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.

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.