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
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
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.”
Envisaging the Future of Account Planning and the Role of Analytics and AI
Every account or customer is like a fingerprint – unique and having a distinct persona and behavior. Developing an account-centric culture is among the top mandates for every company, but not every company has an effective way to track its progress. Initially, companies relied on CRM for opportunity management, but still lacked in processes to handle large account management. Account Planning Tools were created to help firms provide the required intelligence into their key accounts. As the environment has changed, account planning tools also have had to evolve to handle new opportunities and help enterprises resolve their existing challenges. Enterprises must carefully create shorter, bite-sized data and content in appropriate formats for 30/45/60-minute virtual meetings to ensure comprehension and respect time commitments. It is also important to prioritize information that is critical to educate customers and provide buying help and requires stakeholder inputs and/or approval to move conversations forward. Learn More: The Future of Key Account Management Report – A Global CSO study by DemandFarm Leveraging Analytics for Key Account Planning Analytics is another powerful arsenal in account planning tools. Analytics can play a precise role in account centricity. Armed with detailed insights, you could prepare detailed proposals/quotes depending on each key account requirement. Enterprises can review target achievements and create reports which facilitate the creation of apprised account management decision-making and strategy formulation. This will help to prepare pricing documentation for the business’s products/services prior to sending financial proposals to key accounts. Analytics can also help in identifying the future trends and opportunities in the industry as enterprises can not only understand what their customers are trying to tell them but also their future plans and concerns. Most importantly, analytics can help in throwing insights on the non-captured value of a customer such as referrals and learning and innovation benefits, which may add to the economic value derived from Customer Profitability Analysis and Customer Lifetime Value. Watch Now: The Shifting Landscape of Strategic Account Management / Key Account Management (featuring SAMA) Leveraging AI for Key Account Planning AI is definitely going to impact almost every field, and it’s only a matter of time before it starts impacting the account planning process too. Currently, most of the key processes in the account planning or management space involve a level of cognitive ability and thinking to create a unique value proposition for specific clients. Though these are early days, AI can and will probably evolve to a stage where AI tools embedded within the account planning tools are able to guide which parts of a client’s engagement can grow further in engagement and which are the ones at risk. Watch Now: The Changing Role of Technology in Key Account Management (featuring Forrester) By 2025, Gartner expects 80% of B2B sales interactions between buyers and suppliers to happen in digital channels. The future of account planning will hence see a huge transformation in strategy, processes, and resource allocation that moves the process from being seller-centric to buyer-centric and from analog to hyper-automated, digital-first engagement with customers. Account Planning Tools will also have features where it will be possible for enterprises to collaborate in real-time with their clients. It will increasingly be common to co-create solutions by inviting clients to collaborate using whiteboarding tools. Increasingly, decision-making will be based on data, analytics, and AI, not on intuition and experience. Organizations must be ready to engage the “everywhere customer”. A shift to buyer-oriented, not product-oriented integrated commercial channels will be hence critical to meet customers’ changing expectations and preferences for digital and self-service channels.
Account Planning Template – Step by Step Guide to Strategic Account Planning
Account Planning Template Existing customers are a critical revenue source for every organization. Meeting growth targets requires sales leaders to build robust strategic account plans and establish well-defined account management processes in the organization and this is where account planning templates come into the picture. Having a customizable template for account planning not only helps retain customers but also enables account teams to identify, develop, and execute growth opportunities within their account base. KAM Glossary: Crucial Account Management Terms Explained What is Account Planning? Account planning is a process of building strategic plans to improve value-driven relationships with key customers that can help in long-term development and retention, thereby maximizing the revenue potential. Effective account plans and templates help account managers gain a more in-depth understanding of the client. The 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%) The Account plan contains critical information about the prospect that every sales rep should know before even thinking about making the initial phone call. Capturing this information down in a concise, structured way helps the salesperson to focus on what is important about the account and how it aligns with your company’s offering. Having a plan can help you go one step further, give you the edge over a competitor, or deliver the crucial piece of data that can close the deal. Simply put, the Strategic Account Plan is the blueprint of the sale. Here, is a template to create quick and effective account plans that help account managers win the game. Account Planning Template 1. Account Overview Documenting the Client’s landscape is important to give a bird’s eye view of their business and general information to the account managers for them to dive deeper. Also, this information must answer all the basic questions about the client like What the client sells, who are their clients, what size are they, where are they located, and much more. 2. Account Segmentation Account Segmentation will help the sales team segment the client accounts into different buckets. This enables the salespeople to come up with the right strategic action planning based on the account positions. You can segment accounts based on the account health score to understand them objectively. 