Facilitator services, account planning workshops, capture strategy workshops, joint opportunity workshops.

Facilitator Services

Leveraging The Power Of Collaborative Thinking

Our highly skilled facilitators help our clients to build and to execute highly effective plans through the following forums:

Strategic planning for entire businesses, business units, or functional organizations.
Account planning workshops for strategic account teams.
Joint business development planning with customers and partners.
Project planning sessions for operations and service teams.

The information below is offered as an example of an account planning workshop. Other forums will vary according to specific needs.

Needs Addressed

Large global, national, and public sector accounts are critically important and, as such, they require sound strategies and coordinated execution.

There is always considerable untapped knowledge and innovative thinking within a team. These need to be discovered and shared.

Teams need to share a common game plan. When people collaborate to create a plan, they have a greater sense of teamwork and they assume ownership for its success.

These workshops produce results! We have facilitated about 500 of these account specific sessions worldwide.

What The Workshops Accomplish

Structured discussions that stimulate collaboration and innovation around the following topic areas:

Know Your Customer

Understanding their business, financial condition, global presence, alliances, key decision makers, buying practices & policies, relationships with current suppliers, etc. Note That The customer frequently participates in this phase of the workshop.

Quantify and Qualify Opportunities

What the team will be trying to sell (quantified and qualified).

Plan and Execute Winning Strategies

How the team will conduct its sales Campaign (differentiation, sales objectives, account strategies, value proposition, positioning, etc.)

Ensure Customer Satisfaction

How the team will support this account (current service issues, account coverage, performance measures, customer satisfaction surveys, etc.)

Executing the Plan

An action plan that is built incrementally as the workshop proceeds.

How The Workshops Are Structured

Before The Workshop

The account manager and the facilitator develop baseline information about the account and agree upon workshop objectives and agenda.

The facilitator creates a baseline account plan using our WIN IT ® account planning software.

During The Workshop:

A projection system is used to display the account plan as it is developed in real time.

Dialogue commences immediately through a discussion of what each participant envisions as workshop objectives and expectations.

All appropriate information is entered into WIN ITt® and displayed for the group to see as it is developed. This also makes it possible to rapidly review information as the plan evolves.

Actions are recorded and assigned to specific individuals, with specific due dates, as they occur.

When The Customer Participates (Optional)

The customer visit is thoroughly planned in advance.

A structured discussion with the customer usually emphasizes two things: their business drivers/ business imperatives.

How they wish to be treated as an account.

After The Workshop

The account-planning database (and/or documents) is delivered to the account team within one business day.

Who Should Participate

Participants Usually Include The Following:

The customer (optional and only for the customer profile portion of the discussions: normally 1-2 hours at the beginning)
Key members of the account team
Sales management
Executive management (optional but almost always should be briefed shortly after the session using key sections of the resulting account plan, e.g. objectives and strategies)
Alliance partners (optional)

Where The Workshops Are Held

Usually at your location or at a hotel convenient to your team.

We sometimes meet at the customer's location.

We are not opposed to meeting at nice places, e.g. the Virgin Islands.

When You Should Have A Workshop

As needed to establish or update a plan; to build teamwork; to engage the customer, etc.

How Much The Workshops Cost

The cost of these sessions varies according to length (one or two days), location (travel costs), and other factors (preparation time).

Our customers (you) normally provide the facilities and an LCD projector.

As a rule of thumb, a two day session usually costs about $5K-$6K. Please call us to discuss your specific needs.