Carl Larson Sales Best Practices - Account Planning and Strategy As a sales leadership subject matter expert with deep, hands-on sales team management experience at small, medium and large high technology product and professional service organizations, I am responsible for exceeding annual corporate revenue objectives by growing year-over-year sales and profitability. To support sales revenue achievement, I am responsible for developing new business customers, growing existing customer revenues and introducing new product offerings to penetrate new markets. To profitably grow businesses, I am accountable for optimizing the cost of sales by segmenting the marketplace, hiring and developing the right sales personnel and skill sets and establishing consistent sales process that reduces the time to value for my customers and my company. These processes include effective sales prospecting, business-value qualification or disqualification, executive relationship building, proof of value, win-win contract negotiation and closing performance. I have experience building businesses that grew new business software license sales, built SaaS annual recurring revenues and achieved professional services success.

1. Knowledge is your
sales superpower!
Carl Larson
(312) 925-4232
larson.carl23@gmail.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlwlarson
https://www.twitter.com/carllarson23

3. What are the
benefits of
Account
Planning &
Strategy ?
As a disciplined, consultative sales leader, I have led
numerous high-performance sales organizations to achieve
consistent sales success over my career. Gaining account
knowledge by establishing trusted client relationships is the
#1 reason customers become emotionally attached to not
only your solution, but to the relationship.

4. What are the
benefits of
Account
Planning &
Strategy ?
I have learned that the strategic benefits to successful, win-win
account planning and the knowledge that it provides includes:
 Separating the sales team from its competition.
 Positively influencing and streamlining the sales process.
 Enabling the sales team to work effectively and efficiently.
 Perpetually testing and triangulating pertinent information.
 Focusing on understanding the customer’s real business issues.
 Delivering compelling solutions that have relevant differentiation.
 “Connecting the dots” for the customer.
 Earning “trusted advisor” account status.

5. Account
Planning &
Strategy
Best Practices
The #1 job of a sales organization is
to understand their customer’s and
prospect’s business. Unfortunately,
many sales organizations fall far
short and do not make the
necessary investment to lay the
foundation to gain knowledge to
optimally serve and support their
accounts.
Foundation Discovery
Opportunity
Identification
Account Planning & Strategy
Assess Discovery
Solution
Develop &
Present
Resolution
And
Close
Sales Opportunity Management
Segment Coverage Prospect
Review /
Refine
Territory Planning

6. Why Account
Planning?
GOAL
To gain pertinent account knowledge, a 1 to 2-year roadmap is
required to ensure the sales account team collaborates in a
consistent manner with each account and stays focused on the
customer’s business, relationship and success.
RESULT
Ensures the account team:
 Invests in a planned result.
 Creates a consistent experience for the customer.
 Identifies how the sales account team can affect the business.
 Develops executive relationships.
 Identifies future win-win opportunities.
Foundation Discovery
Opportunity
Identification
Account Planning & Strategy

7. Foundation
FOUNDATION FOR SUCCESS
Identify your relevant account sales team members.
Identify the account lead.
Identify the account planning facilitator.
Research and collect account information.
Analyze business requirements and challenges.
Assess industry and competition.
Conduct internal account strategy session.
Create an agenda and plan to communicate the
account plan with the account stakeholders.
Foundation Discovery
Opportunity
Identification
Account Planning & Strategy

8. Foundation
FOUNDATIONAL DISCOVERY STEPS
1. Initiate internal discovery.
2. Research and examine the facts.
3. Conduct client interviews.
4. Analyze and prioritize the results.Foundation Discovery
Opportunity
Identification
Account Planning & Strategy

9. Foundation
STEP ONE: INITIATE INTERNAL DISCOVERY
1. Choose the duration of preparatory meetings over the
course of a week (1 hour daily vs. 5 hours on one day).
2. Pick tools to manage the process.
a. Trello – Manage Tasks.
https://trello.com/en-US
b. Adobe Flash Player – Record Meetings.
https://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/
c. Google draw.io – Create Charts/Diagrams.
https://www.draw.io/
3. Select the effective communication protocol.
4. Establish the foundation for WHO owns WHAT by WHEN?
Foundation Discovery
Opportunity
Identification
Account Planning & Strategy

