Also, documenting the history with the customer gives a clear view of current opportunities, and adding possible future opportunities to this list can make it more useful in the long run. Customer strategy maps help in determining which objectives and initiatives match with the capabilities of the solution. These maps detail out the goals, challenges, and culture of customer organizations, and makes it easy for sales team members to identify areas where most value can be provided to boost the customer’s plans. Assessing stakeholders by their role, influence, and affinity to the solution gives an honest understanding of strengths and vulnerabilities of the solution. With enough details, sales account planners can clarify key objectives – be it strengthening the customer relationship, increasing the perceived value of the solution, and more. Taking the customers’ view of the product/organization shows the USP of the solutions provider in a unique light. Articulating this USP better, makes current and prospective clients understand the need for the solution easily. Determining how to align the solution features with customer needs, and ensuring that it happens at rate that isn’t viable for competitors, goes a long way in changing a

Account Planning – A Strategic Approach to Grow Your Key Accounts

What is Account Planning? Account planning is the process of building strategic plans to improve value-driven relationships with your key customers that can help in long-term development and retention, thereby maximizing the revenue potential. Effective account plans help account managers to gain a more in-depth understanding of the client. Account Planning has been around for years. Did you know that 65% of a company’s business comes from existing customers? Or that 80% of your future profits are likely to come from 20% of current customers? In other words, building and cultivating healthy relationships with clients is one of the most effective pathways to exponential growth. With so much at stake, it’s no wonder that 61% of companies consider strategic account management as the key to increasing revenue, profits, and customer satisfaction. While the importance of account management is unquestionable, its implementation leaves a lot to be desired even today. 71% of companies believe that sales improved by less than 26% since launching their Account Management programs. KAM Glossary: Crucial Account Management Terms Explained   Why is Account Planning essential for your business to grow? A recent Account Planning Book of Evidence study surveyed 1034 people from 62 countries to determine why organizations undertake the account planning exercise. Most of the results were unsurprising: Better Win rate (75%) Increased understanding of customers’ business (72%) Shorter sales cycles (58%) Better customer loyalty (55%) Increased deal size (49%) Better executive access (47%) Identify non-competitive deals (27%) While this gives us an insight into the benefits of Account Planning as a whole, it also goes to show that there is some ambiguity when it comes to defining the overall purpose of account planning. A better win rate is too vague and can apply to all key account management processes. ‘Increased understanding of customers’ business’ is important but it doesn’t talk about outcomes. Download Now: 9 Steps to Build a Rock-Solid Key Account Management Process Purpose of Account Planning There are a couple of reasons why companies struggle with effective account management. The first is that technological innovation has shifted the landscape across departments and industries, and account management has also changed with it. As a result, companies that weren’t able to keep up with changing trends in account management have suffered. Apart from technology shifts, there is another reason why some companies struggle with effective SAM (Strategic Account Management). The key to effective account management lies in sound Account Planning. Many companies either ignore account planning or do account planning for the sake of it, without a clear understanding of its purpose and expected outcomes. Without effective account planning, account managers are simply unable to create the kind of impression on their clients that they need to. We decided that we needed to get a better understanding of the role of account planning, the technology trends in account management, and the way forward for organizations. Account Planning Template – The Key to Revenue Growth We sat down for an in-depth discussion with Mr. A. Ghosh, Founder, and CEO of Netfotech Solutions. Netfotech is a cutting-edge IT services company that works with clients of all sizes and all across the globe including India, the UK, and Singapore. They also provide many solutions from social e-commerce Solutions, big data consulting, web site development to web hosting, mobile application development, BI & Analytics, and Robotics Process Automation. With such a diverse clientele and a broad range of services, the effective strategic account management plan has emerged as a key growth driver for Netfotech. Here are some key excerpts from our conversation. Mr. Ghosh believes that there are two major reasons to do strategic account planning. Together, they define both the essence and the ultimate purpose of the sales account planning exercise. The first and foremost priority of Account Planning is to ensure that the gross margin in the account is consistent from one year to the next. It’s very easy, especially in a services business, for the cost of client servicing to increase without a corresponding increase in revenue. A detailed account planning template helps to overcome this problem by ensuring that the gross margin stays consistent. Read Now: Account Planning Template – Step by Step Strategic Account Planning The second major reason for Account Planning is to strategically grow the account. Cross-selling and up-selling are some of the easiest ways of maximizing revenue and it is only possible through effective account planning and management. The probability of selling a new service to an existing customer is between 60 to 70% whereas the probability of selling to a new prospect is only 5 to 20%. Together, these two reasons, maintaining profitability and horizontal growth, are the fundamental reason why account planning exists in the first place. In search of an Account Planning Template to grow your Strategic Accounts? Look no further! Overcoming Account Planning Challenges The first step in account planning is an in-depth understanding of the client and their needs. Unfortunately, this is the step at which most account planners falter. If the understanding of the client is superficial, effective account planning is simply not possible. According to Mr. Ghosh, there are three major challenges that most account managers face while trying to get an accurate and comprehensive understanding of their clients. 1. Lack of  Ground-Level Intel The devil, as they say, lies in the details. In many cases, account planners simply don’t have access to key strategic information about the client. For instance, a client that is currently using our website development services may soon be looking to get an analytics set-up in place. Unless account managers have access to this kind of strategic information, they may lose an opportunity that is there for the taking. The only way to solve this conundrum is by building closer, more meaningful relationships with clients. 2. Lack of Connection to the Right Stakeholder Sometimes, account managers are unable to get a more comprehensive understanding of the client simply because the person they are in touch with is not

