Creating a key account strategy
How to write a key account plan that will help you land business
The problem with sales is…"You don't close a sale; you open a relationship if you want to build a long-term, successful enterprise." - Patricia Fripp
Far too often we get caught up in the workings of a “deal”. How do we close it? How do we win? In this age of Web 2.0 and Sales 2.0, we as sales people and entrepreneurs really should be focusing even more than ever on the challenges presented in our prospects’ lives and businesses.
I know, we have been taught to find the need, cure the pain, and solve the problem. However, prospects know every technique that we have. They have been sold before. As I am fond of saying; ”This ain’t my first rodeo”. And it ain’t theirs either.
So what do we do? We become better business people. We become part of the solution. We become a person that the prospect wants to see since we should be able to help. So… How do we do that?
One way is to write a plan! Use Excel or word or whatever format you think works for you. I prefer account planning software but use what you like.
Let’s start with the prospect. She knows as much about your service and product when you meet than ever before. With tools like Linked In, Zoom Info, and Google, no one is more than a couple of degrees away from someone else. We have to not only understand that, but embrace it. How?
1. Know what they can find out about us. Good or bad, be prepared to discuss it in a matter of fact way.
2. Know as much as possible about their business. Take the 10 – 15 minutes to find out about the company, their history, their goals, and their mission.
3. Know as much as possible about the person you are calling on. There is no excuse for not doing a simple Google search on the person you are trying to sell. Try Linked In, Zoom Info, and Facebook.
4. Have a plan. There is nothing more frustrating for a prospect than a sales person that doesn’t quite know where to go next, or what the next steps should be, or bothers to find out what her next steps should be
5. Be real. Remember the TV commercial a few years back with a cardboard cut-out of the sales person… Don’t be that. We’re human, go with it.
The Account Plan - Start at 30,000 feet
The goal of this section is to analyze the account in terms of their business. You need to know well what they do, how they do it and what is affecting their business. How would you describe their business? “They make cars.” Really? What kind of cars? What markets and demographic do they serve? How do they deal with import export?
Next, what has management said that they are looking to accomplish in the next quarter or fiscal year? If this is a public company, the annual report and 10-Q from the SEC are excellent sources for information. Public marketing literature, their web site, and the message from the CEO are all great sources of good information about initiatives.
Think about a Strategy
Now look at the account in relation to the entire territory. How much should this account be worth? Who are your relationships and what are their roles? Do you have a technical buyer? Decision Maker? User Buyer? Economic Buyer?
In relation to your overall sales goal, what percentage is this account going to represent? If this account is 2% of your number then you should spend 2% of your time on the deal. Of course, during the time which you are trying to win the deal that number may be much higher. However, this is something that you must keep in mind as you plan your strategy and time. What is my ROTI? (my Return On Time Invested)
And More Strategy
In sales we talk about Pain. What is the pain that you see in each of the people you deal with? That is to say, what is their critical business issue?
I have always said that there are 4 questions that have to be answered:
1. Why? Why would they do business with me?
2. Why not? Why wouldn’t they decide to use me? (and what am I going to do about it?)
3. How much? How much are they willing to spend to do whatever it is that we are talking about?
4. When? When will they do this? How important the issue is, will determine how quickly they decide to solve it.
Lastly, based all you have entered so far, what is your high level strategy for this account? Who and how will you go through the process of closing this account? What relationships will be needed?
Build a plan based on the information you have entered. What do you need to do and by when? What step in the process are you at, and what priority is this action. Be specific and add time frames with specific dates.
This step is possibly the most important one in the process. Based on all of the thinking and information you have entered, you now need to create a 90 day plan of action. Here you need to enter all of the actions and activities that will make you successful at making the number of sales and goal numbers that were entered at the very beginning.
List them with due date and prioritize them. Pull it all together as a Narrative Based on what you have entered and the actions you have created, talk about your plan. How will you reach your goal and close this account? What will get in the way? Who will help? Be specific.
The action plan and this narrative can help you focus your time and perform activities that are going to be the most productive. Remember, the goal is to create a plan you can follow and will lead to more sales.
Look at your plan daily or weekly!
This process should be revisited every 30 days to update the plan. New people join your prospect. Your allies move on to other jobs. Your detractors get promoted.
You have to account for these factors, and if they change then you redo your Account Plan.
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