Account Plans: Stop wasting your time

Account Plans: Stop wasting your time

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Yes, I'm talking to you.

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Stop spending 3 hours (or multiple days) creating an enterprise account plan for a completely cold account. It's an absolute waste of time.

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How to approach account planning:

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⛔️ What's everything I could possibly find about this account?

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✅ What's the minimum I need to land the first meeting?

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If you haven't landed a meeting yet, ditch your account plan. Keep it minimal and the opposite of fancy.

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Start creating "Reason To Meet" (RTMs) plans.

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And stop creating them manually. Have AI do 95% of the work to help you find:

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✅ 1) Problem

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The basics. You have to find evidence of a problem in the business.

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A lot of different ways to do this:

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1) Find common triggers that could indicate a problem

2) Look for visual evidence of a problem (like a website issue)

3) Groundswell and speak to ICs/Managers on their team (the best way)

4) Dig through quarterly transcripts, 10-Qs, etc

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The best info for your account plan isn't a webpage away—it's a conversation away. Go talk to people. The best reps nail this.

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✅ 2) Stakeholders

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Map out the potential buyers. Start with 3-5. Base it off of how your typical deals come together.

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Then find your Best Path In:

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1) Mutual connections, internal referrals, etc

2) Groundswell with existing contacts within the account

3) Go direct

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Leverage Sales Nav, your CRM, etc to find the best strategy here.

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✅ 3) Value

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The most important (and overlooked) part. You need to give the buyer value in return for their time. It's the value trade Anthony Iannarino always talks about.

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What are you going to teach the buyer?

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Here are some ideas:

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1) Experience the brand: If the account sells B2C, experience their buying process

2) Create a competitive analysis report

3) Share industry trends (they have to be non-obvious)

4) Share how you're helping their peers

5) Do a free analysis (website audit, etc)

6) An approach they haven't thought about

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✅ 4) Differentiator

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Specifics on how you solve the problem in a unique way.

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Could be:

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1) Feature differentiation (not great)

2) Similar customers you've helped

3) Differences in the approach or model

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"Reason To Meet" (RTMs)

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