Writing Objectives in Account Plans

Objectives are the most critical element of your Account Plan. That’s because they represent the business outcomes you are aiming to accomplish.

Achieving the plan’s goals means successfully executing these objectives.

Consider these points when writing Account Plan objectives:

• Focus on the outcome rather than how you will achieve it. For example, securing a contract renewal is an objective, but holding a monthly or quarterly review meeting with the customer isn’t.
• Avoid opportunity-specific objectives. Each deal has its own sales plan. However, objectives are higher-level. If you achieve your Account Plan objectives, more opportunities will naturally flow.
• Be precise in the definition. Improving relationships with the C-suite needs to be much more specific.
• Two heads are better than one. Have a colleague peer-review your objectives and do the same in return for them. It’s surprising what someone else will spot.
• Align objectives with white space. White space analysis is invaluable if you aim to increase cross-selling and up-selling. Focus your objectives on the gaps and opportunities it reveals.
• The objective owner can be different from the Account Plan owner. The Account Plan owner is responsible for overall delivery but often executes only some objectives herself.
• Documenting lessons learned makes us all better. Our objective page layout includes space for adding lessons learned. Time and again, we see the most successful companies fully using this feature.