10. Foundation
STEP TWO: RESEARCH and EXAMINE the
ACCOUNT FACTS
1. Learn everything you can about your account, their
history, leadership, industry, product, differentiation,
strengths and weaknesses, market, competition,
financials.
2. For example, what can you learn about their main
competitors and in what ways are they
similar/different?
Foundation Discovery
Opportunity
Identification
Account Planning & Strategy

11. Foundation
STEP TWO: RESEARCH and EXAMINE the
ACCOUNT FACTS
3. Besides common sources of information (annual
reports => The Public Register http://www.prars.com/ ,
10-K, etc.) consider using the following:
 Online Keyword Search https://ahrefs.com/blog/free-keyword-research-tools/.
 Company Blog Comments.
 Competitor Websites.
 Google News https://news.google.com/?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en.
 Corporate News https://blog.feedspot.com/business_news_websites/.
 LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook.
 Reuters https://www.reuters.com/.
 Bloomberg https://www.bloomberg.com/research/company/overview/overview.asp.
 Corporate Information https://www.corporateinformation.com/.
Foundation Discovery
Opportunity
Identification
Account Planning & Strategy

12. Foundation
STEP THREE: CONDUCT CLIENT INTERVIEWS
1. Executives.
2. Line of business leaders.
3. End-users.
4. Customers.
5. Third-party consultants.
Foundation Discovery
Opportunity
Identification
Account Planning & Strategy

13. Foundation
STEP FOUR: ANALYZE and PRIORITIZE the
RESULTS
1. Document the organizational structure to denote
known stakeholders and authority (Appendix #1).
2. What are the accounts pain points?
3. Set the priorities for pain points using a 4-quadrant
decision matrix. It is built on two axes: ‘Urgent’ to
‘Not Urgent’ and ‘Important’ to ‘Not Important.
4. Suggest the solution for every discovered problem
or opportunity.
5. Describe in detail how the current solution is
working and, in contrast, describe how the future
product will be working after your contribution.
6. Create account strategy discovery diagram based
upon Steps One through Four (Appendix #2).
Foundation Discovery
Opportunity
Identification
Account Planning & Strategy

14. Discovery
DISCOVERY SESSIONS WITH ACCOUNT
Schedule and review account planning process and
business intent with the account.
Review and validate customer’s goals, KBRs,
strategies and tactics.
Conduct discovery on areas of opportunity.
Validate and prioritize opportunities.
Begin to map applicable business solutions to account.
Foundation Discovery
Opportunity
Identification
Account Planning & Strategy

15. Discovery
Process
DISCOVERY SESSIONS WITH ACCOUNT
Explore each priority subject area.
Examine the client’s current state business processes.
Learn the client’s expectations from the new approach.
Identify pertinent bottlenecks and constraints.
Describe high-level solutions to the expected or
existing problems.
Foundation Discovery
Opportunity
Identification
Account Planning & Strategy

16. Opportunity
Identification
OPPORTUNITY IDENTIFICATION
Assess and prioritize strategies and opportunities
with the account.
Review and validate account strategy solution
roadmap with the account.
Create a joint evaluation plan with account identifying
each project, actions, due date and owner and tie it to
the account strategy solution roadmap (Appendix #3).
Foundation Discovery
Opportunity
Identification
Account Planning & Strategy

17. Account Planning
Cycle of Success
Foundation
Discovery
Opportunity
Identification
Knowledge

18. Account
Planning &
Strategy
Benefits
In summary, the strategic benefits to successful, win-win account
planning include:
Account knowledge separates the sales team from competition.
Positively influences and streamlines the sales process.
Enables the sales team to work effectively and efficiently.
Perpetually tests and triangulates pertinent information.
Focuses on understanding customer real business issues.
Delivers compelling solutions that have relevant differentiation.
“Connects the dots” for the customer.
Earns “trusted advisor” account status.

