The Link Between Strategic Account Planning & Customer Satisfaction

In a recent strategic account planning quarterly poll, 36% of sales folks stated that "ensuring the best customer loyalty and satisfaction" was keeping them up at night.

A 5% increase in customer service loyalty can boost profits by as much as 25% to 85%. Research has shown that satisfied clients lead to greater profitability and growth.

Read more about some of the best strategic account planning programs, practices and make the link between industry leading business sales and service...

Placing the sales shoe on the other foot..the customer's

Millions of dollars will be spent this year on sales account planning training. Business owners and managers will provide training needs assessment, product training, skills training, process training, and any other kind of training they can think of. Then, they’ll spend money measuring the training on top of motivating their people by offering rewards and incentives of every conceivable kind.

But, all this may for not unless sales management can encourage the sales team to think less like a salesperson and more like a customer.

Search for the Right Strategic Account Planning Resource. Right Now.

Introducing a powerful new Search Tool to help you track down the right Strategic Account Planning Training & Best Practice Resource right now. Search this blog and the vast collection of corporate training communities and related best practice blogs with a single click.

Step 1 - Locate the Search Tool to the right of this post

Step 2 - Type your keyword search phrase. eg. Performance Culture

Step 3 - Click Search

Step 4 - Review the results, sorted by:

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See illustration below. Enjoy.

Account Planning Research Study Results

Over the course of the past 12 months, we conducted an online research study where visitors to our website were anonymously surveyed across an area of topics related driving sales performance through investments in human capital. In particular, one such survey asked respondents the following question:

What Strategic Account Planning Issues Are Keeping You Awake at Night?

From a list of predefined responses, here are the results for your viewing pleasure.

1. Getting new clients--43%
2. Expanding current clients--22%
3. Increasing margins--13%
4. Selling bigger solutions-19%
5. Other--3%

How would you answer the above question regarding strategic account planning, sales negotiation, or sales training best practices in general?

Link Between Strategic Account Planning and Referral Selling

Consider for a moment the following challenges, are you facing any of these within your strategic account planning efforts?

1. Are you collaborating deep and wide across current accounts, and professional networks to thrive or open the right doors at key strategic accounts?

2. Have you ever been surprised by the loss of a key account or sales territory?

3. Are your key strategic accounts reaching their full potential?

Now consider these 3 findings:

1. Fewer than 30% of all salespeople ask for referrals.

2. A high-quality referred prospect is 40x more likely to buy vs. cold prospect.

3. Salespeople who actively seek referrals earn 4-5x more vs. those who don't.

Is it possible referral selling has a logical among your diverse set of strategic account planning techniques for existing or target accounts?