X Marks the spot: account mapping 101

Struggling to figure out who the decision makers in your deal are? Account mapping can help point you in the right direction.

Email tracking software is generally a good thing. Products like Yesware make it easy for salespeople to track engagement and get an idea of who reads their outreach emails.

But, salespeople have a tendency to get way too excited when they get a notification that someone opened their email.

In reality, an opened email doesn’t mean all that much. I mean, it could land you the opportunity to pitch to a potential customer. But, if that customer doesn’t have the right use-case or budget, then the opened email probably won’t lead to anything at all.

So, while you’re waiting for those email responses, you should also start figuring out what’s going on behind the scenes at the company.

By creating an account map, you can start to outline the structure of your accounts (i.e who works for who), which employees will get the most value from your product, and how each person feels about your company (who digs it, who doesn’t, etc). 

Account mapping is a valuable process through every stage of a deal. Whether you’re trying to get a freemium user to upgrade or trying to get an existing customer to re-up at the end of a contract, account maps can help you determine where you need to focus your sales efforts. 

BEFORE WE START: TWO ALIGNMENT QUESTIONS

Before you start creating your account map, there are a few questions you should ask yourself about every customer):

1. Does the product align with their needs?

2. How much are they willing to spend?

It’s important to ask these questions because they’ll help you determine whether or not a customer is even worth spending time on.

Ask yourself both of these questions and map out your accounts on an axis like this:

This graph shows us which relationships are worth fostering and which may not be beneficial (for us or the customer).

It’s clear, for example, that Square is our best customer. The use-case aligns with their needs. And, they have the budget to cover our asking price.

Coca-Cola, on the other hand, may not be the best customer. While they have more than enough money to invest in the product, their use case isn’t aligned. In other words, they aren’t getting the maximum amount of value from the product. 

Obviously, we want every customer to be using the product to its optimum potential. That’s how we build our reputation and get more customers in the future. So, it may not be worth it to spend time with Coca-Cola if we can’t add value to their company.

BUILDING YOUR ACCOUNT MAP

Once you’ve determined the best-fitting customers, you can start mapping out accounts.

I like to begin just by writing down all of the employees I know at a certain company. If I’ve emailed with the Head of Sales, for example, I’ll write down their name. If they happened to mention the name of their boss or a few account managers who work for them, I’ll write those names down, too.

Early on, I’ll try to identify the people who use the product. Remember, your point of contact is not always the users.

Then, I map them out like this:

In the example above, I know two people at the company: Zoe and Greg. I know that they work together somehow, but I’m not sure how.

Zoe is my point of contact. But, I’ve deduced that Greg is a user because he’s an account manager and I make account managing software. 

As I build my relationship with Zoe, I ask her questions to try and fill out my map a little bit more. 

Over time, It might look something like this:

How do I get here?

Well, just by asking.

When I was on the phone with Zoe, she mentioned that she had to run something by her boss. All I did was ask who her boss was.

And she also mentioned that Greg’s boss was happy about how much more productive Greg was with the tool at his disposal. I didn’t want to ask for Greg’s boss’ name, because it seemed rude, but at least I know that he reports directly to someone.

The rest of the people on the map were either CC’d in emails or sourced from LinkedIn. 

Why this is important:

This is important because you need to know who benefits from the product. 

If it helps Greg be more productive, his boss is going to like it. And there’s a strong likelihood that their boss will probably like it, too.

However, Zoe is currently the only person who I talk to. So, I know that Zoe plays a key role in the purchasing process. Luckily, she feels positive about the product, which means that she’ll probably advocate for us in the decision meetings. 

…which leads us to our next step:

MAP THE SENTIMENT

A sentiment map is an account map that shows how everyone feels about the product. 

Who likes it? Who hates it? Who thinks it’s valuable and who feels that it’s a waste of money?

Here’s my example sentiment map:

Simple, right

All you really have to do is draw a green circle around the people who feel good about it. Then, draw a red circle around the people who aren’t into it. Anyone you’re unsure of can stay un-circled. 

The challenge, of course, is figuring out how people feel. 

Obviously, if your conversations with Zoe are positive, you can circle her in green. And, if she mentions that Greg seems to like it, you can circle him, too.

It’s slightly more difficult to figure out who dislikes the product. You may have to do some guesswork here. 


In the sentiment map above, I’ve circled Sophie in red because I know where she used to work (found her on LinkedIn) and I know that her former employer uses one of my competitors’ products. Therefore, she may not be fully onboard. So, I’ll circle her in red to be safe and wait until I hear something that proves otherwise.

