Account mapping is a strategic process used in sales to visualize and understand the key stakeholders and decision-makers within a client’s organization. By utilizing account mapping in sales, teams can create more personalized and effective sales strategies by identifying how relationships interconnect within an account.
If you’re curious about how account mapping can be leveraged in your organization to enhance sales and strengthen customer relations, you’re in the right place. In this article, we’ll have an in-depth discussion about account mapping, its benefits, and how you can implement it effectively.
What Is Account Mapping in Sales?
In sales, account mapping helps identify who makes decisions in a company, who influences them, and how they’re all connected. Through this, salespeople know where and to whom they should be talking to within the organization to effectively push their sales forward. It allows sales teams to not only know the contacts, but also understand roles, influence, and relationships within the organization.
With proper execution and utilization, account mapping can result in better-targeted pitches, efficient use of sales resources, and shorter sales cycles — all of which can contribute to higher success rates.
Account mapping is usually visualized through diagrams or charts to help salespeople quickly understand and navigate the complex structures of their accounts, making strategic decisions easier and more informed.
Benefits of Account Mapping
Account mapping can benefit your sales team in many different ways:
- Enhanced targeting: By understanding who the decision-makers are, sales teams can tailor their pitches to the right people, which may likely lead to better sales.
- Shorter sales cycles: Account mapping can streamline sales processes by helping map out the most direct path of sale with the contacts involved, lessening the number of people that would be involved.
- Improved coordination: Account maps can help put everyone on the sales team on the same page, ensuring that no opportunities are missed due to miscommunication.
- Higher conversion rates: Account mapping can result in a more targeted approach towards the right stakeholders, increasing the chances of converting potential leads into clients.
- Better relationship building: With account mapping, salespeople can understand the clients and how they interact with their own teams. This gives them more information to use to create more personalized interactions.
How To Build an Account Map
When done correctly, an account map provides invaluable insights into the complex structure of your client’s company. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to do it:
1. Identify Key Accounts
Start by developing an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), which details the characteristics of the clients or companies that are most likely to benefit from your products or services. The more defined your ICP is, the more targeted your approach will be. Then, prioritize the accounts with the better opportunity value, strategic value, etc.
2. Build The Organizational Chart
After pinpointing key accounts, the next step is to build an organizational chart. This is when we map out the hierarchy and structure of roles in the company. Research the company’s website or use tools like LinkedIn or Sales Navigator to gather information on who works in which department and their roles. Be as detailed as you can with the organizational chart to make it easier for you to understand the decision-making process within the company and identify the key players who can influence purchasing decisions.
3. Add The Important Information And Labels
Once you’ve made your org chart, start adding important information and labels next to each stakeholder’s name. This should include their names, positions, contact information, decision-making power, preference in communication, and even personal notes like interests or previous interactions. Also, label which stakeholders in the company you think are likely decision-makers, influencers, or gatekeepers.
4. Determine The Best Path Of Sale
Take a step back and look at the entire org chart. Look at who directly influences decisions and who else might have a say. Then, determine the most strategic or direct path of sale by identifying key relationships and influence patterns within the organization. This allows you to tailor your sales strategies and focus your efforts on accounts that will most likely lead to successful sales.
5. Update Your Account Regularly
Just because you finished your account map doesn’t mean you’re done with it forever. Companies and clients can change, and you need to update your account map regularly to reflect these changes, such as role changes, new hires, or shifts in strategic priorities. These regular updates make sure your strategies are still relevant, and relationships are maintained effectively.
Sales Account Mapping Example
Here’s a hypothetical scenario of how account mapping can help your company:
Company A provides cybersecurity solutions and their target market is mid-to-large companies. With a plan to acquire a large retail corporation as a client, they decided to employ account mapping to help the sales team identify the key stakeholders: the CIO, the Security Manager, and the Head of IT Operations.
By creating a visual representation of these roles and their interconnections, the sales team was able to tailor the messages about how their solutions could specifically address the unique challenges faced by each role. For example, enhanced data protection for the CIO, streamlined security protocols for the Security Manager, and cost-effective implementation for the Head of IT Operations. Their sales strategies worked, and Company A saw a 40% increase in sales.
Try Organimi For Account Mapping
Account mapping can provide a clear understanding of the sales process within a potential client’s company, highlighting key players, their roles, and how they interconnect. Organimi is a tool that can help salespeople create effective sales strategies tailored to the target client demographic. Organimi’s account mapping tool makes it easy to import data, integrate with Salesforce, track opportunities, and nurture relationships. Try a free trial to test drive Organimi’s account mapping tool, and join our LinkedIn community to connect with others in the field.