How can you develop a deep understanding of your clients' industries and markets with account planning?

A strong understanding of your client's industry is absolutely vital to campaign success. Without it, it's incredibly difficult to determine the right channels, strategies and tactics that will help reach your client's goals.

On the company level, what a company can do is having a segmentation of the clients based on industries, at least for some of the clients/employees/industries. This will in the mid and long term automatically increase the knowledge of those sales, account management, customer success manager, etc... and build industry experts that can then share best practices internally to inform and help enable the others non industry focused employee.

Achieving a profound comprehension of clients' industries via account planning involves meticulous research, client interviews, and competitor analysis. Participation in industry events, utilization of data analytics, and collaboration across functions contribute to a comprehensive perspective. Cultivate a culture of ongoing learning within your team to remain attuned to the ever-evolving trends and dynamics of the market. SWOT is beneficial for a holistic overview of the current state of your organization or a specific project. Whereas Value Proposition Canvas helps you understand your customers' pains and gains, allowing you to tailor your value proposition for maximum appeal. It really depends on the specific analysis you need.

For me, I follow market changes and i want to be able to discuss with clients what is happening now and what is potentially going to impact their market. I want my clients to be assured that I know what i am talking about and have their backs. Here is how I do that: 1 - I have a google alert, in the industry and Market. If you have major clients also create alerts for them. This way if something is happening i know about it. 2 - Follow industry and market influencers. This can be via LinkedIn, podcasts, and newsletters. what works for you. 3 - Engage with the client, if you come across an article that is interesting and impacts them, share it with them and get their thoughts and feedback. (this is my fav)

Picking up on the verbiage of my client's specific niche has proven crucial to my success in communicating with clients and understanding the industry. For example, if I know what suppliers of certain materials are called, priced at, sourced from, etc., I can better understand what other factors outside my lane cause conflict, roadblocks, etc.