What are the best tools and methods for creating account plans?

1 Define your account plan

An account plan is a strategic document that outlines your objectives, strategies, and actions for each account. It helps you align your team, prioritize your resources, and track your progress. To create an account plan, you need to gather and analyze relevant information about your client, such as their industry, market, competitors, pain points, opportunities, and expectations. You also need to define your value proposition, your differentiation, and your key performance indicators. A good account plan should be clear, concise, and realistic.

2 Choose your tools and methods

With the aim of creating and executing an account plan, there are a variety of tools and methods available. CRM software is a popular choice, allowing users to manage customer data, interactions, and activities, as well as organize contacts, track communication, schedule tasks, and generate reports. Additionally, it can be integrated with other tools such as email, calendar, and social media. SWOT analysis is another useful tool, providing a framework to evaluate strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, as well as identify competitive advantage, areas of improvement, potential growth, and risks. Finally, SMART goals is a technique that helps set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound goals, enabling users to clarify expectations, monitor progress, evaluate results, and communicate value to their client.

3 Communicate and collaborate

Successful account management projects require effective communication and collaboration between team members, clients, and stakeholders. To ensure this, it is important to establish clear roles and responsibilities to avoid confusion, duplication, and conflict, while also leveraging the team's skills and expertise. Additionally, using the right communication channels for the purpose, audience, and frequency is essential for sharing information, feedback, and updates, as well as building rapport and trust. Finally, seeking and providing feedback regularly, constructively, and respectfully is necessary for improving performance, quality, and satisfaction, as well as addressing issues and concerns.

4 Manage your time and resources

Time and resources are finite and invaluable for account management projects, so it is essential to manage them with wisdom and efficiency. To do this, prioritize tasks and activities to focus on the most important and urgent ones, while avoiding distractions and procrastination. Utilize a prioritization matrix, such as the Eisenhower matrix, to classify tasks and activities based on their importance and urgency. Additionally, delegate and outsource tasks and activities that are not your core competencies, or that can be done better or faster by someone else, to reduce workload and stress, as well as leverage your team's skills and expertise. Finally, track and measure results to evaluate performance, quality, and satisfaction, identify and solve problems, and celebrate and reward achievements. Utilize tools and methods, such as dashboards, reports, and surveys, to track and measure results.