11/29/2024-Oh geez…Q1 account planning?

Don’t let December be a total washout of parties and coasting; pay attention to your Q1 today by reviewing the numbers that matter. Start with your sales call volume.

Strategic account planning is mostly about numbers. Numbers guide your selling strategy…and, of course, strategy directs your actions.

For most MSD subscribers, today is Friday of a holiday week, and that means b u s i n e s s i s s l o w. (Unless you’re scrambling to hit your BHAG…or BiHWeG. Hope so.)

Either way, it’s a great day to work on your Q1 strategic account planners.

Examine the numbers today…start with the following:

1. Customer meetings/interactions: what’s your goal for Q1 ’25? Compare your Q1 ’25 goal against how many meetings you had in Q1 ’24. Break ’em out by new and existing customers.

2. What was your gross pipeline number in Q1 ’24 at this time last year? Cross-index this data against your meeting volume from last Q1 for added insight.

As you examine these and other numbers to help build your Q1 strategy, focus on the output numbers (those that measure effort and activity). Killer account strategy planning revolves around "managing your performance"…"not your results."

Numbers….big data….the cloud….yada yada yada. Business cliches and jargon are everywhere, and sometimes it gets a bit silly, but the fact is, facts matter.

Numbers are facts. And CRM data can be your friend or a tangled mess of what-the-heck-does-it-all-mean?

The number that you need to be constantly monitoring is how many customer interactions you are having. This is defined as a meeting when real business is discussed (not a ballgame); it is a pitch meeting, a "sales call," or a "proposal presentation." It’s an event when business is being conducted face to face. (In every other communication mode, you don’t possess comparable selling leverage, so you need to be strict about how you define "customer interactions.")

While other numbers like close-rate, pipeline size, opportunity size, and close rate cross-indexed against opportunity size – – while all those numbers are helpful, you must stringently monitor your sales call volume. Taking it one step further means dividing your list of prospects amongst these categories:
1. KDMs (Key Decision Makers),
2. Influencers, and,
3. Quiet Observers who can’t do crap for ya (yes, it’s a client profile).

If you can calculate how many interactions you have against each customer type, then your layered analysis, including opportunity size, win rate (closed-won), etc., means something that can help you strategically.

Don’t let December be a total washout of parties and coasting; pay attention to your Q1 today by reviewing the numbers that matter. Start with your sales call volume.

Wanna watch a clip featuring some cool strategic planning? (Yes, "cool" and "strategic planning" can go together in the same sentence.)

Follow Matt Damon in this clip from The Martian as he uses numbers to plan against personal starvation while stranded on Mars.

Your strategic account planning will never be life or death like what The Martian faced, but your selling efforts will be more productive after you dig into the numbers.