3. Account Financials Understanding the basic financials of the client organization will help identify your potential revenue sources. Also, listing the specific business units and geographic regions of the clients will enable you to know the areas to which you can cater and estimate the Total Annual Revenue potential from the client. 4. Whitespace analysis Whitespace mapping is the virtual representation of data to uncover hidden white space opportunities to target. It helps you to identify the gap between the products/services your customers require vs the products/services you offer. Understanding the pain points at different levels and offering the right solution helps increase revenue from the existing customers. The Sales team can understand current engagements with accounts and explore possible opportunities & whitespaces with the white space analysis. Learn More: Opportunity Planner by DemandFarm boosts tracking capabilities in 65+ opportunities for Dairy MAX 5. Relationship mapping Relationship mapping helps to visualize all the key stakeholders in one place. This mapping tool – org chart software also helps salespeople to explore detailed information about the contacts of the accounts on the budget control, influences they have on each other, etc., You can Know the organizational hierarchy of the accounts to better understand the relationships and the influences between the contacts. 6. Competitor Analysis Competitor Analysis allows you to better understand the market, potential, and behavior of the customers. This analysis with a bunch of data gives a company an advantage over the competitors to grow by developing new market strategies. With competitor analysis, the sales team can also understand the strengths and weaknesses of competitors along with the analysis of customer spend vs wallet share. 7. Communication Planning Capturing all the past interactions between the client and the team will help to sketch the communication pattern that can add value in planning the overall communication strategy. It gives you a year-wise verdict on whether you are in super touch or you need to work more on the volume of meetings. It’s an extremely important exercise to improve your communication strategy to maximize ROI. 8. Account Management KPIs Defining the Account management KPIs is critical to measure the progress of accounts over time, make adjustments in the process & stay on track, solve problems that are in the way, and tackle new opportunities in the accounts. It also helps in analyzing account planning patterns over time. Learn More: 11 Crucial Account Management KPIs that dictate Success Why do you need a Sales Account Planning template? Creating a Strategic Account Management template is not an easy exercise. It can’t be done in an hour before a meeting. So there is a need for a template that can help account managers build quick and effective plans. Most importantly, it gives you a better framework of the data needed to understand the customer. Knowing more about your target and being equipped with insider account knowledge of the account is one of the biggest advantages a salesperson can have. DemandFarm’s Account Management Software DemandFarm’s Key Account Management Software enables dynamic account planning capability natively inside Salesforce CRM and integrates to all other leading CRMS to make account planning ridiculously easy. It helps in achieving a deeper understanding of your Key accounts through improved data visualization and qualitative analysis. Our key account management software empowers companies to visualize, plan, and drive growth in Key Account Sales. Our digital account management experts will be more than happy to guide you. Book a demo today.
Sales Account Planning – A Step by Step Guide
Sales Account Planning What is a Sales account plan? A Sales account plan is sort of like a guide with all the critical information a sales team wants to close each of their crucial accounts and keep them for the long run. It is more often used to establish sales objectives for the team and develop strategies necessary to achieve them. Companies of all sizes may use variants of account programs based on the industry, type of client, and sales team structure. If you have ever been to a restaurant where the host includes all the detailed information concerning their valued guests about the interests, relationship, and buying habits that an add-on to the experience, then you’ve seen a sales account plan in action. Think of your account as guests along with sales account planning as a way that you show how much you understand and value your guests. Sales account plans may include a range of information, including company size, key decision-makers, timelines, and also a listing of the company’s competitors and the business’s market share relative to their competitors, as well as their strategic decision-making process. Steps to prepare a Sales account plan Successful sales account planning requires more than just filling out a form. It requires strategic thinking and a clear understanding of what your client needs. Outline the business objective The First step is to outline the objectives by understanding the organization’s current mission and vision, the industry trends, the market potential. Mapping these data with the sales acceleration goals and the product/service offerings of the company can help a sales team set up their objective. Define the target clients The next important step is to analyze the clients with the necessary tools to find the most profitable and lucrative prospects and customers defined by industry, region, product, etc. This analysis can help the sales team know the challenges and hunt for profound growth opportunities to grow the revenue. Build your strategies and tactics List your overall objectives for the accounts and plan how you will get to your goal. It must answer the questions like, “What are our objectives, and what’s our overall direction to achieve them?”