An account manager’s weekly plan should make new-business work and existing-customer commitments visible together. List the work that must happen, reserve time for it, and identify where a handoff or capacity decision is needed. A universal prospecting-to-retention percentage cannot account for every role or customer situation.
In Episode 5, Jacobo discusses enjoying both new customer acquisition and long-term relationships, and the challenge of balancing those responsibilities as the business grows. The practical tool below is THCC’s editorial application of that discussion; it is not a checklist the guest delivered word for word.
Start with commitments, not an empty calendar
Review promised updates, active customer issues, scheduled conversations, and prospecting opportunities. Distinguish deadlines already agreed with others from activities you would like to complete. Include preparation and follow-up so meetings do not consume time that the plan pretends is still available.
Identify which work belongs to you and which requires delivery, support, or another commercial role. Coordinating an action does not always mean performing every part of it yourself.
Use a weekly planning record
- Customer commitments: What have I promised, to whom, and by when?
- New-business work: Which qualified conversations or discovery tasks need attention?
- Preparation: What information is needed before each conversation?
- Follow-through: What must happen after the conversation?
- Dependencies: Which person or team must contribute?
- Capacity conflict: Which commitment needs a manager’s decision?
Reserve realistic blocks for work that needs concentration and leave room for the interruptions the role actually experiences. The plan should expose a capacity problem, rather than hiding it behind a calendar that assumes every task will take its best-case duration.
Use the plan to improve handoffs
For a fictional account manager, a prospecting session may repeatedly be interrupted by requests for routine delivery information. Investigate whether another team can provide the information reliably and how the account manager will see its completion. Simply asking the manager to work faster does not resolve the coordination problem.
When raising a capacity issue, bring the conflicting commitments, their practical consequences, and a proposed ordering. Ask for a decision about priorities or responsibility. That is more actionable than saying the week is busy.
Review what moved and why
At the end of the week, compare the plan with the work completed. Separate unexpected customer needs, missing inputs, and overestimated capacity. Use the pattern to revise the next plan or the role’s responsibilities.
Should existing customers always take priority?
Priority depends on the commitment, impact, urgency, and role. Make those considerations explicit with the responsible leader. Avoid treating either prospecting or existing-account work as optional simply because the other is more immediately visible.
Watch the source conversation
Watch Episode 5 for the complete interview and its original context.
Continue with alignment between sales and customer experience, or explore more customer experience conversations and guides.
