Now, if you're about to start a new job as a key account manager or even thinking
about it, then you're not going to want to miss this video because I am about
to lay out a complete 30/60/90 day plan to help you crush those first three months.
So sit tight.
Hi Heroes, it's Warwick here from Account Manager Tips, and if there is one thing I
know, your first three months as a new account manager are the most challenging
and of course, the ones with the most at stake.
Why? Well, because while you're trying
to figure it all out, everything you do is being viewed through a microscope.
Yes, people will judge you and opinions,
you know, right or wrong, are being formed about your effectiveness from day one.
Of course, first impressions stick, and you know, great news if you shine,
you're going to find yourself on the fast track to success.
But if you fail to impress, then doubts about your abilities may
linger and follow you around like a dark cloud.
A 30/60/90 day plan is essential to help
you transition from your old job to your new one.
It's going to ensure you focus on the right priorities,
that you track your progress, that you measure results and get you
standing on your own two feet as soon as possible.
The point is to build credibility quickly
and to earn the confidence of your clients, your colleagues and your boss.
All right, now create two versions.
The first is going to be a 30, 60, 90 day plan presentation.
Summarize how you'll get up to speed
in the role over the course of your first three months and present your plan over
three slides, you know, simple. One for each month.
I also like to include a visual CV as well.
This is just really handy for interviews
to let people know a little bit more about who you are.
A 30/60/90 day project plan is going to be
a detailed list of all the activities you need to get settled into your new role
and you're going to group those into 30 day periods as well.
But that's what this whole video is about. So sit tight.
We're going to keep digging deeper into this right.
Now, if you're a member of The KAM Club,
you can grab a 90 day plan template for Asana, Excel and PowerPoint.
And if you're not a member of The KAM Club, what are you waiting for?
The KAM Club is a private learning
community helping busy account managers get results.
Inside you going to find templates,
guides, courses, mini-training and a connected community
of like-minded professionals all here to help you succeed.
So learn more at www.thekamclub.com
Before you get started, you need to know this about your new job.
It is okay if you're a bit nervous, if you've got butterflies, right.
Don't worry, you've got this.
Your new employer wouldn't have hired you if they didn't believe in you.
But be honest with yourself about
potential challenges and take some time to think about how you might handle them.
It is a job in a new industry, or is it one that you're already familiar with?
Are you moving to a new organization or a new business unit in the same company?
Big difference. If it's an internal move,
are you going to have to juggle two jobs because you have to help out in your old
role while still starting the new one? Or are going to be making a clean break?
If you've been promoted, well, how will your peers react? Did anybody
apply for the job you're about to move into that is now going to report to you
because you know, it could get a little tricky?
Are you moving into account management from a different profession because there
may be skills or competencies, competency gaps you need to close?
Are you inheriting the account management
role or is it a new position? You know, will, you need to define new processes
and systems or are they already established? Remember,
there's nothing that you can't overcome with a little preparation
and perseverance. Forewarned is forearmed they say,
right? Treat your new boss like a client.
Your manager gave you the job.
They can help you get things done.
They are your advocate to the wider business.
And of course, they approve the promotions and the pay rises and the bonuses.
So treat your new manager like you would your very, very, very best client.
I don't care what else is going on.
They are now number one.
What's important to them is your top priority.
Okay?
Now, to be honest, your life will be a whole lot easier if
you keep following that advice well beyond your first three months.
Trust me. Now, on your first day invite your boss
to a recurring meeting to discuss your 90 day plan.
It should be monthly at a minimum.
And while the focus is on your
performance, use the time to also learn a bit more about your manager.
How do they like to interact?
What are their expectations of you?
What are their roles and responsibilities? Right.
What are their most important priorities right now?
And is there anything that you can do to help them?
Keep an eye too on who they have relationships with and get to know those
people because everybody is going to be talking about you.
They're going to be gossiping and you want the news to be good.
Importantly, continue to clarify, you know, you're new.
You're expected to ask questions, right? So don't be shy about it.
All right. Review the job description.
That is literally the first place to start, right?
