Is Your Account Management Even Close to Its Full Potential?

Many industrial companies tolerate haphazard account planning and management—sometimes not much more than tweaking last year’s plan to gain a few percentage points of revenue. Possible new revenue streams such as services and parts often get short shrift. Realizing the full potential of each account requires far more rigorous management, starting with a bottom-up map of decision makers, influencers and promoters at each account; a target share of wallet; and customized sales plays. One major components firm identified an additional 25% in aftermarket sales by standardizing plans for each account team and tracking the plans systematically. Importantly, the company reinforced the shift in behavior by tying salesforce compensation to execution of the more rigorous plans.