Account plan template for one enterprise account
David & Goliath | Last updated
An account plan template brings one enterprise account onto a single working document: why it matters, who is involved, which problems you will raise and what happens over the next 90 days. Each action gets an owner, an evidence note and a review date. Treat the day windows as editable planning, never as a forecast of meetings or revenue.
The full template
Fictional illustration: a cybersecurity vendor entering ANZ. These entries show how to fill in the worksheet. They describe no real organisation, customer or result.
| Field | Your prompt | Fictional filled-in illustration |
|---|---|---|
| Account summary | Which named buying entity is in scope, why does it fit and who owns it? | Fictional Enterprise A is a placeholder; the account owner must replace it with an approved internal record. |
| Decision and sources | What decision is relevant, which sources support it and what is unknown? | A possible evaluation question is a research hypothesis until confirmed; record its source and date. |
| Buying role map | Which responsibilities are confirmed or hypothesised, and who validates each? | A technical evaluation role is hypothesised; no individual or universal committee is assumed. |
| Priority problems | Which problem is confirmed, why prioritise it and what evidence is missing? | The fictional vendor has a question to validate, not evidence that the enterprise has a particular problem. |
| Plays by role | For each role and question, which play, owner and prerequisite apply? | The specialist prepares a point of view; a briefing waits for a relevant question and a permitted invitation route. |
| Days 1 to 30 | Which preparation actions, owners and readiness reviews are agreed? | The account owner checks the buying entity and evidence gaps before proposing any contact. |
| Days 31 to 60 | Which conditional actions depend on earlier evidence and approvals? | The specialist reviews the scenario only if the question and factual material are confirmed. |
| Days 61 to 90 | What will be reviewed, changed, paused or stopped? | The owners review what was learned and retain unresolved gaps; no meeting or purchase is forecast. |
| Measures and baseline | Which units, starting position, periods and evidence owners apply? | Mark unavailable evidence as missing rather than zero. |
| Permissions and dependencies | Which country, channel, privacy and procurement checks are needed? | Keep internal planning separate from approval to invite, message, call or share personal information. |
| Review and version | Who reviews changes and which condition requires a pause? | Retain the prior plan and pause affected actions when ownership, evidence or permission is unresolved. |
How to use it
Define the account and planning boundary
Write the named enterprise buying entity, account owner, fit rationale and current decision. Record the sources, dates and limits of your account summary. Separate public information from buyer-confirmed evidence, mark unknowns and identify any existing opportunity or partner ownership conflict.
Map roles and evidence gaps
Map the people or functions relevant to this decision, their responsibilities, known questions and permitted relationship routes. Distinguish confirmed participation from a role hypothesis. Record who will validate each gap rather than inventing contacts or assuming the same committee exists in every account.
Prioritise the account problems
List the problems the buyer has confirmed and the questions still inferred from research. Agree which problem deserves attention now, what evidence supports that choice and what would change it. Keep vendor capability claims separate from evidence that the account has a particular need.
Choose a relevant play for each role
Connect each priority question to a useful play, responsible owner, required evidence and receiving route. A technical evaluation might need an account-specific point of view while a sponsor may need a briefing. Check relevance, capacity, permissions and procurement restrictions before any invitation or activation.
Assign the next 90 days of actions
Use days 1 to 30, 31 to 60 and 61 to 90 as editable planning windows. For each action record an owner, prerequisite, review date and pause condition. Move or remove work when evidence, permission or capacity is missing. These windows organise work and do not promise meetings, pipeline or a purchase.
Review measures and revise the plan
Record the starting position, counting units, evidence owners and missing data. Review completed work, buyer-confirmed learning and agreed next actions separately from sales stages. Retain the prior plan when a problem, role or ownership changes and document the decision to continue, pause or stop.
Who fills it in
The account owner, marketer, technical specialist and delivery or partner owner who can confirm dependencies. Include privacy and factual approvers when their decisions are needed. Buying roles remain hypotheses until supported by appropriate evidence; the buyer may involve different people.
What to bring
- Named buying entity, fit rationale and account owner
- Account summary with dated sources and unknowns
- Role map with confirmed responsibilities and hypotheses separated
- Priority problems and evidence gaps
- Role-to-play action matrix with owners and dependencies
- 90-day action record, baseline and change history
When to do it
Use a 90-day planning horizon with editable review windows. Readiness and buyer needs determine action dates. Review earlier when a role, problem, permission or ownership changes; the horizon is not a promised time to a commercial result.
What to review
- Actions completed against their actual prerequisites
- Role and problem hypotheses confirmed, corrected or still unknown
- Evidence requested and buyer-agreed next actions
- Booked, held and sales-accepted stages counted separately
- Missing data, ownership conflicts and pause decisions recorded without invented targets
Use the ABM measurement guide for stage definitions. Activity alone does not establish sales acceptance, pipeline or revenue.