Just go through it with a highlighter and,
you know, highlight the main responsibilities.
That way, you're not going to miss any
important requirements in your 90 day plan.
And it'll also ensure that you use
the right terminology rather than generic objectives and results.
For example, don't say "meet with key
stakeholders" when the job description has identified who those stakeholders are
and you can say "meet with product management and technical" instead.
So here is an example of the job description for a senior key account
manager at Amazon, which was advertised in July, 2020.
You can see here the different terms that I've highlighted.
I found at least a dozen actions that I would include in my plan.
So the job description can give you a massive head start on your 90 day plan
just by copy+pasting the key responsibilities.
Now, the thing is, you want to remember to tweak them.
Because you need to reflect the fact that you're new and learning.
So, for example, it's unlikely you're going to be able
to drive best practices until, of course, you understand what they are.
All right, now, that's the pre-work done, so let's get into the detail of how
to create a 30/60/90 day plan for key account managers.
All right.
So your three month success plan is grouped into 30 day periods.
Each has very specific activities and outcomes that move you quickly
from making a negative contribution to a positive one.
Week one, don't sweat it too much, right?
This is just about setting up your workspace, getting your log-ins,
confirming roles and responsibilities and expectations.
But after that, from days 1 to 30, you want to get up to speed,
take charge of your clients and establish credibility.
In the next 30 days, 31 to 60 days,
you want to grow your influence, develop your strategy and secure small wins.
And then in that home stretch, those final 30 days, you want to add value
and build momentum that's going to sustain you for the next three months and beyond.
In addition, every 30 days you want
to commit to five milestone goals for each of the following.
Learning goals. Those are actions you'll
take to address skills or knowledge gaps. People goals.
Those are steps you'll take to grow
and engage your internal and external networks.
Performance goals. Those are short term objectives related
to your current duties and aligned with overall company goals.
Client goals.
Those are activities that get your clients closer to their business goals and then
personal goals is anything that's going to make you a better version of you.
All right, now milestone goals represent
a significant stage in your development, so don't take the easy route.
The more challenging the goals are,
the more satisfying it's going to be when you achieve them.
And of course, make sure they're SMART,
specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound.
And this is an excellent habit to get into anyway, because it's so easy to be
distracted by what's urgent at the expense of what's important.
So I like to keep setting those milestone goals every quarter.
It keeps me focused on professional development, continuous improvement,
and of course, makes sure I've got an outstanding record of achievement
to showcase to my leaders when it comes time to performance reviews and of course,
to recruiters if I'm looking for a new job.
All right, now,
that's enough of the framework, let's get into the nitty gritty, okay?
In the first 30 days, your goal is to meet, learn and understand.
You want to become as independent as possible and you want to prioritize
stability for your clients and, of course, your internal teams.
You want to meet critical stakeholders.
You want to learn as much as you can
and understand the priorities of your organization.
And, of course, you know your new clients.
When it comes to meeting. You want to get
those stakeholder relationships underway really quickly.
So ask your boss who you need to know?
Schedule those early introductory meetings with internal stakeholders,
external stakeholders, vertical stakeholders, lateral stakeholders.
Basically everybody, right?
You want to understand requirements and create a set of questions that you'd
like to know the answer to and ask those same set of questions to everybody.
You're going to get a much better sense of what's going on if you do.
Now you can find a list of these questions
in the free 30/60/90 day Excel template, which you can find at
amtip.co/90dayplan.All right.
Now customize these questions. Okay.
So you might need to tweak them a little bit, depending on who you're talking to.
For example,
sales might have more competitor insights than operations might. All
you need to do really is listen and reflect on what you've learned,
think about who has influence, which relationships you need to nurture
and which alliances you may need to build a little bit later.
Now, you move on to learning and understanding,
which is about transforming information into knowledge. You want to find out
everything you can about your organization, about your clients.
Consider the implications of what you discover, right?
You know, what's it all mean?
How will it impact how you do your job or where you focus or what your priorities
are and keep an eye out for any missed opportunities or potential risks?
All right, that's your first 30 days.
