KEY ACCOUNT PLAN
Key account planning mind map to help acquire, grow and retain clients.
1. Question to Ask
1.1. Targets
1.1.1. What results is your POC expected to deliver this year?
1.1.2. What evidence do they need? How do they want to track the performance of your category?
1.1.3. What does success look like?
1.2. What does your POC do?
1.2.1. What problems do they need to be solved?
1.2.2. What else does your POC do? Do they have responsibilities beyond managing your category?
1.2.3. What are the big projects your POC is working on?
1.2.4. What do they love about their job?
1.2.5. What do they wish they had more time to do?
1.2.6. What’s keeping them up at night?
1.2.7. Has your POC’s job changed?
1.2.8. What do they care about?
1.2.9. What type of communication works best for them? Email, phone, face to face? Do they have any ideas on how to improve it?
1.3. Supplier Management
1.3.1. What kind of administration do they have to do? Reports? Presentations? Communications?
1.3.2. On a scale of 1 to 10, rate how important is the category: is it on the radar, or off the grid?
1.3.3. What are the consequences for your POC in doing nothing in your category?
1.3.4. Have they got more time or less to focus on your category?
1.3.5. What do they think makes a successful client-supplier relationship?
1.3.6. How do they manage their clients?
1.3.7. What is their process for issue resolution and management for your category?
1.3.8. Has their budget for your category changed this year and how did they forecast it?
1.4. BONUS: Research
1.4.1. Have you set up your social media feeds: Google news alerts, followed them on LinkedIn and Twitter?
1.4.2. Does your company look after clients in the same industry? If so, connect with the account managers responsible for those customers and share knowledge.
1.5. Industry
1.5.1. Any macroeconomic forces are at work? Industry challenges that might impact how they use your products or services
1.5.2. What does your client do?
1.5.3. Who are their competitors?
1.5.4. What makes them unique in the market?
1.6. Your solution
1.6.1. What do they think about your products and services?
1.6.2. Why did you win their business?
1.6.3. What needs did you address and are you still meeting them?
1.6.4. Are those needs the same or have they changed?
1.6.5. What would they like training on?
1.6.6. What issues come up regularly?
1.6.7. Is there anything they wished you offered, but don’t?
1.6.8. What do they think you could improve upon?
1.6.9. What is the single most important benefit they get from you, above all else?
1.6.10. If they need something from your business, do they know where to go?
1.7. The Organisation
1.7.1. What is their company culture?
1.7.2. What is the decision-making process for your point of contact’s (POC) department?
1.7.3. Who are the most challenging people in their organisation and what impact do they have?
1.7.4. What are the challenges in your clients’ business right now?
1.7.5. Have you identified all the decision makers and influencers? Who else should you be talking to?
1.7.6. Who does your client think we need to have a relationship with?
1.7.7. Could they introduce you to their teams to learn about their account management approach?
2. SWOT
2.1. Reputation
2.2. Trends
2.3. 4Ps
2.3.1. Price
2.3.2. Product
2.3.3. Place
2.3.4. Promotion
2.4. Internal Resources
2.5. External Forces
2.6. VUCA
2.6.1. Volatile
2.6.2. Uncertain
2.6.3. Complex
2.6.4. Ambigious