19. Knowledge is your
sales superpower!
If you want improved sales and sales
velocity, your sales organization must slow
down to speed up. Making the investment to
jointly plan with each account is the
imperative. Please contact me to discuss for
15 minutes how I can help to instill this
discipline across your sales organization.
Carl Larson
(312) 925-4232
larson.carl23@gmail.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlwlarson
https://www.twitter.com/carllarson23

20. Appendix
The following slides provide examples
of important tools to support the
account planning and strategy process.

21. Organizational
Authority
Diagram
 An organizational authority diagram assists a sales team to
understand who are the key decision-makers, stakeholders
and influencers across an account.
 A strategic account plan requires a clear understanding of
the customer's internal structure, personnel and decision-
making, budgeting and buying processes.
 In today’s complex world of sales, it is critical that the sales
team can identify, connect and access the key
stakeholders and decision-makers that ultimately influence
and control the business initiatives, prioritization, strategic
relationships, budget and purchasing process.
 Besides reporting structures, it is critical to also understand
an organization’s politics and who influences whom
throughout the organization.
 Visualizing this information with an organizational authority
diagram is critical for a sales team to identify gaps in
relationships and build quality relationship development
plans to manage the inherent complexity in any
organization.

22. ORGANIZATIONALAUTHORITY DIAGRAM EXAMPLE

23. Account
Strategy
Discovery
Diagram
 By identifying and laying out the account’s goals, key
business requirements, resulting and tactical problems, the
sales team will more clearly understand the accounts most
pressing business drivers.
 An account strategy discovery diagram internally facilitates
the collaboration with the sales team and externally with your
customers to help them gain insight and knowledge.
 In so doing, the sales team can more aptly help them achieve
their business objectives by aligning pertinent solutions and
the value for the account. This enables the sale team to
focus on the initiatives that are most likely to receive funding
to support their sales efforts.

24. No system alerts
TP
Free up $125M
working capital
Expand
Into new markets
Training costs
$600k over plan
RP
Improve customer
sat by 15%
Providing poor
customer service
RP
Inadequate
security
TP
Requires 15
headcount
RP
Poor department
morale
RP
ACCOUNT STRATEGY DISCOVERY DIAGRAM EXAMPLE
No 360°
view of
customer info
TP
KBR
Frustrated
users=turnover
RP
Can’t provide
access to info
TP
Disparate
systems not
integrated
TP
No online
reporting
TP
No time/skills
to install new
system
TP
GOAL
KBR
Ed
Sue
Terry
Mike
Mike
Chris
Ed Ed
Ed
Pat
Sue
Ed
Terry
EdEd
KBR: Key Business Requirement
RP: Resulting Problem
TP: Tactical Problem

25. Joint
Evaluation
Plan
 The objective of the joint evaluation plan is to allow the
account and the sales team to maximize the return on
investment and time spent together.
 The intent is to have an agreed upon process whereby
both parties are managing to the right expectations as to
who does what by when.
 As the joint evaluation unfolds, together it will be reviewed
and adapted as appropriate.
 At each step of the process, both parties will jointly identify
if alignment still exists based upon the account’s
requirements and the proposed solution(s) to move forward
to the next step of the process or not.

26. JOINT EVALUTATION PLAN
The objective of this outline is to allow both parties to maximize the investment of the time invested together. The intent is to have an agreed upon process
whereby both parties are managing to the right expectations.
Activities and Responsibilities
Tasks Objective Who Date Status
Phase 1 (rename as appropriate)
Go/No Go Decision Customer Team & Sales Team
Phase 2 (rename as appropriate)
Go/No Go Decision Customer Team & Sales Team
Phase 3 (rename as appropriate)
Go/No Go Decision Customer Team & Sales Team
Reach Agreement & Close
Implementation
Special Notes: