Real Account Planning

Chess is often regarded as one of the most complex of games, but is child's play when compared to real Account Management and real Account Planning. This handbook explains how it is a far more complex game and will give you the tools, techniques and tips to significantly improve your performance and results in this critical area. This book is not for everyone. You will only appreciate it if: -You are engaged in complex Business-to-Business (B2B) sales -You face tough competition in your market -You want to generate more orders, revenues or margin for less effort and with lower risk, increasing your personal performance, success and take home pay -You are interested in real life tools and techniques used by the best Account Managers rather than academic theory -You want an approach which is based in the realities of today's New Norm of Selling, rather than 80's (or older) selling methods -You want to be more in control of your business, rather than your business controlling you.

The Practical Pocket Guide to Account Planning provides a straightforward, no nonsense approach to understanding what Account Planners do on a daily basis and how they do it. Filled with real world examples, amusing anecdotes, and useful techniques for getting to better insights, The Practical Pocket Guide provides a clear path for how Account Planners can collaborate with Creatives to produce great work that is insightful, engaging, and culturally infectious. In this engaging 2-hour read, you'll learn: the difference between most Account Planning job descriptions and day-to-day realities, critical planning skills, including: concept testing, copy testing, discussion guides, positioning, and the basics of good research, techniques for writing better briefs and ideas for how to lead more engaging briefings, and how to be an ally to Creatives so that together you can sell big, culturally infectious ideas to Clients. Whether you're a Client, a Creative, an Account Manager, or an aspiring Account Planner, this book will help you understand how Planners think and what great Planning can really do.

Account planning is a discipline that combines aspects of four traditionally separate areas of advertising and marketing. This text aims to demonstrate how to use account planning to win clients and produce better, more effective advertising. It also shows the role account planning played in producing celebrated advertising campaigns.

Sales growth starts with planning Sales accounts are harder than ever to win, let alone keep. Globalization, cloud computing, and crowdsourcing create a marketplace where any account can be lured away by a hungry startup. And the face-time advantage? Forget it. Today's high-quality sale will likely involve six or more decision makers. That's why it's time to get strategic about how sales teams frame their approach. In Essential Account Planning, sales enablement expert Mark Donnolo blends his years of experience with expert interviews and stories to show you how planning can reliably drive revenue. His five-point framework will prepare you to address the arguments you're certain to hear against account planning, such as lack of commitment, ownership, and time. Each sales organization is unique, but most have similar challenges and succeed using common principles. And chances are, sales reps in your company already perform many of these account planning tasks, albeit on the fly or independent of others. This book's ready-to-use tools and templates will help you get everyone on the same page to deliver immediate results. In this book, you'll learn how to: Develop a consistent account plan structure. Create the habits and culture of an ongoing planning process. Navigate the politics that impede information sharing. Many salespeople believe that more selling creates more sales, but the salespeople who invest in account planning become the true sales leaders. Use Essential Account Planning to bring stability to your sales organization and start seeing the rewards of planning today!

Concise yet comprehensive, this practical guide covers the critical role of the account planner in advertising. The new edition of Advertising Account Planning features several new topics as well as deeper content in existing areas based on feedback from students, instructors and practitioners.

Concise yet comprehensive, this practical, campaign-oriented guide follows the logical progression

This practical and comprehensive text effectively provides advertising account planning principles within an integrated marketing communications framework. With a world-renowned textbook author team, this 4th edition has been fully updated to include: Fresh professional examples and mini-case studies within each chapter with a more global outlook than previous editions, bringing the theoretical concepts to life A new chapter on International Advertising addressing the challenges of managing a global campaign Pedagogical features and visual aids to support student learning and comprehension, including reflective questions and mini-cases drawn from current industry examples New and expanded content covering digital marketing and technologies; the customer journey; ethics and corporate social responsibility; global positioning of the brand; paid, earned and owned media; influencer marketing, and campaign measurement and analytics. Providing a full understanding of the advertising account planning process, this textbook is perfect for both the industry and classroom. The textbook will equip students of Marketing Communications, Advertising Management and Brand Management with the knowledge and skills they need to plan and manage a strategic communications campaign, including prominent advertising student competitions such as American Advertising Federation ( AAF) National Student Advertising Competition ( NSAC) or the Collegiate EFFIES. Online resources include PowerPoint slides and a test bank.

"This book is crammed with distilled, practical wisdom for key account managers and their directors. Organizations claiming to practise key account management should equip everyone involved with a copy, so they really understand what they are supposed to be doing. Anything less is just old-fashioned selling." Developing successful business-to-business relationships with more customers in highly competitive markets requires processes and skills that go beyond traditional selling activity. The very best state-of-the-art strategies are set out clearly in this book by intentionally known authors who have worked at the highest levels with more key and strategic account managers worldwide than probably any other leading advisors. Based on the hugely influential KEY CUSTOMERS it looks at: Why has account management become so critical to commercial success? What are the key challenges and how do successful companies respond? What part does key account management play in strategic planning? How do companies build profitable relationships with their customers? How does key account management actually work? What does a successful key account manager look like and what skills does he/she need? How should key account managers be evaluated and rewarded? How do companies achieve key account management? By addressing these key questions Woodburn and McDonald provide tools and processes for success honed by tough consultancy projects with the boards of some of the world's leading companies. The book stresses the elements that really matter - from developing a customer categorization system that really works and analyzing the needs of key accounts; to understanding the new skills required by key account managers and ensuring that key account plans are implemented. The 'real world' approach is backed by tested principles and the latest research from the renowned Cranfield School of Management. Key Account Management comes from authors who have taught leading companies how to approach their most powerful and demanding customers and still make money. It is essential reading for all senior management with strategic responsibility, for key or strategic account directors, and for marketing and sales executives. The clear and authoritative approach also makes it an outstanding text for the serious MBA and executive student as well as business-to-business company directors and key account managers.