Account Planning – A Marketing Exec Speaks Out
January 31, 2008
My last post about why (most) people hate account planning brought this response from the Chief Marketing Officer of a well-known, global professional services firm:
If I had to choose one marketing tactic with which to have a singular focus it would be account planning/account management.
We are in a business that involves complex, technical solutions and is driven by relationships and client references. I don’t believe true client-centric selling can be achieved without a deep, collaborative, cross-Line of Business understanding of the client’s business, which is at the heart of account planning. With a comprehensive understanding of the clients issues, internal workings, and philosophy about solving issues that are the results of acct. planning, we gain the best market knowledge and can target the marketing strategies that offer the highest ROI. I believe the salespeople/consultants/companies who are not working a formal account planning process, including supporting performance measures, are seriously under achieving revenue potential and at a competitive disadvantage. (emphasis mine)
I don’t know if our CMO friend knows how rare this perspective is. Much of the time, account planning is an exercise. Salespeople prepare (grudgingly), other participants show up unprepared (and yes, grudgingly), and most of the time the salesperson is the only one to leave with action items at the end of the meeting.
So maybe another reason (most) people hate account planning is that it’s often seen as a performance of a solo artist (the salesperson/lead consultant) rather than a chance for key representatives to learn critical information about their key customers/markets and to act in concert as a result.
What would that look like?
Why (most) people hate account planning
January 28, 2008
It’s near the beginning of a year, so a lot of people in revenue-generating roles will be going through the exercise of account planning. I’ve been part of more of these sessions than I can count over the past 15 years. Many things have changed, but one thing stays pretty constant: most people HATE account planning.
But why? I decided to take an informal survey about it. The results aren’t complete yet, but I’ll share a few things as a start.
First, the perspective of a rain-maker for a professional firm:
Our account planning feels tedious to me. It revolves around filling out forms, most of which is repetitive information. It’s so long and arduous that you lose steam by the time you reach the interesting stuff.
Then, an accomplished salesperson and industry group leader for consulting company:
It’s difficult to get value from people who participate in account planning but aren’t regularly working with that client. They just don’t know enough about the client, our history with them, or the client’s industry to come up with useful ideas.
Last, a seasoned sales and marketing executive:
People hate planning, period. It involves accountability and the high probability that someone will follow up on promised actions.
Those are three themes in my informal study so far: arduous (and seemingly irrelevant) preparation, low value-added from outside participants, and the threat of accountability.
What would you add? How could we make account planning (or any planning, for that matter) better?