How can you set measurable account objectives and KPIs?

1 Step 1: Understand your client's business and challenges

Before you can set any objectives or KPIs, you need to have a clear and comprehensive understanding of your client's business, industry, market, competitors, goals, challenges, pain points, and opportunities. You can gather this information by conducting research, asking questions, listening actively, and building rapport with your client. You should also review your client's past performance, feedback, and satisfaction with your service or product. This will help you identify their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT), as well as their priorities, preferences, and expectations.

2 Step 2: Define SMART account objectives

Based on your client's SWOT analysis and expectations, you can define specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) account objectives that align with their business goals and vision. These objectives should be clear, concise, and quantifiable, and should answer the questions: What do you want to achieve? How will you measure it? When will you achieve it? Why is it important? How will you achieve it? For example, an account objective could be: Increase the client's revenue by 10% in the next quarter by upselling additional features and services.

3 Step 3: Choose relevant and meaningful KPIs

To track and evaluate your progress and performance towards your account objectives, you need to choose relevant and meaningful key performance indicators (KPIs) that reflect the desired outcomes and results. These KPIs should be linked to your account objectives, and should be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely (SMART) as well. They should also be easy to monitor, collect, and report, and should provide actionable insights and feedback. For example, a KPI for the account objective above could be: The number of upsells completed per month.

4 Step 4: Communicate and review your account objectives and KPIs

Once you have set your account objectives and KPIs, you need to communicate them to your client and get their buy-in and agreement. You should explain the rationale and benefits of your objectives and KPIs, and how they align with their business goals and vision. You should also discuss how you will report and share your progress and performance, and how often you will review and update your objectives and KPIs. You should aim to establish a regular and transparent communication channel with your client, and use your objectives and KPIs as a basis for feedback, recognition, improvement, and value creation.

5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?