Account Planning Tool

 Martec’s retail account planning tool is available within the Retail and Consumer Goods Wiki and EPSS with all templates and tools downloadable as needed. It guides a sales team through a solution selling approach to account research and analysis, to identify potential business opportunities in an account, using templates and job aids specific to the retail industry. The tool also works well for consumer goods companies.

If you are already a WIKI/EPSS subscriber, you will have access to the entire WIKI and so can easily locate this content here.

The WIKI/EPSS subscription is included free of charge if you buy the Performance Enhancer version of any class, alternately you can purchase it seperately using the link below.

Purchase your access to the Retail and Consumer Goods Wiki and EPSS here

More Details of the Tool

This tool uses a methodology to help identify a series of “suspect opportunities” in an account based on a structured desk research and analysis process, using associated Martec tools supplied as part of the Account Planning Tool. These possible opportunities are identified from:

  • Issues that were identified in the desk research
  • Issues that become apparent after one or more store visits guided by the Martec Store Visit Assessment Tool
  • Possible issues identified in the Performance Gaps Analysis process using metrics computed in the KPIs analysis tool, and then compared to competitors and Martec supplied industry benchmarks
  • Reviewing the company business goals and critical success factors, aided by the Martec Solution Chains analysis tool
  • Reviewing the SWOT analysis aided by the Solution Chains Analysis Tool.

Having identified a series of suspect opportunities, the account planning tool then helps map out a process for contacting the company to qualify the opportunities and determine which ones are worth investing time in. This stage includes example scripts for initial contact letters, emails or telephone calls to help get appointments with the right executives.

Then when initial discovery meetings are arranged, the tool provides an initial list of discovery questions based on the executives responsibilities and the suspect opportunities to be probed. As answers are achieved, they can be compared with our interpretation tool to help firm up the real opportunities.

The last part of the tool helps develop the sales plan to follow through on the discovery meetings to close business.

Thorough attention to the desk research phase will increase the results obtained with the tool.

It can be used in conjunction with any sales methodology and regularly helps identify insights the target account was not aware of.