. It must include the goal build that takes the overall growth objective into account and builds up the components of how the team’s going to reach that objective. Select the necessary tools for account analysis Understanding the accounts, analyzing, planning, and delivering the right solution for the right customer requires rigorous efforts at the backend. But this can be simplified by employing proper account planning tools with advanced features. Assign the KPIs Build a Performance Dashboard that sets milestones and tracks the progress to those milestones; it also helps identify any adjustments that need to be made. It must answer the questions, “How have we performed? How should we adjust?” Key components of the Account analysis It’s getting increasingly difficult and complex to understand the client business to answer this question: How much will the client be ready to spend on our product? Successful salespeople must dig deeper into the complexities to solve the puzzle. A list of analyses over the client’s business with the previous year’s data can help not only answer this but also can track new opportunities within the accounts. Learn More: Opportunity Planner by DemandFarm boosts tracking capabilities in 65+ opportunities for Dairy MAX Account Segmentation Account Segmentation will help the sales team segment the client accounts into different buckets. This enables the salespeople to come up with the right strategic action plan based on the account positions. You can segment accounts based on the account health score to understand them objectively. Relationship mapping Relationship mapping helps to visualize all the key stakeholders in one place. This mapping tool – org chart software also helps salespeople to explore detailed information about the contacts of the accounts on the budget control, influences they have on each other, etc., You can Know the organizational hierarchy of the accounts to better understand the relationships and the influences between the contacts. Competition Stacking Competitor Analysis allows you to better understand the market, potential, and behavior of the customers. This analysis with a bunch of data gives a company an advantage over the competitors to grow by developing new market strategies. With competitor analysis, the sales team can also understand the strength and weakness of competitors along with the analysis of customer spend vs wallet share White space analysis Whitespace mapping is the virtual representation of data to uncover hidden white space opportunities to target. It helps you to identify the gap between the products/services your customers require vs the products/services you offer. Understanding the pain points at different levels and offering the right solution helps increase revenue from the existing customers. The Sales team can understand current engagements with accounts and explore possible opportunities & whitespaces with the whitespace analysis Benefits of Sales account planning Better Win rate Increased understanding of customers’ business Shorter sales cycles Better customer loyalty Increased deal size Better executive access Identify non-competitive deals DemandFarm’s Account Planner DemandFarm’s Account planner offers integrated account planning inside CRMs that makes sales account planning ridiculously easy. It helps in achieving a deeper understanding of your Key accounts through improved data visualization and qualitative analysis. Salesforce is one of the most popular customer relationship management tools in the world and our products are Salesforce native which means Salesforce Account Planning becomes a breeze.
Account Planning Tool- A Strategic Investment
Account Planning tools that help you grow revenue Digital transformation has prompted many businesses to invest in account planning tools. Retention, understandably, is a big reason. But, underlying that is also the desire to systematize and institutionalize account planning. Increasing customer retention by just five percent increases profits by 25 to 95 percent – Harvard Business Study. Account Planning is a basic framework for every organization to have a customer-centric approach to increasing customer retention. An Account Planning Template helps in understanding the accounts, analyzing, planning, and delivering the right solution for the right customer. It substitutes the rigorous effort required at the backend and helps you with proper strategic account planning that can be simplified by employing proper account planning tools with advanced features. Is your account planning software missing out on any basic features? Is it causing you to lose any major revenue opportunities? No worries! Account Planning does not have to be stressful! Eliminate account data silos with easy bi-directional sync Explore the essential features below to examine your account planning tool. Account Planning tool within your CRM- To Analyze your Key Accounts 1. Whitespace Analysis Understand current engagements with accounts and explore possible opportunities & whitespaces with the whitespace analysis. Whitespace mapping is the virtual representation of data to uncover hidden white space opportunities to target. It helps you to identify the gap between the products/services your customers require vs the products/services you offer. Understanding the pain points at different levels and offering the right solution helps increase revenue from the existing customers. 2. Relationship Mapping Know the organizational hierarchy of the accounts to better understand the relationships and the influences between the contacts. Relationship mapping helps you visualize all the key stakeholders in one place. This tool enables effortless stakeholder mapping for your key accounts- org chart software also helps salespeople to explore detailed information about the contacts of the accounts on the budget control, influences they have on each other, etc., 3. Communication Matrix Capture all your interactions to sketch the communication pattern which can help in planning a communication strategy. The communication matrix helps you optimize the time for salespeople by giving a trend analysis of the interactions made with the clients. Finding a successful communication pattern and following the same will help close more deals in less time. Account Planning tool within your CRM- To Develop your Business Strategy 1. Account Segmentation Segment accounts based on the account health score to understand them objectively. Account Segmentation will help you segment the client accounts into different buckets based on various attribute scores marked in a graph with account attractiveness across relationship scores. This enables the salespeople to come up with the right strategic account management action plan based on the account positions like Star, Strategic, Streamline and ignore. 