When I was starting out in the partner management, account management role in Microsoft, I asked my manager at the time what is the best lesson learned that I can apply to my role to be successful. He thought for a minute and then said, “Have a recurring communication plan with your customers”.

It is one of the most important lessons I’ve learned and applied. The recurring communication plan, scheduled on the calendars, allows you to keep the ongoing dialog going with your customers and stakeholders at different levels. It’s the way you build relationship, rapport, bring thought leadership and value, get insightful feedback, ask for favors, find out about new deals/opportunities, bring up challenging escalations to the surface, improve, etc., etc., etc.

Have a multi-level communication plan withing your Account team, Business Unit and Customer.

For my accounts, I strive to have the following in place, yours will be different, fine-tuned based on your needs

Account Level

• With the Customer (external communication)
  • Recurring Communication Plan with Customer Stakeholders (QBRs, Monthly, Weekly, etc.)
    • e.g. meet with Execs every 2 months (every 3 months is too far apart)
    • Meet your Customer Execs Direct Reports (and their Directs) e.g. every month or every other week
  • Tips:
    • 1-2 weeks before meeting with Execs, have a 1:1 or your regularly scheduled meeting with their direct reports to prepare
    • Also, ahead of Executive’s Direct reports meeting, meet with your Delivery team to prepare and gain feedback, status updates, risk, any issues, compile questions to ask, agenda, and opportunities that might be broached during Directs and Exec discussions
    • Here is a typical agenda I use with customers, refine/reduce per your needs:
      • Status update
        • Key Accomplishments, Milestones
        • Team(s) feedback – Surface feedback up from your teams
        • Outstanding issues, risks, bottlenecks
        • Risk mitigation
      • Goals, Objectives
        • What’s important to you?
        • What is on top of your mind? Or keeping you up at night?
      • Roadmap
        • What is your roadmap, plans?
        • What business value are you delivering in your next version, release?
        • Why are these things on your roadmap?
        • Why are they important?
      • Improve
        • What obstacles in way?
        • What is not working or working? How do you think we can fix?
        • What should we start or stop doing?
        • What else can we do better or improve your experience of working with us?
        • How can we be useful to you?
      • Collaboration, Thought Leadership
        • What are additional areas for collaboration? 
        • Bring with you any points of view, thought leadership pieces, ideas for collaboration, show “what good looks like” e.g. how other customers are successful implementing XYZ solutions. 

Establish Rhythm of the Business (ROB) with your Account teams and Delivery Teams as well.

• With your Account Team (internal communication)
  • Have Account All-up Team Syncs (Bi-Weekly) i.e. “One Team” – Account Managers (AM), Sales, Delivery Managers (DM), Business Unit (BU) Management, Delivery Solution Practices, Industry Solution Practices, etc.
  • Account Management, Delivery Teams Syncs (Weekly) i.e. AM, DM, PMs, Tech Leads
  • Staffing (Bi-weekly/Weekly) – Resolve staffing and resourcing issues, build long term plans for skill pools, rotation programs, developing talent, etc.
  • Account Operations (Bi-weekly/Weekly) i.e. Revenue Team, Operations Team to work through Account Receivables, optimizing P&L, Invoicing, etc

Business Unit Level

As a Business Unit Head, you might have the following cadence with your team and direct reports.

• Business Unit (BU) Level
  • Account Management Plan (AMP) Reviews (Semi-Annually or Quarterly)
  • BU Pipeline Reviews (Bi-weekly)
  • BU All-up Team Syncs (Weekly)
  • BU All-up Delivery Team Syncs (Bi-weekly) or have Delivery participate in the All-up Team Syncs
  • BU Level Staffing Calls – Resolve staffing and resourcing issues across BU, build long term plans for locations, relocation, skills pools, rotation programs, developing talent, etc.
• Individual Level
  • Account Manager with BU Head or Direct Manager – Personal 1:1s (Bi-weekly/Weekly)