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Account Planning

Definition

Account planning is a structured sales practice in which a seller builds a comprehensive profile of a target account — including everything known about the prospect, all engagement attempts to date, and a prioritized list of next actions and angles to try. In deal sourcing, account planning translates to detailed prospect-level strategy for breaking into high-priority targets.

Context

In Ep. 6, Dan Herr introduces account planning as a practice borrowed from sales that sourcing teams should adopt in weekly one-on-one coaching sessions. He describes the full version as "comprehensive, detailed, line-by-line, everything we know about them, everything we've tried, what we're going to do next," but recommends starting with "minor account planning" — tackling five accounts per week. In these sessions, the BD leader and team member collaboratively identify angles: conference attendance, LinkedIn connections, philanthropic interests, geographic proximity, and other creative hooks. The following week, they review what worked and what didn't, then select five new accounts. Dan estimates this cadence covers roughly 250 prospects per year, which he calls "pretty needle moving." (Ep. 6)