Account Planning Tools: Strategies & Solutions for Growth

Account planning is sales 101. Anyone who’s spent their time in the sales trenches knows the importance of understanding clients’ needs and goals to plan for the future. But too many sales teams are frozen in time, using outdated tools and processes that are putting them at a disadvantage. Today’s digital account planning tools can make the account planning process easier, faster, and more insightful.

Whether you’re trying to break into a new market or develop stronger relationships with current accounts, the best account planning tools can improve the planning process and streamline communication to help you serve clients better and bring in more revenue. And you don’t have to be a tech expert to use them. 

What are account planning tools?

A long, long time ago, sales account planning was mostly done in presentation software and spreadsheets. Did I say a long, long time ago? My mistake, I meant: today. Many sales teams are still doing their account planning using redundant methods that need a lot of manual updating and management. And that’s to their disadvantage, because there are many specialized tools out there designed explicitly with account planning in mind.

Today, digital account planning platforms can help sales and marketing teams organize and track their account management strategies. These tools provide valuable insights into customer data, market trends, and sales team performance, enabling a more structured approach to nurturing and growing client relationships. Research shows that sales teams can spend up to 65% of their time on non-revenue generating activities, so the more tools you have to help your team focus and work more efficiently, the better.

Account planning tools can help your team build cohesive strategies to increase revenue, retain more customers, and foster cross-functional collaboration. Through features like data visualization, CRM integration, and customizable dashboards, account planning tools ensure that teams are working from a single source of truth and are aligned on key growth objectives.

The best way to learn about account planning tools is to try them out — our Account planning template is a great place to start.

Examples of account planning tools

The best account planning tools make it easy for sales teams to keep track of customer information, sales data, projections, and more. Some of the most popular include:

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When it comes to which tools you choose, there is no right answer. Different teams have different needs and ways of working, and you should choose the solution that makes the most sense for your company. Most teams use a combination of different tools; any account planning tool worth its salt will integrate with the rest of your tech stack, so you’re free to find the solution that works for you.

Read about more strategic planning tools and methods here.

Benefits of account planning tools for strategic growth

“But I don’t want to learn a new system!” you say. “I’ve been doing my account planning exactly the same way since 2003; why would I change now?” I’ll tell you why: because no matter how adept you’ve become at your personal system, there’s always a better way to skin a cat. And today’s account planning tools can not only organize your accounts and help you plan for the future, they can make your job easier, lead you to invaluable insights, and help your company grow exponentially. Core benefits include: 

Increased revenue generation through focused planning

By clearly defining account objectives and growth targets, account planning tools help align sales strategies with revenue goals, so businesses can identify the most promising opportunities and strategically allocate resources where they will make the most impact.

Improved customer retention and loyalty

Account planning tools offer valuable insights into customer behavior, preferences, and pain points. Sales and customer success teams can use this data to personalize engagements, foster deeper relationships, and improve overall customer satisfaction — leading to greater retention and loyalty.

It’s much easier to sell to an existing customer than to a new prospect — and much cheaper. Studies show it costs 5X less to retain a customer than to land a new prospect.

Enhanced team collaboration and alignment on growth goals

Account planning tools give teams shared access to account data and progress updates, so cross-functional teams are all working from the same source of information. Marketing, sales, and customer success can therefore collaborate more easily and stay aligned on growth objectives, while tracking customer success in real time.

Better resource allocation for strategic initiatives

When your team is undertaking any kind of focused initiative, whether it’s targeting a new prospect or expanding into a new vertical, proper allocation of resources can mean the difference between success and failure. Account planning tools enable businesses to assess account potential, prioritize key accounts, and allocate resources effectively, ensuring that the right people are focused on the right goals (with the right budget supporting them).

How to use account planning tools for sales strategy

Sales teams live and die by strategy. But without hard data, your sales strategy is just wishful thinking. By integrating account planning tools into your strategy, you can automatically connect actual data into your plans, so you can define, understand, and adjust sales goals based on real information. Account planning tools can help you: 

Define clear account objectives and growth targets

Using account planning tools, sales teams can break down growth goals into actionable objectives. For instance, teams can set targets based on revenue, customer engagement, or product adoption. This enables teams to create specific, measurable, and time-bound goals for each account, leading to better alignment and results.

Identify key stakeholders and their influence

Account planning tools can help you track your key contacts and get insights into the roles they play at their company, giving you a fuller picture of your customers and prospects. This helps sales teams craft more personalized, strategic approaches to engagement.

Develop targeted sales and engagement plans

Data from account planning tools can help sales teams develop highly targeted plans to engage individual accounts based on their needs, behavior, and potential for growth. For example, you can identify opportunities for upselling, cross-selling, or offering tailored solutions to address specific customer pain points.

Use data for strategic sales decisions

Account planning tools provide real-time data on customer activity, pipeline status, and overall account performance. Sales teams can leverage this data to adjust their strategies, identify potential risks, and make informed decisions that align with overall sales goals.

The MEDDIC framework is a popular methodology for driving revenue. Our Sales account planning template walks you through the steps of implementing a MEDDIC framework for your team.

Best practices for driving strategic growth with account planning tools

The goal of account planning is growth — you’re probably not spending a lot of time planning to lose or shrink accounts, unless you’re secretly trying to sabotage your company. Simply adopting an account planning solution isn’t going to automatically lead to growth, however; that’s where some best practices can help you get ahead.

• Establish a consistent account planning process. Make sure you have a cadence established for consistently tracking and managing key accounts, with roles clearly defined and regular check-ins to make sure all the stakeholders are in the loop. Map out the sales journey from initial contact to long-term relationship management in a visual collaboration platform like Mural so teams know where they are in the pipeline and what needs to happen next.
• Define SMART goals. Setting SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals ensures that teams remain focused on clear and actionable outcomes. Account planning tools can help break down these goals into bite-sized, measurable targets that align with broader business strategy.
• Foster collaboration and communication across teams. Use your account planning tools to collaborate in real time, sharing insights and strategies, and discussing tactical approaches to achieving account objectives. This ensures that sales, marketing, and customer success teams are always in sync and working toward common goals.
• Continuously iterate and refine strategies. First thought isn’t always the best thought when it comes to account planning. It’s important to keep a close eye on your planning strategies and evolve them based on feedback and results. Account planning tools allow teams to track key metrics and outcomes, enabling continuous refinement of sales strategies and ensuring that businesses stay responsive to changing customer needs.

Plan for success with Mural

Effective account planning is a critical element in driving growth, improving customer relationships, and enhancing team collaboration. With the right account planning tools, sales teams can align on key objectives, make data-driven decisions, and ensure that their strategies are always in sync with business goals.

The beauty of using Mural for account planning — if we may say so ourselves — is that it can be used both internally and externally. Mural gives you both a central hub where you can collect all your critical information for internal purposes and a tool for creating external-facing presentations and pitches. So you can develop your strategy, track your sales data, and build out a client-facing presentation, all in the same platform. Mural templates give you the structure and methods to create customer journeys, stakeholder maps, and comprehensive sales plans that help keep your teams on track. And our facilitation tools can help you run efficient and engaging cross-functional meetings that lead to deeper insights.

Remember, strategic growth requires more than just tracking metrics; it’s about making smarter decisions, refining your approach continually, and using the best tools available to achieve success. With the right tools and strategies, your teams will be poised to navigate the sales landscape and come out on top.

Want to try Mural out for yourself? Chat with our sales team and schedule a demo today.

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