Is your sales process structured in a way that ensures that you retain and gain large clients? If not, you should consider developing a sales account plan to focus your sales team on profitable clients, products and services. Developing and executing a sales account plan can bring significant revenue rewards.
Here are the nine steps to a successful sales account plan.
1. Identify your sales channels, divisions and types
Review your past two years of sales, sorting by area and distinct sales group. Distinct sales groups could include:
- product line or product category
- geographic sales area or sales region or country
- customer type – for example, commercial, government, retail
- divisions – for example, manufactured goods, distributed goods.
2. Identify the top 20% to 25% of your current clients for each channel
Sort each distinct sales group by total sales and identify your top clients in terms of profit margin and revenue.
3. Create a sales account plan for each large client
Create a unique sales account plan for each of your top clients, based on their sales history. A basic sales account plan should:
- identify the sales team responsible for your client
- show historical sales information for that client
- estimate next year's revenues from that client
- identify business development opportunities within the client
- create strategies to preserve current sales and generate new revenue from the client
- detail the steps and timing of your plan to realise the revenue goals for that client.
4. Identify target clients that you want to win in the current year
Every business needs to add new clients to thrive. Create a profile for your ideal client. Identify target clients for each sales area that you want to win in the current year.
5. Create sales account plans for each target client
Once you have identified target clients, create a sales account plan for each of them. A new business sales account plan should:
- identify the sales team responsible for the target client
- estimate historical purchasing the target client makes from your competitors
- call the client's purchasing department
- find out how they make buying decisions
- find out who makes the buying decisions and who influences the buying decisions
- create a "buying decision" organisation chart of the target client.
Identify any sales opportunities by asking the target client if you can do it cheaper, better, faster, and so on. Detail the steps and timing of your planned actions. Coordinate your sales efforts with your marketing department and website team to maximise your presentation.
6. Calculate your sales goals
One of the final tests of your sales account plan is to add up all of the revenues from your current client and target client sales account plans. Do the collective sales account plan goals meet your sales goals? If yes, then you can execute the plans. If not, then review the sales account plans again and make revisions to your strategies to get more sales or revise the sales goals to match the sales account plans.
7. Execute the sales account plans
Review your sales account plan weekly and confirm that your team is completing the action items on a timely basis and getting the expected results.
8. Revise your compensation programmes to match your sales account plans
Many companies start a sales account planning process to correct antiquated incentive compensation systems. Think about resetting your incentive, bonus or commission programmes to coincide with team and/or individual achievements.
9. Mitigate the single point of failure in your sales account plan
A good sales account plan is a well thought out strategy that is client focused and creative. Some of the most successful sales account plans involve discussions and planning sessions with the client and also brainstorming with your staff, presenting questions such as "What would you do to steal your client if they belonged to your competitor?"
Sales account planning requires time, dedication and focus. But the rewards for a good sales account plan are increased market share, revenue and profits.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
