Building an Account Plan is one of the most important planning exercises that you need to do. It’s a living document intended to be continuously updated and collaborated on with your team.

Outline:

• Company’s Roadmap, Vision, Strategy
• Industry Challenges, Pain Points
• What is customer’s business  e.g. their business, how they make money, etc.
• What are their main problems they’re trying to solve  e.g. so we can suggest solutions, positioning paper, proposal, briefing, etc. align to that
• Heat map of Relationships
• Communication Plan and Company’s Executive Alignment
• Existing Engagement(s)/Project(s) Overview e.g. what business problems, scenarios being solved/addressed, what outcomes delivered, what technologies underpin projects
• Win Team Structure
• Wallet Share Analysis
• Competitors – Who, What they do, Where are they engaged, their Wallet Share
• Partnerships – Do we know our partners, do we sync e.g. MSFT, Adobe, etc.
• Technology Landscape (also, any IP, Accelerator re-use or leverage)
• SWOT
• Strategy e.g. Build account structure, diversify mix of services, deepen relationships
• Company’s Solution Practices, Technologies – mapping to customer needs
• Campaigns to execute
• 5 Quarter Action Plan Listing Timing of Key Components e.g. 12 mo or 24 mo Revenue Plan
• Commitments, Focus Areas, Top Priorities e.g. 2 Digital Engagement  Wins, 2 Cloud Wins
• Pipeline
• Strategic Hiring Plan – put a plan together on roles, investments that you need to make by certain time. e.g. what does the team look like by end of year.
• Action Plan and Next Steps to Achieve objectives

It’s Your Plan to Own:

• It’s YOUR Business Plan, not just Exec Summary (Current Template), add more to Appendix, it’s a Living document
• Collaborate with Sales Managers, Delivery Managers, Ops, Solutions Architects, etc. to put plan together
• Read 10K, Annual Report, CEO’s Annual Letter to Shareholders
• Use Case: Use it to brief pursuit teams when you leverage them for pursuits, exec meetings, etc.
• Customer Overview (Revenue, Locations, Wallet Share, # of employees, Competitors, Technology landscape), see above checklist
• Include Project Descriptions
• Outline Top 3-5 Strategic Goals, OKRs you are driving (e.g. Cloud, BI, etc.)
• Communication Plan with Customer
• Contribution Margin (CM) improvement plan
• Account Org Structure (Sales Managers, Delivery Managers, Operations, etc.)
• Customer Heatmap and Target Names of Customer Contacts we are going after
• Key Projects we did for the customer (Case Study Format)
• Clear TODO’s slide with Next Steps, Owners

Applying the concept of 5 Rights and simple checklists to create, shape and validate your Deal is Right.

There is a lot to consider when shaping a deal. Review the items on the list, you don’t have to follow it all but it may give you a framework to navigate as it relates to your deals.

Here are key pillars to consider and details behind:

• Right Solution – make it the right solution to the problem statement, right scope, approach, architecture, deliverables
• Right Deal – do you have the right deal that makes sense financially to you, is it estimated correctly, is it profitable, stakeholder approved, do terms & conditions of the contract align with your expectations and risk profile
• Right Team – make it right with the right team and leadership to deliver. Are you working with the right customer, stakeholder with the approved budget, authority, need, timeline (BANT)
• Right Time – does the timeline work and make sense, do you have everything available to start, finish on time
• Right Location – are you delivering services out of the right location, do you have necessary perimeter security, checks in place if you’re working with regulated industries
• Right Communication, Team Work – yes #6 instead of 5, but it’s inherent to the overall Deal Lifecycle. Do you have the right communication plan, governance, clear ownership and roles & responsibilities.

Download checklist template – 5 Rights – Deal Worksheet