Account planning template

Use this template to better understand your client’s business by learning about their customers.

Focusing the discovery phase of your analysis on your client’s “end customers” (i.e., your customer’s customers) opens the conversation to further detail about your client’s challenges and goals.

These findings allow you to help your clients make an impact to overcome their customer’s obstacles and determine necessary solutions.

The account planning template helps you:

• Understand your client’s customers better
• Anticipate your client’s needs
• Collaboratively discover innovative solutions based on your findings

How to use the account planning template

To use Mural’s account planning template, follow the steps outlined below with your team.

1. Map end customers

Begin by brainstorming as many examples of your client’s customers as possible. Add a sticky note for each idea Then, work backward by mapping those end customers to the particular products or services that they engage with through your client. Use arrows and connectors to show the relationships.

2. Identify where to start

Next, using the prioritization matrix, rank both the end customer groups and the products or services according to impact on your clients.

3. Create an action plan

Once you’ve ranked the end customer groups and the tasks or services associated with each of them, it’s time to create an action plan. Use the three columns in Section 3 to build a plan matching each customer group to a Discovery Tool (listed below Section 3) and a tentative date. This will help you start to build a timeline.

The Discovery Tools included are:

• Show me: Ask your customer to show you how they are accomplishing something — this can often lead to more impactful user insights
• Be the (end) customer: Experience your client’s business as though you are their customer
• Deep dive conversation: Make sure that your next meeting with your clients or their end customers includes open-ended questions, and encourage them to elaborate on any specific details

Tips for running an account planning template exercise

To get the most out of the Mural account planning template, built by Somersault Innovation, you should:

• Ensure that you bring together a diverse array of stakeholders from your team and your client so you avoid any blind spots in the end-customer experience
• Use color coding or tags for sticky notes to help identify themes or groups when gathering feedback — this can help facilitate problem-solving later on
• Keep your mural up to date as the conversations continue and your understanding of the end customer evolves over time

Take Your Virtual Superpowers to the Next Level with Digital Sales Templates (Somersault Innovation)