Account Planning Template and Canvas
Account Planning for your highest potential accounts is a critical skill for your go to market teams.
In siloed companies you’ll find three plans:
Account Based Marketing - how are we going to generate demand in our largest target accounts
Account Based Selling - how are we going to close opportunities in our largest target accounts
Account Based Customer Success - how are we going to drive adoption and renewal in our largest accounts
Instead, you’ll want to bring each of these teams together to define an aligned plan to attract, close and grow the accounts with the highest revenue opportunity.
The Account Planning Template
If you're looking for a comprehensive account plan template, you've come to the right place. Creating a solid account plan is crucial for the success of any revenue team, and having a well-structured template can make the process much easier.
Whether you're a sales, marketing or CS leader or an individual contributor, having a reliable account plan template can help you stay organized and focused on your goals for the account.
With the right template, you can outline your objectives, strategies, and action plans in a clear and concise manner. Take the guesswork out of account planning and download my free account plan template today!
The first asset I’ll share is the account planning template.
This is an interview style document where you’ll guide your team through a series of questions that will require research and critical thinking as they learn about the account, their industry, their competitors, their challenges, and how your company’s products and services can uniquely solve those pains.
You should use the account planning template in a workshop environment, where your core account team - including representatives from marketing, sales (including SDR and AE) and your customer success team (for existing customers) can collaborate together to work through each of the sections.
By the end of the workshop you’ll have a clear understanding of the customer’s business and the inputs for your Account Plan Canvas.
The Account Plan Canvas
I’ve seen a lot of account plans. 30 page slide decks. 20 page Word docs designed to look like slides. Complicated org chart modules that keep an AE busy for a day. Plans that once complete are never read and never updated.
The problem is that the creator of the plan has tried to combine the research part of the job (the template above) with the output part of the job.
Instead, I recommend a simple one page Account Plan canvas where your team can take their detailed research from the template, and summarise it on the canvas.
The canvas is easy for others to read, forces you to think about what is important, and is easy to update as things change in the account.
Ideally, have your local business print shop print this out at A0/Poster size and use on the wall during your workshop with sticky notes to collaborate on what makes it onto the canvas.