2. Competitor Stacking With competitor analysis, understand the strengths and weaknesses of competitors along with the analysis of customer spend vs wallet share. Competitor Analysis allows you to better understand the market, potential, and behavior of the customers. This analysis with a bunch of data gives a company an advantage over the competitors to grow by developing new market strategies. 3. Annual Account Plans Build your account plan with the growth strategy for Buying centers, Engagements, Financials, and Revenue. Annual account plans provide directions for every function in the company to plan their objectives and strategies for the year. Though these strategic account plans are not so elaborated, they help you with insights into the changes to be made in the current structure to drive future growth. Though most companies follow yearly strategic account planning, it must be a continuous process throughout the year to be more effective. Would you like to understand how Account Planning can transform your business? We have cracked the code! Account Planning tool within your CRM- To Track and Govern your Key Accounts Know your progress against yearly plans with a comprehensive account planning tool. A Key Account Management Software gathers real-time data from the CRM and helps you to track multiple parameters to check progress against the plans. Mapping dynamic goals and priorities of the Client to ongoing plans will enable you to make the right strategic calls at the right time. Using Account Planning Tools, Powerful actionable insights can be derived to avoid deviations from the goals. These three account planning & strategy best practices can turn potential clients into key revenue-generating clients. Though Key Account planning is a tough journey, a technology-driven approach with data insights can transform account planning as a whole. So, it’s time to take stock and use the right Account Planning Tools to have a pain-free Account Planning experience.
Key Account Planning Simplified
If you are a key account manager, I understand what you go through every year during the account planning process. You want the key account planning simplified. Jacob is responsible for building the key account management strategy and executing the plan to achieve annual targets. Bridging the gap between planning and execution is a challenge, always. The even bigger pain point is getting started on and building the plan itself. He is required to spot the real opportunities for value creation and growth across the length and breadth of his Key Accounts. All this tends to become very overwhelming. Typically, this situation reaches a crescendo towards the end of the year when key account managers end up spending a month or two, preparing account plans for the next year. This is thanks to complex methodologies and visually appealing PPT templates that most of the times make the simple; complex. I am dumbstruck. I strongly believe that key account planning can be simple, and exciting. I encourage all key account managers to peruse the following checklist. DemandFarm has done its best to simplify. You will find this simplicity also reflected in the Account Planner. Do give Salesforce Account planning and MS Dynamics Account planning a shot when you are logged into your Salesforce or MS Dynamics instance. Key Account Planning Checklist The As-Is Account managers simply jump into the key account planning process. Investing time and focus to understand the current state of key accounts is a valuable intervention capable of giving the key accounts a much-needed direction. Knowing win/loss areas, active opportunities, the orientation of the contacts in the accounts, and the accounts’ market position with respect to the competition are valuable markers to establish the As-Is. Identify whitespace opportunities Once the as-is is done, key account managers have a clear sense of where the current growth opportunities lie. Juxtaposing those opportunities with competition and mapping them with internal capabilities opens up the ‘whitespace’. Simple. Align the sales process to the buying process B2B buying has changed. CEB had a data point which said, “57% of the purchase decision is complete before a customer even calls a supplier.” On similar lines, SiriusDecisions says, “67% of the buyer’s journey is now done digitally.” Therefore, Strategic account management Plan has to build strategies that proactively seek out opportunities. Getting an account landscape which identifies buying centers in the account and the ability to map them with internal products/solutions can align sales to the buying process. Learn More: Opportunity Planner by DemandFarm boosts tracking capabilities in 65+ opportunities for Dairy MAX Align the Plan to the annual account targets Account targets count. At the end of the year, it is the only thing that counts. Ironically, during sales account planning and execution there emerges a tendency to do more. This often distracts the account managers from the targets. Account planning and execution-only have to ensure strict adherence to strategies and initiatives that are directly linked to account targets. Nothing else matters. Not even a Metallica concert. Use a real-time tool The problem of making account plans in a PPT is this – it is passive and remains passive through the life of the account plan. It is only seldom that the KAMs revisit the PPTs to align their align and adjust their annual account plans. And it isn’t that the KAMs don’t want to. Updating account plans becomes an operational problem in an ever-changing environment. Dynamic, responsive and real-time updating account planning tools like the ‘Account Planner’ can support account managers by saving them from operational grunt work. How would you rate the account planning template& process of your organization? Simple or complex? What initiatives have you taken to simplify? What worked? What did not? What technology tools were leveraged to simplify and improve the process? If you’re interested in transforming your sales post the pandemic, explore our blog on Sales Acceleration in Account Management and how it can help you grow your business in 2021.