How do you organize and track your account activities?

I've found the below useful to me at all times to organize and track my account activities: -> Following a schedule / routine -> Maintaining hygienic CRM -> Setting up calendars accordingly -> Consistency in all the above will get you what you're working for.

Another tip from me: It's really important to integrate different tools and platforms. When you seamlessly integrate your CRM systems, calendars, and project management tools, you can optimize your workflows and gain a holistic view of your customer relationships. Also, make sure to allocate regular time for training and further education to stay up to date with the latest technology and best practices. This will help you expand your skills and increase your efficiency.

The following activities have helped tremendously in my experience: 1. First of all maintaining a up to date Stakeholder Mapping of the accounts. This helps in reaching out to the right person. A simple excel sheet with all details of the stakeholders also works. 2. Utilization of CRM tool to the fullest: All the meetings, updates by the client, emails, interactions should be diligently noted in the CRM tool. All the reminders and calendars can be setup through the same. 3. Lastly, having a vision map: A 30-60-90 day account vision map for all the activities is important for planning and reviewing the planned vs achieved for each account.

Garbage in, garbage out. What I found works for me on the mix of optimizing CRM tools to get the best outcome is: discipline + quality of the information + regular review from the tools directly = source of truth.

In my experience having a CRM that can track your company’s metrics, KPIs and benchmarks is incredibly important. It’s imperative to understand your closing ratio on sales, average deal size and retention rate. Make sure your team understands the goals and metrics set forth for the upcoming year. Plan your budgets accordingly and manage the P&L to the results you expect. Communication from the leadership team MUST happen frequently. Share results across the company so everyone knows and understands how the company is tracking towards the success standards.

A well-maintained calendar is the be-all and end-all for account managers. What I observe again and again is that the right system is not set in stone. The structure should be regularly scrutinized and reassessed. The following key questions can help: Are there meetings that take up my time and I shouldn't attend? Do I have enough time for customer contact? Is my quota of planned appointments increasing? Are the goals and agenda of my appointments clear? „Show me an account manager with lots of appointments and I'll show you a successful account manager.“ In my opinion, investing two to three hours per month in your own calendar management is completely appropriate.

The one thing I recommend over and over for calendar management is color-coding your calendar! It makes a huge difference in preparing myself on a weekly basis seeing where I need to focus and plan my overall week. I love being able to see where my time is going, down the the minute.

With 20 years of experience in Medical Sales, my time (calendar) is the most important tool that prioritizes my day / week / month. There are many distractions through out the day. For example - fire drills, emergencies, reports due, conference calls and training. If everything is important…nothing is a priority. With that said, 90% of the job of a medical sales representative should be spent in front of our customers. DO NOT allow these distractions to knock you off course of your daily plan. Live with you customers and manage your calendar to complete company tasks. Happy Selling!

If you aren’t colour coding your calendar today then I suggest you look into it. Colour coding can help you visually seek out which days in the week you have meetings, what time booked in your calendar is urgent or deep work and where you have lined up time to take personal appointments. Taking this 40,000 foot view can give you perspective and insights into things like meetings booked and time where urgent work is needed.

Marking calendars with time blocks to eliminate meeting fatigues (aka zoom fatigues) can help in recovery. These can aid in improving focus and productivity.

If you’re a team leader, it’s important to recognize that your team members may prefer different ways to organize their work. Some folks may be comfortable quickly adding tasks mid-meeting and organizing later. Others may want to block off time on their calendars to update projects holistically. It’s your job as a leader to ensure that the project management tool is flexible enough to accommodate these variations in working styles, but don’t forget to set team-wide expectations for when the views should be fully up to date. After all, you need insight into where things are at so that you can scope out the future! 🔍

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Everyone seems to have different ways of capturing workflows and deadlines these days but Kanbans are amazing where multiple stakeholders / departments are collaborating on different issues regularly. I love that MS teams now has a Kanban feature built in and have trialed using this for marketing projects with different requirements and deadlines.

