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130 • The 100 Greatest Ideas for Building the Business of Your Dreams

to improve our market share in the account worldwide;
to achieve at least ten per cent higher level of revenue growth in the account
every year for the next three years; and
to use our reputation in the Pharmaceuticals division of the customer to gain
ten per cent of the orders placed in the chemicals division within a year.

Who is there?

The planning team should include most of the people who will be involved with the
implementation of the plan. The account manager, any technical support person
and possibly a marketing person may be appropriate.

If there is a facilitator, he or she will be responsible for describing and getting
agreement to the ground rules of planning. He or she will also police and time the
session to ensure that by the end the team has reached an appropriate point in the
process.

It is highly desirable for you or another senior manager to attend the last session
of the key account planning event to hear a short presentation of the team's conclu-
sions. This gives a focus to the team who will have to be ready to make such a
presentation when the time comes.

How long do you work?

If your plan is concerned with a limited part of the customer's business, you should
be able to put a plan together within a day. Bigger teams with bigger tasks could take
a lot more. By the way, experience shows that after eight or nine hours the produc-
tivity of planners drops dramatically. It is probably better, therefore, to finish at
around 17.30. If it is a new team or some new members are joining, it is a good idea
to have the meeting off-site and to have dinner together. Don't forget, though, you