All right, let's move on to your next 60 days, which is strategy and planning.
Bye now the training wheels are off and even if it's a little bit shaky,
you should have enough information to assess customer risks,
identify opportunities and to create some strategies to address them.
So it's time to get started on strategy and planning.
Invest the time in client research.
Not just their history with you,
but their industry, their customers, their suppliers, their competitors,
internal capabilities, vision, values, mission.
Whatever you can find. Educate yourself and become an expert
at that point where your industry and your clients' industries intersect.
Be crystal clear on why your clients use your solution and why they came to you
in the first place and why they should stick around.
Check out my video on client research
hacks for a Quick Start guide to learning more about
how to research a client
and for The KAM Club members you can download the 20 page
Account Managers Guide to Client Research with more than 125 power tips.
Now, review your core processes and if you
don't have them already, develop some process maps to understand
workflows. You don't have to spend a lot of time on it.
But the point of all this is to identify any gaps,
remove risks and bring stability to your clients and to your internal teams.
So once you've got all of that together, it's time to distil that into a plan
that drives operational and organizational action.
So first, just follow this simple five step process to develop your strategy.
Think about where are we?
Where do we want to go?
What changes have to be made?
How should changes be made?
And last but not least, how will progress be measured?
Simple five step way to create a strategy.
And then you can create a simple one page account plan to define your objectives,
set your goals and identify the actions you'll take to achieve them.
Now be sure to check out my other video,
The Ultimate One Page Key Account Plan, because that will guide you through
the whole process of creating an account plan.
Link is in the description below. And guess what?
It includes a free template too.
All right, so if you do all of that
in your first 60 days, there is going to be no stopping you.
You're into the home stretch!
For the final 30 days of the plan, you need to deliver results, right?
And you want to build momentum that's going to sustain you long into the future.
Because, you know, you're soon going to be having that meeting with your boss who's
going to decide your fate and decide if you've passed your probationary period.
So do not take the foot off the gas now.
Seek those opportunities for early wins
that make a meaningful impact, encourage important behaviors and that are
clearly linked to actions that you've taken.
You want to make sure there's no doubt in anyone's mind: you did this.
So at the end of your first 90 days,
you want to present a list of accomplishments to your boss
that demonstrate you have initiative, that you're aligned
with the organizational goals and that you're results driven.
Now, of course, you'll have lots of plans
in motion and not everything is going to be done.
That is OK. And of course, it's expected.
All you need are a couple of small successes.
It might be some inefficient process
you've resolved or it might be a long standing customer complaint you fixed or
a meeting with a C-level executive that has been avoiding your company.
Showcase the results that you're proudest of.
All right, develop alliances.
By now, you should know who's who in the zoo,
and you should have a point of view on who has the power and the influence.
They're the people who are going to help you get things done in the future.
Now, don't make the mistake,
like I often have, of only hanging out with the people you like.
Map out the critical internal relationships based on qualities like
expertise, control of information, networks, access to resources.
Ask yourself how you might earn their
support and what resistance you might encounter.
Now I've written a comprehensive e-book with a template on relationship mapping.
You can use this for internal and external
networks and you can grab it for free at amtip.co/relationship.
All right. You're almost at the end of your 90 days.
If you've got this far, take a minute to reflect and refine, you know?
Just review and refresh those plans
to respond to surprises and, of course, any new opportunities.
And here's some questions to ask yourself. How do you feel?
Is the role of key account manager living up to your expectations?
Is there anything bothering you?
You know, people that you're not connecting with?
Have any meetings raised alarm bells or
policies and strategies you're not comfortable with? What's gone well?
What hasn't gone well? And are there any missed opportunities?
It's really good to have those front of mind when you're going to inevitably
have that meeting with your boss about, you know, passing probation
All right, now let's take a look at some common mistakes.
Doing what you've always done. You know, a new job brings new opportunities
and challenges, but previous success, doesn't guarantee future results.
Review the job description and decide what
you need to stop doing and what you should start doing.
This is a great opportunity to reinvent yourself a little bit and shake off some
of your bad habits or to focus on developing new skills.