4 account penetration strategies to take your retention revenue to the next level

One of the most important laws of growing a SaaS business commands that every company has to face the proverbial “valley of death”—long and dry spells of famine caused by several factors. It’s par for the course that most high-growth SaaS companies stall out in the range of $20–$40 million ARR despite a breezy initial success in scaling their business from 0–1. Other times, external market forces—such as the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic—can cause growing businesses to hit a plateau in their growth trajectory. In many ways, such episodes of growth impediment are sort of trial by ordeal to test the perseverance of a business and its teams. If a company is able to storm the rough weather, it will likely come out of it stronger and ready to take on any challenge. If they don’t survive the challenge—too bad, they probably didn’t have the mettle, to begin with. One way ambitious companies and their GTM teams cope with the rough times is by shifting their focus on an area that is often overlooked, i.e. their existing customers. Of course, it’s tempting to double your business just by pounding out hundreds and hundreds of new leads every month. It’s the exact kind of growth playbook that makes you a VC darling and helps you secure several rounds of funding initially—but not when you hit a wall. When your company is tumbling down the death valley, it’s more logical to focus on your existing base of users to extend a helping hand than to scream for help in a vacuum. There are many upsides to refocusing on your current users to expand your retention revenue. An average sales cycle when selling to existing accounts is 50% shorter than closing deals with new accounts. That means little to no investment in new customer acquisitions, exploiting new revenue channels, and expanding your TAM potential. In a long time horizon, most B2B companies earn 70% of their revenue from 20% of their customers. Taking that as an average, it’s only logical to have a pre-emptive account planning strategy to enable sales opportunities on your immediate radar. Here are four strategic account penetration tips to expand your revenue potential, improve customer lifetime value, and enrich sales velocity. 1. Leverage account-based customer marketing Account-based selling and marketing are nothing but evolved, perhaps more refined, versions of account management or account farming. Sales coaches and theoretical consultants keep adding new templates and playbooks around this topic to reframe it as a new concept, which has made ABS and ABM more complex topics than they actually are. The result? In one of its recent findings, CSO Insights reports that 54.9% of B2B companies have gaping holes in their account penetration strategies. Often, the culprit is the broken hand-off processes between cross-functional teams and information silos even when the teams are catering to serve the same account. For account-based customer marketing to succeed, you should have a proactive strategy to implement your campaigns—not a reactive approach to upsell and cross-sell when an account matures. Start by identifying the target accounts and engage in frequent conversations with them to understand their broader business requirements. This will help you gain visibility into their business environment, sales pipelines, revenue targets, growth bottlenecks, and end-customer needs. Once you have the data, create powerful content stories and messaging to show them the opportunity cost around wasted money, process delays, and long conversion cycles. Strategically position your solution—through a blend of display and retargeting ads—to showcase how using your solution can help them not just to overcome their current problems but achieve their revenue milestones. The idea here is to present your team and solution as strategic partners in their growth rather than mere software vendors or implementation partners. Here’s yet another strategy to leverage account-based sales and marketing to expand revenue growth—use whitespace analysis for farming key accounts. It’s basically a tool to help you identify whitespace farming and mining opportunities, discover areas where you can grow your account, and align or map your resources to accomplish your goals. Whitespace analysis gives you the advantage of strategically positioning second-order selling opportunities with a clear view of the account landscape. For instance, you can use whitespace analysis to identify potential cross-sell and upsell opportunities within your existing key accounts. With whitespace mapping, you can easily find opportunities for additional account penetration and expansion based on an account’s past performance, similar purchase patterns, and competitive landscape. A well-done whitespace analysis of key accounts will help you identify your best selling offerings or products, see gaps in product or service lines, spot revenue opportunities with little to no competition, anticipate and build capacities, and maintain a high-growth pipeline. To pull off most of the ABM campaigns successfully, you would need a solid partnership between marketing and sales because the silos between the two teams would jeopardize your chances of exploiting lucrative revenue opportunities. A tight alignment between marketing and sales can lead to a 32% increase in year-over-year revenue growth. When the two teams join forces with each other, the partnership opens new doors of business opportunities for expanding your retention revenue. For example, sales enablement is an arena where the two teams can come together to improve their team KPIs while bumping up their companies’ revenue. According to stats, businesses that have sales enablement as an integral part of their sales process have a 49% win rate on achieving forecasted deals. This lends itself over to account penetration too. The marketing already has core first-party data that they can leverage to create impactful content assets and create account-based email drip campaigns. They don’t have to open their purse to spend a dollar on acquiring new customers while the sales can borrow marketing’s expertise to create valuable sales collaterals like pitch decks, comparison docs, business cases, and so on. The collaboration is a win-win tactic for both teams and you can even tether the two teams to a common KPI to encourage a tighter alignment.

