The Top 4 Reasons Why Account Planning Fails To Become Part Of The Sales Operational Cadence

Reason #1: Account Planning is seen simply as another task rather than a high-value discipline

When a seller comes to work, they have a checklist of all the tasks they have to do that day or that week, many of which aren’t seen as high value. Unfortunately, account planning is too often seen simply as another item on the checklist and that’s if it even makes it onto the checklist. In the eyes of a seller, it has no value and is something they just have to do once they are told to and then it becomes a source of frustration rather than appreciated as a high-value process.  See our blog on the Value of Account Planning.   

Reason #2: Account planning is seen as a one-time event of filling in a template and never looked at again.

As we mentioned earlier, the world of sales is very dynamic. But on the contrary, account planning is viewed as simply a static document. But why is this so? The reason is simple. The account plan is often seen as redundant information captured once, left unchanged and unused. As a result, account planning is considered a waste of valuable time because it's just a document that is a copy and paste of  information found in your CRM system,  or other system of record. Too often account plans are created and saved as files on a hard drive, or maybe even printed documents lying in a pile of papers somewhere. So, it's easy to see why to many sellers, it only makes sense that a static document would have no place in the Sales Operational Cadence.

Reason #3:  There is too much emphasis on the format of the account plan

Contrary to the reason above, there is too much focus on the account plan, specifically the format of the plan. Should it be a PowerPoint, an Excel file, a Word document, or a fancy online tool? They get bogged down in the best tool to use, or how many pages the plan should have instead of the strategic nature of the content of the plan. What does that lead to? They end up losing sight of what actually matters: the art and skill of account planning!

Reason #4: We fail to include the customer in the planning process!

Sales may seem like it's all about the numbers, but at the end of the day, it's really all about the customer. After all, without customers, there would be no sales! Yet, despite how crucial customers are to selling success, account planning is too often conducted without any involvement from the customer. Now isn't that surprising? Instead of engaging their customers in joint collaborative account planning, sellers conduct one-sided research, eventually diminishing the value of account planning altogether. Remember, there is no such thing as a one-man army, especially in sales.



Is Account Planning part of your operational cadence?  Talk to us today about how we can help you embed account planning into your sales operational cadence.