Unrealistic expectations.
You might be full of enthusiasm
and ambition, you know, but don't be too ambitious with your goals.
Better to under promise and over deliver in your first three months. Otherwise you
may be overwhelmed, which leads to lack of focus, bad decisions and poor results.
Knowing the answer before understanding the question.
Avoid jumping in with solutions to problems without exploring
the situation and gaining support for your ideas.
You'll come off as a know-it-all and you
may even offend some people whose views you're unwittingly criticizing.
I've done this many times myself, you know, quickly giving advice when
nobody was asking and some people never forgave me for it.
Now, not putting people first, you know? While it's essential to learn
the technical aspects of your new role, make sure that your priority is
understanding people, politics and culture,
because that is where things can come undone really, really quickly.
Talk to colleagues, peers, leaders,
other stakeholders, learn the information that you will not find written anywhere
and build relationships that will hopefully later become alliances.
Now, let's talk about some tools
for the job. Now, the problem with pen and paper is that it's
not made for sharing, it's not made for collaboration, it's not searchable.
And it's not the ideal tool for complex, detailed plans with deadlines.
So for your 30/60/90 day success plan, I strongly urge you to consider a cloud
based project management or at the very least, an Excel document.
Now don't take shortcuts.
There's simply too much at stake, which is namely passing your probationary period.
Now, I love Asana.
Asana is an app that helps you build
project plans, coordinate tasks and hit deadlines.
You can set strategic goals,
you can track progress, you can connect to your calendar and you
can report on progress, all within a beautiful and flexible workspace.
Things I like?
Well, you can easily move between like a board and a calendar view.
You can create detailed tasks using sub-tasks, notes, attachments, links,
which makes it really powerful, all-in-one tool where you can keep
everything related to your onboarding together in one place. You can set due
dates and reminders so you don't miss anything.
And there is a dedicated workspace
just for files. It makes it super easy to locate any documents you've uploaded.
And there's also a dedicated conversation
workspace which makes it easy to collaborate.
You could add your manager as a collaborator
and save a whole bunch of emails simply by using the chat features in Asana. Or
potentially even colleagues if there's a couple of you starting at the same time.
And the ability to export your plan to a CSV file means you can easily import
your project into other applications or circulate it as an attachment. You might
need to do some minor formatting, though, because it's CSV, it's not super pretty.
And the price is sweet.
It's free for teams of up to 15.
Now, don't forget The KAM Club members,
you can grab a 30/60/90 day Asana template by visiting the resources section.
Now, the other option is Excel,
which is a great choice for less complex 30/60/90 day plans.
The design elements are really flexible
and you have complete control over the look and feel.
And it's also easier, which means you'll be more likely to use
it, and half the battle of a 90 day plan is keeping it up to date.
Now what I love? Flexible design options.
You really can get as creative and as
colourful as you like. Conditional formatting helps you take your layout
to the next level and makes it a breeze to get a quick overview of your data
and spot important cues, things like due dates.
Everybody has access, right?
So there isn't an organization
in the world that doesn't have Excel installed on every desktop and laptop.
Copy and paste works well too,
which means it's really quick to create presentations from an Excel worksheet.
It's also simple to circulate a worksheet
by email, either as an attachment or share as a view only link.
All right, now Excel is not free,
but hopefully you have an enterprise license in your new job. If you don't,
the price is only £5.99 a month for Microsoft 365 personal.
It's not going to break the bank and it also includes word Apple and PowerPoint.
Now you can grab my 30/60/90 day Excel
plan template for free by visiting amtip.co/90dayplan.
All right, now,
I hope this guide to creating 90 day success plans for maximum impact helps you
survive and thrive in your new account management role.
If you would like assistance with interview preparation,
designing or writing your 90 day plan or anything else, you can book a career
power hour with me at any time. Just visit amtip.co/powerhour.
Or think about joining The KAM Club, I'd love to see you there.
Finally, don't forget to like, share and
subscribe and if you'd like to stay in touch, well you can find me
on the social media platform of your choice @warwickabrown.
All right, till next time Heroes. Bye for now.