I’ve circled the unknown person next to Greg because (in this imaginary situation), the product could actually displace their job. Obviously, they’re not likely to be excited about it. 

Why this is important:

This is crucial because all of these opinions could potentially influence the decision.

If they’re not already onboard with the product, you may need to figure out how to get them excited.

After all, there’s a chance that Sophie may bring up her preference for a competitor’s product in meetings. So you either need to take steps to get Sophie onboard or convince enough people around her that you have a superior product if you want to close the deal.

UNDERSTANDING ACCOUNT ROLES

In every deal, there are four essential roles. You should use your account map to identify each of them:

Champion: Someone who loves the product and sees the fit right away. They want to help, make introductions, and see the deal succeed. Typically, this is a more senior person.

Decision maker: This is the person who owns the decision. It may be a program manager who needs the solution or the budget holder who carries the responsibility.

Influencer: The person who has a great influence on the deal. Look for people who have previous experience with your product or industry. Look for someone who is affected by this choice but isn’t a budget holder.

User: This person is most impacted by the decision because they will be using your product directly. Depending on the size of the company, they may or may not have influencing power.

You’ve already identified some positive influencers and negative influencers in our imaginary deal above (Zoe+Greg=positive influencer, Sophie=negative influencer). 

But who is your champion? Who are your users?

When you identify these roles, create another map and label them like this:

Here, we’ve identified Vanessa as the Champion. We know that she likes us, we know that she sees the use-case, and we have a feeling that she’ll vouch for us in discussions about the purchase. Because she’s a tier up from Zoe in the company hierarchy, she’ll probably have more influence in the decision.

Obviously, we know that Greg and the unnamed person next to him are both users. And, we know that Sophie (pesky Sophie) isn’t onboard. We’re not sure about how the other influencers feel yet, but that’s okay. 

Ultimately, the most important person on our map is Steven. Assuming that this is a small company, Steven is the CEO and the person who will decide whether to buy it or not. 

So our goal, in the end, is to get as many people under Steven onboard with the product. If the majority of folks are onboard and feel that the tool is valuable for their company, it’s much more likely that Steven will find the investment worthwhile.

 COMMUNICATION PLAN

Ultimately, the value of account mapping is that it shows you who to talk to. But, it can also let you know how to talk to them (or what to talk to them about).

In other words, your account map can help you devise a strategy for marketing your product to the employees at a company. 

Even though Vanessa is our Champion, for example, we have to make sure Christina is onboard, too. From our research, it appears that both of their opinions carry equal weight. Because Greg, who represents our end-user, ultimately works under Christina, it’s important that she understands the product’s value.

So, we have to get in touch with her. That’s our goal. If we can do that, we’ll have a better chance at getting them to buy/upgrade.

There are a few ways you can do this. 

First, you can try to connect with her through Zoe, as Zoe reports directly to her. You could ask if Christina can join you on a call or for a demo. Greg’s boss (we still don’t know their name) reports to Christina, so it shouldn’t be too hard to convince her of the value. 

And, because Vanessa is our Champion, we should make sure to stress that the product carries value across all departments. She’ll be able to communicate this to Christina if she gets any pushback at the executive level.

Hopefully, that will give us the leverage we need to convince Steven, the CEO, to sign off on the budget if necessary.

ACCOUNT MAPS CAN SHOW YOU THE WAY

It may seem like a big undertaking, but account mapping is integral to developing a sales strategy. 

Think of it like a chess match—what moves do you have to make to get to the most important player?

But remember, this isn’t purely about landing the deal—it’s also about adding value. The more you understand the goals of each person (and the company as a whole), the easier it’s going to be for you to close.

One final suggestion I have is to research the company’s priorities. Look through mission statements, founder interviews, and even Twitter feeds to identify the company’s values. If they mention that they’re trying to achieve a certain goal within the next year, determine how your product can help them achieve that goal.

If the company is aiming to grow their enterprise sales by 50% in the coming year, for example, you should aim to communicate that you can help them get there. You’ll start by identifying who owns that goal (probably the Head of Sales) and then getting across the table from them. When the senior leaders understand that your product can help them grow, you’re going to close deals in no time. 

In the end, an account map is simply a tool that gives you a sense of direction. Once you have a good one, you can stop hedging all of your bets on Yesware notifications and start strategizing with intent.