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Hi,
This one got my blood boiling a little, if I'm honest.
I was on a coaching call last week. My client shared their account plan. Thirty-plus slides. Beautiful. Comprehensive. Hours and hours of work, you could feel it. I asked who it was for. Turns out not the client.
It was for their boss.
And look, I've been there. I've built the polished plan, presented it, got the nod, and wondered six months later why nothing moved. Account planning done wrong doesn't just waste your time. It quietly costs you the relationship too.
So this week I want to talk about what actually goes wrong with account plans and one simple method that makes sure your hard work gets results instead of a folder no one opens.
POV: "Sounds good" was the last thing they ever said to you
Your Best Account Plan Might Be Your Biggest Problem
You've spent the better part of a week writing this account plan. It's detailed, it's structured, it covers everything. You think: nailed it. The QBR can't come soon enough. The client will be blown away.
The day arrives. You walk them through it. Someone nods. Someone's on their phone. Someone's staring out the window. At the end: "sounds good." No questions. No when can we start. Just the agenda moving on.
What went wrong?
The Plan and the Relationship Are Collecting Dust at the Same Rate
I've made this mistake. Built something I was genuinely proud of. Presented it. Client nodded, said it looked great.
Six months later, a new face at the table asked: "This all looks like your priorities. Where are ours?"
She was right. Not a single word of that plan came from them.
A neglected plan doesn't cause the drift. It reflects it. When you build it alone, your assumptions, your language, your priorities, the client was never really in it. So the plan sits in a folder. And the relationship quietly does the same.
McKinsey asked more than a thousand large buyers what frustrated them most about their suppliers. Not price. Not the product. Dropped balls. Mixed messages. Nobody who seems to have the full picture. That's what a dead plan feels like from their side. Not a strategic failure. Just the slow build-up of a supplier who doesn't have their act together.
Going It Alone Means You're Doomed Either Way
Here's what building a solo account plan actually means in practice:
You do all the heavy lifting. The client put nothing in, so they have nothing invested. Every update, every push, every follow-through is on you.
Even if it works, they don't care. A success they didn't shape feels like your win, not theirs. You're a footnote, not above the title.
If it fails, you own that too. No shared ownership, no shared accountability. You built it alone, you carry it alone.
Gartner and CEB found only 21% of account plans capture what matters to both sides. The other 79% are monologues. The client was never in the room.
One Thing Done Beats Twenty You'll Never Start
The answer isn't a better template or a more thorough plan. A fifty-page masterpiece nobody touches loses to one shared goal every single time.
Your job this week is simple: one account, one blank document, one goal, one obstacle. Then get five people to put their fingerprints on it. Suddenly it's not just yours anymore. That's the whole idea.
Your Action Plan
Pick your most important account. Open a blank document, not the existing one. Then have five short conversations.
Your main client contact. Write one shared goal for next quarter and one thing most likely to get in the way. Ask for 20 minutes: "I've been thinking about where we are. Tell me where I'm wrong." You're not presenting a plan. You're asking for help. That's the shift.
One internal person. Take what you just heard and ask whoever is most relevant, support, product, marketing, whoever fits: "What's the one thing your team could do to move this forward in the next 90 days?" Get a real commitment, not a maybe.
A different contact at the client. Different team, different level. "How does this land where you sit? What does it solve and what new problems might it create?" This is where the stuff that blindsides you in month six actually lives.
Your manager. Not "here's my plan, please approve." Try: "Here's what the client and I are working on. Where do you see the walls, and can you help me get through them?" Pull them in. Don't present to them.
You. Bring it all together on one page. It'll be messy. Good. That's what something real looks like before it gets tidied into something nobody uses.
Note: This only works when there's a real relationship to build on. If your contact isn't returning calls, going quiet on emails, or just going through the motions when you do connect, dragging them to an account planning conversation won't fix that. You can't co-create your way out of a relationship that isn't there yet. Go back to basics first: show up, be useful, rebuild the trust. The plan comes later.
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Bonus Round
Five Fingerprints Account Planning Template
The one-page template that goes with this week's action plan. Five conversations, one shared goal, one obstacle. Start here before you open the old plan.
[Download here]
"The End of Solution Sales" — Harvard Business Review, Adamson & Dixon
A landmark piece on why buyers have stopped responding to suppliers who show up with polished solutions. They don't want your answers. They want to know you understand their world. Uncomfortable reading if you've been leading with the plan rather than the conversation.
[Read here]
"The Art of Asking" — Amanda Palmer, TED Talk
Nothing to do with account management on the surface. Everything to do with it underneath. Palmer's talk is about why asking for help, genuinely, openly, without performing, is more powerful than presenting. Exactly the shift this week's action plan is built on.
[Watch here]
Account planning doesn't have to be the thing you dread or the document nobody reads. One conversation, one shared goal, one person who feels like they actually own it besides you.. that's where it starts.
Try the five fingerprints this week on one account. Just one. And if it reveals something useful (or something uncomfortable) I'd love to hear about it. Hit reply and tell me what you found.
Until next week, Stay Account Minded.
Warwick Brown
Founder, The KAM Club
Publisher, Account Minded
👋 Let’s connect on LinkedIn
💬 Hit reply - I read every message
🎧 Want the Deeper Dive?
This week's episode: Why the Account Plans You Work Hardest On Go Nowhere (We Can Change That). Five failure modes, one method, and a few mistakes I'm not proud of.