The rise of Digital Account Planning and how DemandFarm created its own niche

When we started DemandFarm, we realized that for B2B firms, winning an opportunity is not enough. It is about winning an account in the long run. Keeping that in mind, our vision was to build digital tools for making account-centric sales effectiveness even more prominent. That was the vision with which we had founded the company. And then, we started building account planning tools around the central theme of account-centricity, and over the years, we have seen astounding traction as it took over and helped in making account managers productive and the overall account management process far more effective. The Market Gap we have filled While the CRM has been very good with Opportunity Management, it does not have any process to support large account management, like account planning. Even today, a majority of companies do account planning on PowerPoints and Excel sheets. It is a disparate process with very little standardization. While account-based marketing solutions have helped, there was a big need for a technology solution to address account planning, or account-based sales, which was still very relationship selling driven. With our digital account planning solution, we have done that, and have addressed a big market need. We have helped enterprises answer relevant questions such as: How relevant are your offerings? Does it solve a specific challenge that the customer is facing at that point in time? Do you have on-demand data that can help you make the right decisions and make the right interventions at the right time? How strong are your relationships in terms of breadth and depth? Digital account planning tools can help organizations take a measure of how mature is your communication with the customer. In simple words, digital account planning tools can provide much-needed intelligence and clarity into some of your key accounts. For example, when multiple members from a sales team interact with a large client, there is a lot of information about the client that is there with the individual account managers. DemandFarm’s OrgChart can help in converting this tribal knowledge to enterprise memory by capturing the organizational hierarchy, affinity with client stakeholders, their decision-making power, budget control, internal political mapping, and more into a visual canvas available to all. Similarly, DemandFarm’s Account Plan module is designed to help enterprises create an annual plan for each key account with clear goals and objectives using both qualitative and quantitative insights. Account plans can be created based on account segmentation parameters such as relationship health and account attractiveness or competitor analysis going beyond SWOT to wallet share analysis. Our key account management software has now evolved to a point where we have been able to create a new category, Digital Account Planning, which was not known as a category a few years back. We have succeeded in institutionalizing the account planning process and have helped several organizations standardize the key account management process across organizations in less than 3 months. Once implemented, account managers are equipped with all account insights that may impact their active opportunities and leadership has a global view of key accounts at the click of a button. More importantly, they are able to effectively plan across regions and across multiple teams in a seamless manner. Enterprises also have increased visibility of potential and growth ambition within key accounts. Digital account planning tools give meaningful insights to overcome questions raised by the account manager such as – How to keep track of who all they know and what all they know about them? Where do they lie in the formal hierarchy of their organization? Who controls what budgets? More importantly, DemandFarm helps enterprises evolve contacts to relationships. Account Managers are able to keep a check on internal influences within their customer organizations. The heat maps help Account Teams take informed decisions in the opportunity pursuits. Who to target? Who else to bring into the meetings? Who is our champion? These questions can be easily answered now.

Jarrod Johnson, Chief Customer Officer at TaskUs talks about DemandFarm’s Account Planner

Jarrod Johnson Chief Customer Officer at TaskUs stopped by to chat with Kevin Gaither, Jamie Carney and Pete Jansons at SaasHoles to talk about DemandFarm’s Account Planner. Jarrod shares his experience of using DemandFarm’s Key Account Management Software and goes ahead saying “DemandFarm is the most robust, integrated strategic account planning tool I’ve ever seen.”