When to use it, and when not to
Use this worksheet after an account meets your agreed fit criteria and a sales owner accepts responsibility. It helps sales, marketing and specialists organise work around one enterprise decision. Name the buying entity explicitly when a group has several subsidiaries or procurement arrangements.
Pause when fit, existing opportunity ownership or the proposed buying entity is unresolved. Do not use an account plan as a purchased contact list, a forecast or a substitute for a buyer conversation. A list of senior job titles does not establish a buying committee or permission to contact anyone.
Common mistakes
- Treating a corporate group as one buying entity without checking
- Copying a generic committee into every account
- Presenting research hypotheses as buyer-confirmed problems
- Assigning a play without a receiving owner or permission review
- Treating a 90-day action calendar as a sales forecast
- Counting activity as a sales opportunity
Compliance notes
Apply the checks relevant to your channel and buyer. These sources do not establish clearance for New Zealand activity, which needs a separate local review.
Collect only personal information needed for the account purpose, record its source and intended use, and review collection, notification and disclosure obligations. Public availability does not create blanket permission to reuse personal details.
OAIC: Privacy Act and Australian Privacy Principles | OAIC: APP 3, collecting personal information | OAIC: APP 5, collection notification | OAIC: APP 6, use and disclosure
Check the actual recipient, country, consent, sender, unsubscribe and calling requirements before activating any account action. An eligible enterprise or a mapped buying role is not outreach permission.
ACMA: Spam Act 2003 guidance | OAIC: direct marketing and APP 7 | Do Not Call Register: industry overview | Do Not Call Register: industry standards | NZ Privacy Commissioner: privacy principles and collection notification | NZ DIA: commercial-message consent, sender and unsubscribe
For commercial email or messages, verify consent, identify the sender and provide a working unsubscribe. Keep suppression records.
Review personal-data collection, notice and intended use under the Privacy Act and APPs where applicable. APP 7 does not replace Spam Act or Do Not Call obligations.
OAIC: Privacy Act and Australian Privacy Principles | OAIC: APP 3, collecting personal information | OAIC: direct marketing and APP 7
Check Do Not Call eligibility before calling. Calling standards also apply to numbers outside the register.
Do Not Call Register: industry overview | Do Not Call Register: industry standards
If using LinkedIn ads, review the creative, destination and targeting against its advertising policies before launch.
For government participants, check the receiving agency's current gifts, hospitality and procurement rules before any offer. Commonwealth, NSW and Victorian guidance are starting points, not permission for every jurisdiction.
APSC: gifts and benefits guidance | NSW Government: gifts, benefits and hospitality | Victorian Public Sector Commission: minimum accountabilities
Questions
Is this an account list or an account plan?
This worksheet organises work for one named enterprise buying entity. Use the ICP and tiering worksheets to select accounts first. A plan connects that account’s problems and roles to actions, owners and review measures; it does not select an entire target list.
Does every account have the same buying committee?
No. Map responsibilities relevant to the specific decision and label unconfirmed roles as hypotheses. Validate participation through appropriate evidence and permitted relationships rather than inferring it from a job title.
What should happen within 90 days?
Agree achievable actions and review dates from readiness, capacity and buyer needs. The three planning windows are editable and include pause conditions. They do not promise meetings, revenue or a buying decision.
Sources
- OAIC: Privacy Act and Australian Privacy Principles. Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. Link checked 5 November 2026.
- OAIC: APP 3, collecting personal information. Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. Link checked 5 November 2026.
- OAIC: APP 5, collection notification. Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. Link checked 5 November 2026.
- OAIC: APP 6, use and disclosure. Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. Link checked 5 November 2026.
- ACMA: Spam Act 2003 guidance. Australian Communications and Media Authority. Link checked 5 November 2026.
- OAIC: direct marketing and APP 7. Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. Link checked 5 November 2026.
- Do Not Call Register: industry overview. Australian Communications and Media Authority, Do Not Call Register. Link checked 5 November 2026.
- Do Not Call Register: industry standards. Australian Communications and Media Authority, Do Not Call Register. Link checked 5 November 2026.
- NZ Privacy Commissioner: privacy principles and collection notification. New Zealand Office of the Privacy Commissioner. Link checked 5 November 2026.
- NZ DIA: commercial-message consent, sender and unsubscribe. New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs. Link checked 5 November 2026.
- LinkedIn advertising policies. LinkedIn. Link checked 5 November 2026.
- APSC: gifts and benefits guidance. Australian Public Service Commission. Link checked 5 November 2026.
- NSW Government: gifts, benefits and hospitality. NSW Government. Link checked 5 November 2026.
- Victorian Public Sector Commission: minimum accountabilities. Victorian Public Sector Commission. Link checked 5 November 2026.
Cite this template
This template is a working aid from David & Goliath: its examples are fictional and it reports no client results or benchmarks.
David & Goliath, "Account plan template for one enterprise account", last updated 5 November 2026, https://davidandgoliath.ai/templates/account-plan-template
Related
Getting help with this
If the account work belongs in an engagement, agree the scope, dependencies and review responsibilities before starting.