Try, Learn, Improve

Some things cannot be predicted or estimated. An account's response to a particular approach is one of these things.

The best you can do is to try the approach, track its results, learn from what happens, and adjust the approach accordingly. You may have to abandon the initial approach and try something entirely different.

The experiment-and-learn cycle is extremely powerful if applied consistently. But few do it.

Best practices automatically flow from this simple approach. You keep trying out new approaches and refining ones that seem to have merit. You identify those that do not work as hoped and substitute ones that are proven to work.

You cannot do this effectively if you simply try something, then try something else a while later. You have to have a clear approach, track its results, figure out why it did whatever it did, and build on that knowledge. It is this closing the loop that provides the major benefits.

Improvement Through Tracking

You will normally not see the impact of an account strategy for some period of time. Your account plan should therefore include some milestones or indicators that measure progress toward account growth. Each account will probably have a somewhat different set of these. For example, an initial order can be an important milestone.

Then, you have to track progress on a regular basis. If your goal is to grow an account by 25% within a year, you should be able to see a sales trend that heads toward this level after a few months.

If you do not see growth that looks capable of hitting your target, then you may want to adjust your approach as you proceed.

Take Small Steps

None of this is rocket science and none requires enterprise-wide changes. Account plans are local and can be implemented in small steps, account by account.

These steps can be done by individuals and by small, local sales groups. You should try to exhaust the no-cost and low-cost approaches before moving into ones that involve serious expenditures and major changes.

 

Fire, Fire, Fire

Sales people tend to be action-oriented. They just go out and do something that appears to make sense.

Planning is a chore and often of limited value. Why? Because the the planning is not implemented in a closed, learning loop.

Simply doing a bunch of new things, without both adequate planning and essential tracking and learning mechanics built in, is unlikely to succeed.

Before you act, you need a clear game plan and a picture of what the plan is supposed to achieve. Tracking results against plan, and making adjustments, is part of the action process.

Many salespeople resist a process of this kind. Their mentality is "fire, fire" fire". If they do take aim, it is likely to be reactive or gut-driven. The best salespeople make this approach succeed but the majority of others cannot.