Strategic Account Planning

Account planning is essential to growing the organization’s strategic accounts, which typically comprise most of the organization’s revenue and growth potential. While most sales organizations engage in account planning, most don’t do it consistently or effectively and have become jaded by the perfunctory processes of the past.

Account planning can become an exercise in management and administration that ends up in a file until next year when the account team realizes they didn’t accomplish what they set out to do. But effective account planning can make the difference between a sales team having sporadic performance and a sales team getting consistently great performance.

Over years of working with strategic account teams, SalesGlobe developed the Aspirational Account Planning method to help teams understand the customer story, define aspirations, become better customer problem-solvers, and dramatically increase sales results.

Uncovering Unknown Opportunities. Understanding the account’s story and creating a solution vision for the account to uncover previously unknown opportunities.
Thinking Bigger and Changing the Paradigm. Setting aspirational goals for the account over the next three to five years to change and expand the way the team thinks and how the customer thinks about your organization.
Creating a Goal Build and Pursuit Pipeline. Building the potential opportunity pipeline for the account that far exceeds the goals for the account by creating an opportunity pipeline of 2x to 3x the goal. This provides the team with a head-start on proactive pursuits rather than "figuring it out" during the year.
Building Accountability. Creating transparency and accountability for the account team to follow the plan and get results.
Getting to the C-Level. Working at the appropriate executive levels to engage in vision and co-creating a long-term, aspirational plan to generate value for the customer.

Aspirational Account Planning:

Is not a plan structure
Is not history, projected forward
Is not a tool

Aspirational Account Planning is a way of thinking:

Big with the customer
Big about what you want for your future
Shifting customer's perspective on your organization
With actions and a plan that will get your team there

Aspirational Account Planning is about changing the way your team thinks and solves problems with the customer and differentiating your team from competitors.

SalesGlobe can work with your sales organization to understand your customers, segments, and goals. We can help you design and implement an effective Aspirational Account Planning process in your organization that engages the team and customer and gets results.

Check out our book, Essential Account Planning, that explores five imperatives for successful strategic account planning, including Thinking Big.

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The Five Imperatives of Aspirational Account Planning

SalesGlobe's approach to strategic account planning is built on five core imperatives, explored in depth in our book Essential Account Planning:

Uncover unknown opportunities: Understand the account's story and create a solution vision that reveals previously unseen opportunities. Go beyond the current scope of work to identify where your organization can create new value.
Think bigger and change the paradigm: Set aspirational goals for the account over a three-to-five-year horizon. Expand how your team thinks about the account and how the customer thinks about your organization.
Build a pursuit pipeline: Create a potential opportunity pipeline for each strategic account that exceeds the goal by 2x to 3x. This gives your team a head start on proactive pursuits rather than scrambling to figure it out during the year.
Create accountability and transparency: Build visibility into the account plan so the team follows through and leadership can track progress. Accountability transforms plans from documents into action.
Engage at the C-level: Work at the executive level to co-create a long-term, aspirational vision that generates value for the customer. C-level engagement changes the conversation from vendor to strategic partner.

Why Traditional Account Planning Falls Short

Most account planning processes fail for predictable reasons. The plan is built around internal goals rather than customer needs. The process is annual and disconnected from day-to-day selling. The format is a template that gets filled in and forgotten. And the team lacks accountability for executing what they committed to.

SalesGlobe's Aspirational approach addresses each of these failures by starting from the customer's perspective, building a dynamic pursuit pipeline, creating clear accountability structures, and engaging leadership at the right levels within both your organization and the customer's.

How SalesGlobe Helps

SalesGlobe works with your sales organization to understand your customers, segments, and growth objectives. We help you design and implement an effective Aspirational Account Planning process that engages the team and the customer and delivers measurable results.

Our engagements typically include:

Account planning assessment: Evaluating your current process, identifying where it breaks down, and benchmarking against best practices
Aspirational planning design: Building a customized account planning framework aligned to your go-to-market strategy and customer segments
Team facilitation: Leading account planning sessions that shift team thinking from incremental to aspirational
Pursuit pipeline development: Helping teams build robust opportunity pipelines at 2x to 3x the account goal
Coaching and enablement: Training sales leaders and account teams to sustain the Aspirational approach beyond the initial engagement

Industries and Accounts We Serve

SalesGlobe has facilitated Aspirational Account Planning across technology, SaaS, telecommunications, professional services, information services, and cloud and managed services companies. Our method works for organizations with 10 strategic accounts or 500, and we customize every engagement to your specific market dynamics and account portfolio.

Essential Account Planning

Our book Essential Account Planning explores the five imperatives for successful strategic account planning, including the concept of Thinking Big. It provides a practical framework for sales leaders and account teams looking to transform their account planning process from a compliance exercise into a competitive advantage.

Frequently Asked Questions

1What is strategic account planning?

Strategic account planning is the process of analyzing your most important customer accounts, understanding their business goals and challenges, and building a structured plan to grow the relationship and revenue over time. At SalesGlobe, we take this further with Aspirational Account Planning, which focuses on thinking bigger about what the account relationship could become rather than simply projecting last year's results forward.

2What is Aspirational Account Planning?

Aspirational Account Planning is SalesGlobe's proprietary methodology for strategic accounts. Unlike traditional approaches that start with historical data and add a growth percentage, Aspirational Account Planning starts with the customer's story and builds a bold vision for the account over three to five years. It is built on five imperatives: uncovering unknown opportunities, thinking bigger, building a pursuit pipeline, creating accountability, and engaging at the C-level.

3How is Aspirational Account Planning different from traditional account planning?

Traditional account planning typically starts with last year's numbers, fills in a template, and produces a document that sits in a file until next year. Aspirational Account Planning starts with the customer's challenges and goals, sets stretch objectives for the relationship, builds a pursuit pipeline at 2x to 3x the target, creates accountability for execution, and engages executive sponsors. The result is a dynamic, action-oriented process that drives measurable growth.

4What does a pursuit pipeline look like in account planning?

A pursuit pipeline in Aspirational Account Planning is a set of identified opportunities for a strategic account that exceeds the revenue goal by 2x to 3x. This intentional over-building gives the account team a head start on proactive pursuits rather than reacting to whatever comes in during the year. The pipeline includes both known opportunities and previously unidentified ones uncovered through the customer story analysis.

5How long does it take to implement an Aspirational Account Planning process?

Implementation timelines depend on the number of strategic accounts and the complexity of your organization. A focused engagement covering 10 to 20 key accounts can typically be facilitated in 4 to 6 weeks. A full organizational rollout, including process design, team training, and leadership enablement, generally takes 8 to 12 weeks. SalesGlobe works alongside your sales leadership to ensure the process is practical and sustainable.

6Does SalesGlobe have a book on account planning?

Yes. Essential Account Planning, authored by SalesGlobe, explores the five imperatives for successful strategic account planning, including the concept of Thinking Big. The book provides a practical framework for sales leaders and account teams looking to transform their planning process from a compliance exercise into a competitive advantage.

7What industries does SalesGlobe work with on account planning?

SalesGlobe has facilitated Aspirational Account Planning engagements across technology, SaaS, telecommunications, professional services, information services, staffing and recruiting, and cloud and managed services industries. Our method works for organizations of all sizes and we customize every engagement to your specific market dynamics and account portfolio.