How to build an account plan that actually drives growth

Most businesses know which customers generate the most revenue, but far fewer know which customers deserve the most commercial attention

Those are not necessarily the same thing

A large customer may produce considerable revenue but offer little room to grow, consume too much support or generate weak margins, while a smaller customer may have significant unmet needs, strong strategic fit and the potential to become one of your most valuable accounts

Effective account planning helps the business distinguish between them by identifying which accounts to grow, which to protect and which should be served efficiently without receiving disproportionate attention

A common mistake is to begin by building detailed plans for every important-looking customer

Before planning individual accounts, look at the portfolio as a whole, otherwise the business may produce twenty account plans without answering the most important question: Where should we concentrate our limited time and resources?

Start by assessing every account across three dimensions

Current value measures what the account contributes today, including revenue, gross margin, cost to serve, payment reliability and strategic or reference value

Future potential measures what the account could realistically become, including unmet needs, addressable spending, customer growth and the number of additional products, services, locations or business units you could serve

Ability to win measures whether your business is positioned to capture that potential, based on the strength of your relationships, access to decision makers, competitive differentiation, customer urgency and timing

This third dimension is frequently missed

A recognizable company with a large budget may appear attractive, but the opportunity is theoretical if the customer is satisfied with another supplier, has no urgency to change or barely knows your business, while a smaller opportunity where you have strong access, a clear customer need and a credible advantage may deserve far more attention

Use current value and future potential to place each account into one of four categories, then apply the ability-to-win test before deciding which accounts receive priority status

Maintain accounts are not unimportant and should not receive poor service, but they should not consume the same commercial effort as accounts with stronger potential

Treating every customer as a priority usually means that none of them truly is

Once the priority accounts have been selected, avoid objectives such as “grow the relationship” or “sell more”

Every priority account should have a measurable 12-month ambition, and the team should be able to state what the account is worth today, what it could realistically be worth and how it intends to close the gap

That means documenting current revenue and margin, estimated addressable opportunity, the products or services being targeted and the qualified opportunities needed to reach the goal

Consider a commercial cleaning company that currently serves one location for a regional medical group

Its objective might be to expand from one location to three, add periodic deep-cleaning services and increase annual account revenue from $80,000 to $200,000, which is specific enough to guide the team’s research, conversations and actions

Growth should not always mean more revenue

If an account requires constant customization, rushed delivery and excessive management attention, the better objective may be to standardize the work, improve pricing and increase the margin

The goal is to build more valuable relationships, not simply larger ones

Strong account plans do not begin with what the sales representative wants to sell, they begin with a hypothesis about what the customer is trying to accomplish. Example:

The representative must test this hypothesis through customer conversations and other evidence. It may prove correct, partially correct or completely wrong, but each outcome produces useful information and allows the account plan to evolve as the team learns more about the customer’s priorities, decision process and willingness to act

Without a customer hypothesis, account planning easily becomes an internal wish list of products the company hopes to sell

Most account plans contain a contact list, but far fewer contain a useful stakeholder map. Knowing one friendly contact is not the same as controlling an account

For each stakeholder, assess two things: influence, meaning how much power the person has over the problem, budget, recommendation or final decision, and support, meaning whether the person is supportive, neutral or resistant toward your company and the proposed change

The map should identify who owns the business problem, who controls the budget, who evaluates the solution, who uses the product or service and who benefits from maintaining the status quo

It should also expose relationship gaps

If your entire position depends on one friendly contact, the account is vulnerable because that person could change roles, leave the company or simply lack the influence required to move the opportunity forward

The objective is not to contact everyone, but to deliberately reach the small number of people whose support is necessary to create change

A useful account plan does not need to become a lengthy presentation

For most small and mid-sized businesses, one page is enough if it answers the right questions

The plan should be short enough to use in a conversation

If the account owner cannot explain the ambition, customer need, stakeholder gaps and next three actions without opening a large presentation, the plan is probably too complicated

An account plan considers the entire customer relationship by identifying where the account could go, which relationships must be developed and which opportunities deserve attention

An opportunity plan focuses on winning one defined piece of business with a particular buyer, offer, budget and decision process. One account may contain several opportunities, and the account plan should explain how those opportunities fit together and how winning one could improve the company’s position for the next

Without that broader view, salespeople may win isolated projects without ever developing a stronger and more defensible customer relationship

Calling an account strategic does not make it strategic

Management must decide which accounts receive priority status, what specialist or executive support they will receive and which internal barriers need to be removed

Senior leaders may need to develop executive relationships, provide technical resources, approve a tailored commercial approach or help resolve delivery problems that threaten the account

Management must also decide what the sales team should stop doing because a representative cannot devote more attention to three priority accounts while continuing to treat every other customer exactly the same

Account planning therefore requires choices from both the representative and the leadership team

Priority accounts should normally be reviewed monthly, with the overall portfolio reconsidered quarterly. The review should not become a recital of meetings, emails and proposals because more activity does not necessarily mean more progress

Instead, management should ask what changed since the previous review, what the team learned about the customer, which important relationship became stronger, which opportunity moved forward, what is preventing progress and what management support is required. Every review should end with a small number of actions, named owners and deadlines

If an account shows no meaningful movement after several review cycles, its priority status should be challenged because accounts should remain priorities based on their potential and supporting evidence, not because they are well-known companies or have always appeared on the list

Choose ten to twenty customer accounts and work through the following four steps

Then identify the stakeholders with the greatest influence and determine whether each person is supportive, neutral or resistant

By Monday, you should have three priority accounts, a clear commercial ambition for each,

Until next time …

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