Major Account Planning Tool

Major Account Planning provides account managers with tools to execute a repeatable and practical methodology for winning more business in strategic accounts and elevating the level of relationship within those accounts.

The outcomes of this methodology are higher levels of sales revenue, a greater share of spend within the account, and more efficient use of resources, thereby, lowering the cost of sales and improving margins on business in that account.

The Major Account Planning Tool

The Major Account Planning (MAP) Tool is a Salesforce native, highly visual, and collaborative application designed to support all phases of the account planning process. In the workshop, users learn to create account plans in Salesforce under the Major Account Planning tab. After the workshop, account managers and sales professionals use the application to support the ongoing effective execution of their current and future account plans.

The Major Account Planning Tool strategically captures critical account information including:

• Account Information– supports the capture of essential information about the account’s vision, the seller’s strategy for the account, key historic events and milestones, industry trends, and account team
• Key Player Analysis – allows the visualization of the key players, their lines of reporting, and influence within the account to provide account teams an at a glance view of potential relationship weakness within the account
• Business Initiatives– enables the team to capture the key strategic initiatives that the account is focusing on, to ensure all your team’s opportunities are supporting the account to achieve their goals
• Gap Analysis– account teams can visualize their revenue gap within the account, to determine the additional opportunities needed to achieve their revenue goal
• White Space Analysis– identify and quantify potential opportunities for creating new value within an account and see a visual of which opportunities are the high priority for the pursuit
• Execution Plan – records the seller’s strategic objectives for the account, the actions and resources required to achieve the objectives.

Video: Major Account Planning Tool Overview

Benefits of Using the Major Account Planning Tool

Teams that regularly use the Major Account Planning tool improve performance because the tool helps them to better:

• Plan for maximizing value in an account
• Identify tactics for (further) penetrating an account
• Identify and prioritize opportunities for new business within the account
• Create a plan to achieve revenue and relationship objectives
• Navigate the decision-making politics within an account by leveraging visual tools
• Develop higher levels of relationship with account stakeholders

Audience and Training Delivery

The Major Account Planning tool and associated training program is designed for sales professionals, account managers and account teams who manage business with major or strategic accounts, using either assigned personnel, virtual support resources, partners, or any combination of those.

The training is delivered through live instructor-led training (ILT) workshops, via virtual instructor-led training (VILT) sessions, or online through on-demand eLearning and video-based content.

However, because MAP is a comprehensive account planning methodology as well as a tool, we find that a blended learning approach that incorporates a mix of delivery modalities produces the best results.