Account planning is undertaken to drive better actions.
It should be a continuous discipline that investigates the customers demand for products and services, their future requirements and the impact of pricing and delivery. It enables suppliers to make informed decisions about the level of financial, people and information resources they commit and helps the planning of supply management.
When clearly communicated, such plans build internal alignment across your teams.
By treating each key account as a business within your business, we’ll guide you to create plans that give unique insights into emerging requirements. We’ll support you to analyse how the value chain operates, how to simplify the customer experience, whether you have the right people involved and the part new solutions must play in delivering growth.
Planning for the Future
How will changes in the economy, technology, regulation or competitors actions impact on your target customers? What plans do your customers or clients have to move into different geographies or market sectors? What is their future strategy for dealing with suppliers? Who is involved in decision making now and who will be involved in the future?
By working through such questions with you we’ll make sure you’re fully equipped to make the most of future changes.
How we can help
- We will guide high quality account planning using our established 12-step framework*. This poses vital questions, the answers to which provide the ingredients for growth.
- As plans are being developed, we’ll coach and support your account managers to shape and sharpen their thinking. Across workshops or ‘online’ sessions we will stretch and develop fresh thinking.
- We’ll help you develop high impact action plans. The strength of the account plan will be judged by the actions and outcomes it produces. We deploy a focus on the next three months.
- Shorter plans are sweeter. They create focus and buy-in. We help you achieve leadership sign-off and ongoing support.
- Account planning shouldn’t be a one-off exercise. We’ll help you embed an account planning process with milestones, decision points and updates. This is a core process within the key account management approach and one that contributes to stronger outcomes.
Our role is to guide you to turn this formal list into a living plan that excites and gains buy-in. Actions are focused, results improve.