Organizing and tracking account activities seamlessly is achieved through utilizing project management tools. Choose a robust tool that aligns with your workflow, allowing centralized activity tracking. Categorize tasks, set milestones, and establish timelines within the tool. Leverage collaboration features to enhance team communication and transparency. With real-time updates and notifications, a project management tool becomes the cornerstone for efficient account activity management, fostering productivity and ensuring nothing falls through the cracks.

I‘m not sold on PM tools. In my opinion they only work when everyone is connected and you can align everything with everyone. If this is not the case, a simple Kanban tool might suit your needs. Sometimes it’s better to make sure you know every functionality of Outlook. Learning new tool takes time off your actual work. If you need to use it. Make sure everyone on the team is on the same knowledge level and can use the tool as it is required. These tools are not cheap and might be more expensive than the time you get from using it.

Account management is akin to orchestrating a symphony of details, and over the years in the field, I've honed a unique approach. I recommend creating a 'Visual Account Dashboard.' Instead of traditional spreadsheets, use visual tools like Trello or Asana boards. Assign each client or account its own board, and within it, create columns for tasks, deadlines, and progress. The visual aspect allows for quick, at-a-glance updates, and it's a refreshing departure from the usual spreadsheet monotony. It's a method that blends creativity with organization, ensuring you never miss a beat!

Account management is a strategic approach to managing and nurturing business relationships with key customers or clients. It involves identifying and understanding customer needs, developing customized solutions and communicating regularly to build customer loyalty. Steps to Great Account Management: Step 1: Profile your accounts Step 2: Identify the Decision-making Group Step 3: Target opportunities with greatest ! Return on Time Invested Step 4: Put your action plan together Step 5: Execute against the plan

Dashboard come in many wonderful shapes, detail and format. Personally I think less is more - a dashboard should give you a quick view of the status quo and inform how your book of business is looking. Then you can dig deeper into the details for Account Plans, Pipelines, Forecasts and more. Particularly when it comes to charts on a dashboard - more than two is too much. Keep it simple, keep it informative.

It's important to create a consistent and customized tracking dashboard. A dashboard which help track status, target, Risk and action items. Another key important thing is targeted completion of action items. Listing the highlights and improvement areas which helps provide a quantitative and qualitative perspective. It should also have the long term and short term goals list.

For effective organization and tracking of account activities, a strategic approach involves creating a dashboard. Consolidate key metrics, tasks, and timelines into a visual interface for real-time insights. Tailor the dashboard to prioritize critical activities, providing a comprehensive overview. Leverage color-coded categories for quick identification and prioritize tasks. This visual approach enhances efficiency, ensures accountability, and empowers proactive decision-making, making the dashboard an indispensable tool for streamlined account activity management.

Developing and executing a routine is crucial to your success. The first thing I do every morning is open my CRM dashboard, email, Power BI and LinkedIn. While reviewing my dashboard I can pick up where I left off the day before with my predetermined goals while still moving forward into the new day. While checking off tasks, I am simultaneously sending emails, updating accounts and/or opportunities. I check Power BI for live data and use LinkedIn for client research and cold calls. Again, since I use my CRM as the brain of the routine, all my tasks are directly rooted in Account Management, Sales and Marketing.

As a part of routine if the account management is delivery focused, then it certainly makes sense in keeping a keen eye on quality, deadlines, tracking of engagements, expectation setting and risk management. But if it involves growth & optimization element as well, then staying up-to-date with account happenings, and the overall industry & competition is something that must be included in your routine. Account Management is about bringing an outside in view, and helping customer navigate through complex problems. The reason could be as simple as either they are too close to the problem, or have their hands full with something else, where they need additional brain to think alongside their on something else which is of equal priority.

