approach to identifying white spaces and developing new opportunities
• Achieving targets and improving win rate
Accounts plans are done once and
done right. Then it is an orchestrated process with a set of managed activities. An account planning tool would then be set up to enable all of this.
Step 3: Continuous account plan-
ning. The account planning process needs
to be continuous, keeping a
three-year scope with a team of seg- ment sales lead, strategic account manager and sales manager working closely together. The segment lead should take care of account planning setup that includes defining target accounts, building teams and setting the targets and team responsibilities.
The strategic account manager
should collect all the information required to prepare the initial plan and then invite the team for discussion. He should gather the information from discussions and add to the existing plan. The important insights should
VOL. 21 ISSUE 3 2019
be discussed, solution leads developed and existing opportunities
reviewed.
Based on the analysis, strategy should be aligned and actions defined by the account manager.
The sales manager should review the
progress and achievements continuous- ly. Based on the achievements, the plan should be challenged, and with any change, new actions should be defined. The sales manager is responsible for reviewing and coaching the team for key opportunities. She should be able to set up the entire plan and, accordingly, track actions for the entire sales team.
The strategic account manager
should keep a progress check and adapt the plan accordingly. The pipeline for the leads
and opportunities should
be updated in real time. The relevant measures should be taken care of by the SAM to achieve the revenue targets.
Step 4: The right tool. The key
requirements and selection criteria for the right tool were extensive. While the tool was important, the credibility and service orientation of the company
backing the tool was critical too. The tool should:
• Have the capabilities to do account analysis, portfolio mapping, financial mapping, account strategy, relation- ship strategy and action planning
• Be easy to use, take care of daily
routine manual tasks and should be able to provide user feedback.
• Be integrated within Salesforce CRM and allow live reporting with consis- tent progress check.
• Be automated to take care of dupli- cated efforts in terms of inputs. It should allow online account review with the option to export the neces- sary data.
• Be methodology agnostic and allow flexibility at no additional cost.
• Be implementable with minimal time • Be cost effective
The right company The company providing the tool
should be agile and flexible. Moreover, it should:
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