Top Line Tips
TOP Line Accounts™ will transform your business – it’s that simple. Top Line Accounts are your biggest and best prospects and/or customers. They are typically valued at a minimum of 5x your average contract size. They are or will become your banner accounts. You will reference them frequently to attract more customers like them. The only question is, how to you land them?
Where do you start? Well, the long version is to invest in solid methodologies, tools, training and coaching. However, for our purposes today, I’m going to serve up the ‘short stack’ path to success. What can you do today to get started? Follow these easy steps and you’ll be amazed how much progress you can make.
1. Define what a Top Line Account is for your business. For example, what are your criteria?
1. Clearly outline who the ideal customer is for a Top Line Account. Describe the characteristics of a business who could become one of your Top Line Accounts.
2. Make a scorecard or assessment to measure your opportunities against your defined criteria.
2. Start your research process to build a list of prospects that meet your ideal client profile.
3. Set a clear and measurable goal. For example, each sales person will identify and begin strategic account planning for at least one TopLine Account this year.
4. Think through your sales process. The sales process for Top Line Accounts will be an enhanced version of your regular sales process. There will certainly be more account team planning feathered into your existing steps.
5. Identify the account based selling team and all the other resources that can add value to the process.
6. Gather the team to start account specific strategy planning.
1. Account based strategy work will be based on your research and include an account landscape, relationship planning including executive engagement plans, opportunity planning and competitive assessments to start.
7. Begin, re-group, add more strategy to your account roadmap and continue down the path to success.
Really, it’s that simple. Yes, and that complex too. The key is strong account leadership. If you start now, you’ll position yourself and your company to enjoy the numerous benefits associated with landing Top Line Accounts.
Executive Selling Done Right:
Jump start your executive selling efforts by giving your sellers the book that is guaranteed to enhance their sales performance. The TOP Seller Advantage: Powerful Strategies to Build Long-Term Executive Relationships includes proven strategies to ensure sellers develop long lasting executive access. The C-suite executive perspectives at the end of each chapter reveal exactly how senior leaders view sales encounters and what would cause them to keep the door open for follow up meetings.
Pipeliner CRM empowers salespeople and sales management to focus in on target accounts. Get your free trial of Pipeliner CRM now.
Comments