An account plan your team can act on.

Decide whether the plan concerns a group, a legal entity, a site or a team. Record the relationship between them. A contract with head office does not necessarily describe how a branch buys, and a successful local relationship does not establish access to every other site.

Keep the account plan distinct from the ideal customer profile. The profile helps decide which companies fit. This plan concerns one company or buying unit: its history, current work, people and next decision. For an existing customer, begin with what your team has delivered and what the customer has actually said.

Choose an account with a real reason for review: a relevant change, an open opportunity, a service issue to resolve or a possible unserved area. Record why it deserves attention now, rather than filling a template for every account on the list.

Organise the plan under four headings: confirmed facts, open questions, possible opportunities and agreed actions. The worked example below splits them into nine fields. Put source references and dates beside material facts. Customer statements, order history and an internal interpretation should remain distinguishable.

A gap in purchasing can start a question, but it does not establish a need. Check whether another site buys centrally, a contract covers the category or your business can meet the specification. The customer whitespace guide shows how to prepare those questions from order history.

Keep unresolved problems visible. A delivery issue may take priority over a possible expansion in the next conversation. Name the person responsible for resolving it; completing that service work does not itself grant permission to pitch another product.

Identify the people involved in the specific question: the person using the product, the technical reviewer, procurement, finance or a site manager. Record the role you know they play and the evidence for it. Leave an unknown role open rather than assuming the most senior contact controls the purchase. The deal stakeholder map develops those roles around one specific decision.

Note the relationship owner on your side and how another colleague should become involved. More contacts are useful only when they help the team understand or support the decision. A list of names with no roles or history makes handover harder.

Separate the objective from its tasks. Salesforce’s account-planning example connects account objectives to action plans and named work. You can use that distinction in a document or your existing system; adopting its product is not a prerequisite.

Write the action, owner, evidence needed and date to review it. Use a customer-agreed date where one exists; distinguish it from an internal target. “Grow the account” is an objective. “Confirm whether the East site buys independently” is an action that can resolve a question.

Give the plan to a colleague who was not in the last conversation. Ask them to identify the current relationship, the open question and the next justified action. If they cannot, add the missing context before adding more targets or activities.

After the action, record the answer and what it changes. Ruling out an opportunity can prevent repeated research and help the team focus on work the account needs.

Your team may want to increase coverage, win a new category or improve the relationship. Record that as an internal objective. A customer-agreed action needs separate evidence: who agreed to do what and when. A plan written in your CRM is not an agreement from the buyer.

For the East-site example, “understand the supply requirements” is a useful internal objective. “Procurement will introduce the East-site lead next week” can become an agreed action only after the customer confirms it. Until then, the action is to ask about the route and timing.

Keep effort and commercial progress separate too. Completing research can improve the account owner’s preparation without producing an opportunity. Record which question it answered and what the answer permits next, including a decision to stop. That makes the plan useful even when the right conclusion is that no expansion work is needed.

Revisit the plan after a material conversation, ownership change, service issue or new project. Keep the previous decision and its reason, so a new owner can understand the history. Close obsolete tasks instead of allowing them to compete with current work. The relationship-change guide preserves the previous role and context when responsibilities or employers change. The order-decline review helps investigate a changed buying pattern before you add a new sales task.

Judge progress using the evidence available: a question resolved, a relevant introduction, an accepted next step or an opportunity with a defined need. Keep these separate from won revenue. The monthly review guide helps connect account work to operating decisions.

A focused account research assignment can establish the context for one account or a defined group. Plan is available independently where research is the task. A shared worksheet or recurring preparation workflow can be scoped separately. If the assignment is to reach and engage those accounts, Build brings the agreed research and campaign operation together. Agree what we investigate, what your team receives and who takes the next step. Your account team keeps responsibility for its customer relationships and sales conversations.