As a former IBM salesman, Art Wilson knows a thing or two about capturing large accounts. In his view there’s a critical difference between the small also-ran sale and the major account every salesperson

dreams of landing. Wilson, who now runs Critical Path Strategies, a sales training firm in Boerne, Texas, says, “Smaller deals are 90 percent sweat and 10 percent planning, but large deals are 90 percent planning and 10 percent sweat.”

Wilson reasons that salespeople fail to land major accounts with reliable frequency because they fail to follow certain incontrovertible, yet flexible, rules. “With large deals, you must recreate the set of milestones that are the most effective way of winning the account. And the milestones are different with each large account.” While the milestones may differ, once a salesperson has laid down the path, the steps are there to follow.

According to Wilson any salesperson can convert these steps into a detailed action plan complete with graphs and charts that analyze the opportunity and the salesperson’s role in pursuing it.

For starters, a salesperson must create a detailed account profile that includes demographic information about the prospective client and key personnel within the client company. Having this information in hand enables the salesperson to begin determining how to best serve the client through a product and service match.

The next step, one of the most important in the entire process, is what Wilson calls customer value analysis. It involves aligning your product’s key strengths with the client’s critical success factors in an effort to match the product with the client’s needs.

“It’s difficult for most salespeople to do that,” Wilson explains. “They typically walk in and throw benefits against the wall and try to see which ones stick. But we’re coming at it from the opposite side, saying, ‘Let’s understand the client first.'”

To understand the client’s critical success factors, “look at how the company differentiates itself in the marketplace today and for the next few years,” Wilson says. The client may differentiate itself through its customer or value-added services, its image, its key partnerships or its cost containment policies, he says. Salespeople can decide which factors to focus on by reading the client’s annual report, checking out its Internet home page or conversing with key executives.

Jay Gardner, vice president of sales at BMC Software, Houston, a student of Wilson’s who now sends his own salespeople to Wilson’s workshops, uses this technique frequently. “Where you have the most matches is where you develop your sales strategies,” he says. “If the client’s success factor is having systems available 24 hours a day and that’s your key strength, then you spend most of your sales strategy on that particular point.”

Wilson says the goal is to “highlight the top three or four intersections of your product’s strengths with the needs of the client.” He suggests creating a chart that depicts where the intersections occur, which becomes a springboard for your first client meeting (see chart below).

After creating the customer value analysis, the salesperson develops an opportunity model analysis. This lists the major goals of the account, from profitability to relationships. List exactly what you are trying to accomplish, from the price you hope to charge to the relationships you hope to build with key client executives.

Wilson also suggests creating an organization map that lists all the personnel involved in your sale. These are often numerous when pursuing a major account. “With large deals there are a lot more people to choose from and you need to be careful making decisions about who you spend time with.” Wilson says a salesperson ordinarily makes four calls a week, so “you want to make sure you’re spending those calls with the right people.”

The final steps of a large account action plan include creating a critical path planning sheet, a one-page work plan that lists the specific steps that the salesperson must take to win the account, and a critical path action plan, which is a time line that charts the progress of the account. The time line lists activities, dates and personnel involved so a salesperson has a complete record of the situation.

The goal of Wilson’s three-day workshop is to increase the odds of closing a major account while increasing its overall value. Gardner says the program has helped his salespeople in a variety of ways. “We’ve seen better pre-call planning and a more thorough view across the organization of who needs to be contacted and included in the sell cycle,” he says. “The reps feel better prepared. It builds their confidence and broadens their view of the world.”

BMC Software has participated in exclusive workshops for its own salespeople and open workshops with salespeople from other companies. “There are benefits to both,” Gardner says, indicating that open workshops are valuable because you meet people from other companies who have their own ideas about selling.