Account Planning

Build an account plan that goes beyond what’s in the CRM. This playbook walks you through creating a data-driven plan for any account - using PG:AI intelligence to identify opportunities, map stakeholders, understand competitive dynamics, and build an engagement strategy.

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The Problem This Solves

Most teams have account plans for maybe 10-15% of their territory. The rest get worked on gut feel and whatever the rep remembers from the last conversation. Even the plans that exist are often just CRM fields - industry, employee count, deal stage - with no strategic depth. PG:AI changes this by giving you the intelligence to build a real plan for any account in under an hour. And because the intelligence updates automatically, the plan stays current without manual refresh.

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Step 1: Strategic Context (10 min)

Start with Intelligence → Strategic Insights. You’re building the “why should we be talking to this account” section of your plan. Strategic Priorities - What are they focused on? List the 2-3 priorities most relevant to what you sell. For each, note:

• The priority itself (e.g. “Accelerating cloud migration across all business units”)
• Why it matters for your engagement (e.g. “Creates demand for our data integration capabilities”)
• Source and recency (e.g. “CEO mentioned in Q3 2025 earnings call”)

Goals - What are they trying to achieve? Pull the measurable targets that give you specificity: revenue targets, growth milestones, cost reduction goals, market expansion plans. SWOT - Scan for weaknesses and threats that your solution addresses, and opportunities that align with your value proposition. Division Intelligence - For enterprise accounts, identify which business units to target. Note which divisions have priorities that align with what you sell and which don’t. This prevents you wasting time on the wrong part of the organisation. Industry Overview - What’s happening in their industry? Are there sector-wide trends creating urgency? This gives you context for positioning.

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Step 2: Stakeholder Map (10 min)

Go to Intelligence → Contacts & Org Chart. You’re building the “who do we need to engage” section. Identify the buying committee:

• Economic buyer - Who has budget authority? Usually a VP or C-level. Check the org chart for the senior person in the relevant division.
• Champions - Who would benefit most from your solution and would advocate internally? Often a director or senior manager who feels the pain daily.
• Technical evaluators - Who will assess the product? Look for roles like Solutions Architect, Technical Lead, or whoever runs POCs.
• Users - Who would actually use the product day-to-day? These are your adoption champions post-sale.
• Blockers - Who might object? Procurement, security, or someone who owns a competing tool internally.

For each key stakeholder, note:

• Name, title, role in the buying process
• Career history (where they came from - relevant if they’ve used your product or a competitor before)
• Reporting line (who do they need to convince?)

Map relationships using the org chart. Who reports to whom? Where are there gaps in your access? If you’re engaged with a manager but the VP makes the decision, you need a plan to get to the VP.

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Step 3: Competitive Landscape (5 min)

Go to Intelligence → Tech Stack. You’re building the “what are we up against” section. Current technology - What do they use that’s relevant to your space?

• Competitors installed - Your favourite technologies are highlighted. Note which competitors they use, the confidence level, and whether adoption is growing or declining.
• Complementary tech - What else are they using that integrates with or adjacent to what you sell? This helps with positioning (“you already use X, and we integrate natively with it”).
• Gaps - What are they NOT using that they probably should be? Sometimes the absence of a technology is the signal - they have a gap you can fill.

Job posting signals - Check Jobs & Hiring Signals for roles that indicate they’re building a capability related to your solution. Hiring 10 people in a specific area means they’re investing. That’s a buying signal.

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Step 4: Opportunity Identification (5 min)

Now synthesise what you’ve learned. In your Canvas document, create an “Opportunities” section and answer:

• Where is the fit? Which strategic priorities does your solution directly address?
• Where is the urgency? Which goals have timelines or measurable targets that create pressure to act?
• Where is the pain? Which SWOT weaknesses or threats does your solution mitigate?
• Where is the expansion? (For existing customers) Which divisions or business units are you not engaged with that have relevant priorities?
• What’s the competitive angle? If they’re using a competitor, what’s the displacement opportunity? If greenfield, what’s the build-vs-buy argument?

You can also ask the AI Assistant to help:

“Based on everything you know about [Company], where are the top 3 opportunities for us to engage? Consider their strategic priorities, technology landscape, and hiring patterns. We sell [your product description].”

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Step 5: Engagement Strategy (5 min)

Build out the “what are we going to do” section: Immediate next steps:

• Who do we contact first? (Usually the champion, not the economic buyer)
• What’s our opening message? Use Sales Engagement → Value Pyramid for account-specific positioning.
• What discovery questions do we lead with? Use Sales Engagement → Discovery Questions for account-tailored questions.

Short-term plan (next 30 days):

• Which stakeholders do we need to engage?
• What content do we need to create? (Proposals, business cases, technical docs)
• What proof points are relevant? (Customer evidence from similar companies or industries)

Success criteria:

• What would “this account is progressing” look like in 30/60/90 days?
• What’s the target deal size and timeline?

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Step 6: Set Up Monitoring (2 min)

Don’t let the plan go stale. Go to Monitor → Monitoring Agents and set up alerts for this account:

• Strategy changes - Alert when priorities or goals shift
• Leadership changes - Alert when key stakeholders move roles
• Hiring changes - Alert when hiring patterns change significantly
• Competitive changes - Alert when new technologies appear or existing ones decline

This way, your plan stays current without you manually checking. When something changes, you’ll know. → How to set up monitoring

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What You Should Have Now

A Canvas document (or whatever format you prefer) containing:

1. Strategic context - Top priorities, goals, SWOT highlights, division analysis
2. Stakeholder map - Key people, their roles in the buying process, relationships, gaps
3. Competitive landscape - Current tech, competitors, complementary tech, gaps
4. Opportunities - Where you fit, where there’s urgency, where the pain is
5. Engagement strategy - Next steps, 30-day plan, success criteria
6. Monitoring - Alerts set up for changes

This plan is now shareable with your team, referenceable before meetings, and automatically kept current through PG:AI’s monitoring and continuous enrichment.

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Tips

• Do this for your top 10 accounts first. Not every account needs a full plan. Start with the ones where deep engagement matters most - strategic accounts, active deals, renewals coming up.
• Update, don’t rebuild. Because PG:AI intelligence refreshes automatically, you don’t need to redo the plan from scratch. Just review it before key meetings and update your engagement strategy.
• Share with your SC/SE. If you’re working an account with a Solutions Consultant, share the Canvas document. Having everyone aligned on the same intelligence dramatically improves deal quality.
• Use this for QBR prep too. The same plan structure works for preparing QBR presentations for existing customers - just shift the emphasis from “why buy” to “what value we’ve delivered and where to expand.”

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