No caso de vendas, é sempre útil criar uma planilha de projeção das potenciais vendas junto aos clientes costumeiros. Assim vc pode focar parte do seu foco nas prospecções, e ainda não deixar passar oportunidades. Se o CRM conseguir auto preencher as vendas deixando claro quais metas foram atingidas, o trabalho vai ficando mais simples no final do ciclo, sem se estressar com assuntos já resolvidos, ou sem chance de resolver.

Planning, setting and following routine helps track daily productivity and to ponder over improvising it efficiently day by day. It not only helps gauge daily tasks but also helps evaluate ones productivity and efficiency in any given period time.

Managing a mix of live events and data management is the challenge in my position. Google Calendar's "Tasks" function allows me to schedule alerts, redirecting my attention at the precise moment I need it. Additionally, the initial setup lets me create a series of regularly scheduled alerts that are specific to the task. It allows me to work on my data management without worrying that I'll miss an important client interaction.

That's what I was looking for since I've started reading this article. A very important task to be made as routine of account management is asking honest feedback from your clients. This is impactful to keep your level of support at its maximum, correct what could be better and advance wherever there is room for improvement. It also helps maintain a sustainable relation with your clients. As a reward you might get voluntary referrals from your satisfied clients.

One of the most important things you can do is review and reflect on your performance. Some of the topics you might be able to address yourself but sometimes you need to look elsewhere. Directly asking your clients for feedback is a great way to learn and improve yourself. That conversation may give you the reassurance that you need. If you feel you aren’t performing to your best or in a slump, ask your client for feedback. You never know, their response might give you more confidence and pick you right out of that slump.

Working closely with my Account Executive is key to successfully managing the file. Clear communications and expectations on both our parts ensure we are on the same page; which ultimately means that the clients needs are 100% being met. Weekly expiry reviews are essential and keep us focused on all upcoming renewals.

Review the tools you use such as CRM or Task Management tools quarterly to ensure they are still effective at helping you to drive the right outcomes for the business. If they aren’t then it is generally time to switch to something different. Ensure you aren’t switching tools for the sake of it or to test out the shiny new cool SaaS tool in the market. When you have invested time into a process that is working and it continues to serve that purpose then stick to it.

Definitivamente esto es parte de la actitud que tienes y el empeño que pones, cuando mas ser account manager harás siempre todo lo posible por mantener la mejor relación con tus cuentas así que si no revisas constantemente tus avances y tus fallas no lograrás avanzar

Jesse Cook and I have been doing the same job for 5 years now, with very similar level of success but with a completely different approach to it. While Jesse has organised folders, I have 30k emails on my “Deleted Items”. Maybe a point to consider here is finding your own way of doing things and finding the way you are more efficient and productive. Self reflection is a must to find it.

I found that i need to take detailed notes when i received a customer call. I used OneNote and then put the link in the CRM/Ticketing tool. Working out of the email inbox was not a sustainable way to track activities. Each account needed to have detailed notes on follow-ups and next steps.

Related to the idea of color coding your calendar, I also find it helpful to set up folders and rules in your email to keep your inbox under control, prioritize certain emails, and deprioritize others. Setting up an email folder for each account or group you work with and then setup rules for the people you frequently communicate with to automatically have their emails sent to the correct folder. It keeps your inbox clean and when you see you have an unread email for an important group you can more easily decide whether you need to immediately prioritize that email or come back to it later. What you end up with in your inbox are one-off correspondences that can be quickly skimmed, actioned, filed away, and/or deleted.

One key habit I am trying to work on it, as much as possible act on the action items, like send a follow up email, summarize next steps, right after the call.Keep aside 5 mins after the meeting to process the information before moving on the next. It prevent piling up action items or follow ups.

When you're prospecting multiple accounts through a campaign (6-12 weeks), I find it extremely beneficial to export your data (contacts) to Excel or Google Sheets, so you can keep tabs on who you've connected with. Make sure to include a notes section to help you recall how the previous conversation went and what was discussed. It will help make your next conversation a lot warmer.