Today I'd like to continue our ongoing conversation for sales leaders on account planning, specifically, on the five common errors found in many account plans – mistakes that literally bring your team's deals crashing down.1)    Focusing on what's missing vs. what we have. Sales consultants often claim they can't develop account plans because they don't have enough information. The best advice a sales leader can give them: F […]

In my last three posts we covered the eight major elements of a good account plan. Today I’d like to talk some optional elements – or tools, if you will. Value Creation Analysis. We use this to provide a more global view of the account by identifying industry and business trends, financials, initiatives and measures. It is also a great area to list the key issues facing the client, for example, problems our solution might address and/or results for which our sol […]

This is the third in a series of posts on account planning -- by the end of which, you should be in a position to decide if your approach to account planning can be enhanced by our thinking, or not.Last week we went through the first four of eight key elements of a good account plan. Today we'll cover the last four. An account plan, in our view here at Ninety Five 5, is an essential tool we (and our clients) use to help us protect and grow key accounts. (See last week […]

This is the second in a series of posts on account planning -- by the end of which, you should be in a position to decide if your approach to key account planning can be enhanced by our thinking, or not.In my last post we talked about the "big ideas" around using an Account Plan. At Ninety Five 5 that refers to the tool we use to help us protect and grow key accounts. Today I'll cover some of the first four key elements of a good account plan from the list below […]

Account planning is an integral part of our Sales Success System here at Ninety Five 5, and after reading this series over the next few weeks you should be in a position to decide if our approach to key account planning would be a worthwhile investment of your team's time – or not.First, though: Why is account planning important? Why bother using account plan tools on planning your account activities? Simple: To protect and grow key accounts.While most companies operatin […]

Recently, as a result of working with some sales leaders on how to coach their teams when using Call Plans, I've noticed some tend to get hung-up on certain areas. By the end of this post you should be more effective when coaching to such tools.Tip 1: Keep it simple.When coaching your team on any sales tool, encourage simplicity. Consultants have a tendency to over-think the meaning of the various elements of the tool. For example, our Call Plan (also known as a Meeting Plan) asks […]

I've been speaking with sales leaders lately about adoption of sales methodologies – specifically, how to "sell" them to their own sales teams. One thing that became apparent to me following these conversations was that getting buy-in for a new sales methodology is very similar to selling a solution to a client.Anyone familiar with our own sales methodology here at Ninety Five 5 knows that we're big proponents of understanding where the customer is coming […]

As many of you know, we're big believers in "call plans" here at Ninety Five 5. The idea of a call plan is to help your team prepare for and execute an effective meeting or phone conversation.  We design them around client meetings, but call plans can be used in any number of meetings – internal, employee meetings, for instance. Today I'd like to discuss two important elements of a call plan: the "End in Mind" and "Key Beliefs." […]

Continuing our theme of the "culture of coaching," I would be remiss if I didn't address a more personal element for us sales leaders. Yes, you guessed it: In order to lead a culture of change we must be prepared for, open to, and willing to act upon: feedback.If you have been following any of our blogs you more than likely know that at Ninety Five 5 believe in the concept of deliberate practice. Deliberate Practice is purposeful, concentrated effort on a specific skill, […]

Not too long ago I had a coaching session with a sales leader from a European country. One part of the conversation centered around how different cultures may be better than others when it comes to providing and receiving coaching. He hypothesized his culture was one that was less open to the concept. This may or may not be the case but in my experience, I cannot make any such cultural claims one way or another. For me, it can vary from leader to leader and salesperson to salesperson. […]