When any salesperson takes on a new territory, it is crucial to firstly categorise the accounts in order to effectively target the correct customers, with the correct messaging. For example, you do not want to be taking a message about how to help customers develop what they have currently with some of your additional add on products – if they have never bought from you before. This scenario would require a different message that appeals to their situation specifically.
Another reason why account categorisation is key is that it shows to your management that you are on top of your customer base and know how to approach them in a skillful and strategic manner. Additionally, you cannot go after all customers all of the time so you have to focus your strategy to ensure that you are:
- Keeping your current buying customers happy
- Ensuring that customers who buy a little from you now buy more
- Remaining on the lookout for new acquisition accounts and prospecting
- Qualifying out customers who do not have a need for your product solution, or do not have the finance/resources/scale to buy from you.
Following this process ensures you dedicate time to the correct activities, and is the first step that you need to follow to get a holistic view of your customer base.
The diagram shows what we mean by the different categories as a first step to introducing how we do this at The Sales Way. The next posts will include the template that you can download and fill in yourself and also follow on information and diagrams to help explain what you then need to do with your Account Categorisation strategy.
