Account Mapping: A Deeper Dive on reality and Strategic Actions

The goal of this post is to provide more views on the topic of Customer Account Mapping with Partners.

Here are the problems I am seeing in the industry:

1) There is more talk and less doing

2) There is immaturity in how to do it

3) There is disregard in how to leverage it

4) Game Theory is being played…..

First, we have been developing a wonderful network within Partner Ecosystems. Those who are invested and participate are thought leaders in the space and look to drive value for people and organizations around Partner Ecosystems.

This post is a layering within that thought leadership group being created and shared and is intended to play a layer on something Aaron Howerton wrote “Account Mapping: 9-box Strategic Plan”. Aaron covers a LOT of details in this article and unless you are a SME in this space, more than like 80% of it will be something you were not aware of or just think you know…”UUu ouch that’s mean.”…. Is it or just the truth?

 The 9 box visualized.

Problem #1: There is more talk and less doing

There are many organizations who talk about Account Mapping more than it is executed.

Most organizations do not capture and or complete analytics on this practice to validate how much it is being executed, how and the outcomes.

You cannot become an expert or even good at something if you are not doing it consistently or attempting to execute it procedurally like a science experiment.

Most of the time this is executed on an adhoc basis, with spreadsheets, web meetings or phone calls.

Great you have checked off the agile approach, but don’t say this way works. That is like saying hey a “I got the writing done with a pencil and paper”, it is the basic process to do it, its NOT the best or most productive.

Solutions will come at the end.

So Next up,

Problem #2: There is immaturity in how to do it

I have seen and heard organizations (PxMs, AEs, Partner Leaders) say and do “Account Mapping”.

This really consisted of the following type of scenarios:

Phone calls where “Partner says: Hey doing X at Customer Y, can we map and work with your AE on the deal”

Emails which “Organization to Partner. I am attaching a “Account List which we would like to collaborate on”, please map and return to us for next steps…….Many of these had crickets and or get sent bundled into some OTHER email associated to a specific Customer conversation.

Web Meetings: “Partner and Organizations are “Sharing their screens” with their lists to which each side is marking their OWN spreadsheets on the accounts they want to map to.

Now the above are just some examples and MANY organizations do this.

This is NOT a mature practice or process. This ADDS overhead and is what I call “Capacity Drain”

So the solution, it’s at the end.                       

Next up,

Problem #3: There is disregard in how to leverage it

Ask the question to an organization on the Account Mapping strategy and process to which you may hear one of the following:

A). Don’t have one and don’t really need one

B) We execute Account Mapping but its more of an activity vs. strategy

C) We are “trying”, but are NOT seeing good results

D)   We are executing on them and having good results. Things are fine.

E) We are in development of one

Then drilling into those statements, and here is what the above really means: (not an absolute, more of a majority play)

For A) Account Mapping isn’t anything major and we don’t have any processes around it.

Why this is a bad approach: Because market analysis shows 40-50% of customers rely on partnerships towards any type of procurement decision.

Account mapping shows there is intent and fair play with you partners if you have them. While your competitors will do it and no matter how good your product is, theirs will have more integrity because of their partnerships will look more stable. Then they come with a “Better Together” story to the customer and seal the deal.

For B) We execute Account Mapping but it is more of an activity vs. strategy

This perspective will quickly devalue this as a process within the organization which then means items such as tools and or further investment gets heavily scrutinized and dropped in priority.

This is NOT a process which keeps the Sales engine running, it is NOT required, so therefore what else can it be other than a strategy to how you accelerate your Sales growth or brand coverage.

For C) We are “trying”, but are NOT seeing good results

This one is usually created from the lack of investment by the partner.

You supply a big list to the partner, but the partner takes their time to review, respond and provide you limited visibility to what you can “really” do together.

This then yields lower results because the sample size is very small to what is agreed to co-sell or assist on.

For D) We are executing on them and having good results. Things are fine.

Ok, this one excites me until you dig in and discover a dark side.

The issue surrounds itself with the approach executed, it is the reverse to item C), partners are willing to share their lists and the organization is A consumer while the partner is left to whatever the organization provides them.

The strategy may work now and yield good short term outcomes, but word will spread…..

For E) We are in development of one

In general, this is fine, unless you have been in development for years. The strategy should have been installed and iterated on.

Solution please, still at the end…

Problem #4: Game Theory being played

Now if you are not familiar with Game Theory, I would recommend looking it up.

In a nutshell, game theory calls out the psychology of humans and a course of action they may take.

--Currently Organizations are playing the worst version of Game Theory.--

Which is the “DON’T SHARE” space.        

See image:

This is a very large and unfortunate mistake. It wastes an incredible amount of time, while also creating frustration in the process.

Okay now for the solutions…

Solutions:

1) Install a consistent process or mini-program which establishes a cadence and includes a mechanism to track the account mapping process.

2) Don’t just build the strategy, ensure you have incorporated key considerations. ! Hint Aarons article will help you big here, so I will not cover those details.

3) Set the right expectations within your organization and with the partners. Be genuine and transparent.

4) It is understood, partners don’t need a data dump of accounts to them. ICP is not the way, it is A part of the way. This means there are a couple of areas you need to work through.

a): How does the partner fit with your company? For example if they are an ISV and do not compete, probably more sharing is good.

b): What expectations were established between you and the partner? ICP in consideration.

c) How will you communicate and execute on the “Prospect to Prospect” or “Cust to Cust” or so on?

There are plenty of great solutions or technologies which can assist you with this strategy. (e.g. Reveal , Crossbeam , LeanData , Superglue , SFDC workflows, PRMs and so on)

Want to know more or want to discuss, please contact me.