Rethinking Account Planning with Salesforce: Why I Made the Switch

As I was reviewing a client’s account planning requirements, my mind immediately jumped to Quip. After all, let’s face it—Quip has long been the go-to Salesforce solution for account planning, right? The timing was interesting. We were on the cusp of Salesforce’s Winter ’25 release, and I knew a new Account Planning feature was coming. The release notes hinted at something exciting: a native Salesforce tool designed specifically for account planning, built on the core platform with seamless integration into the data model we all rely on. Yet, I couldn’t see it, touch it, or fully understand how it worked until the release hit production.

I won’t lie—it was a bit nerve-wracking. Do I stick with a tried-and-trusted solution like Quip, which I’ve used and loved for years? Or do I hold out for a brand-new feature that sounds promising but could just as easily fall short of expectations? What if it didn’t have the functionality my client needed? What if it wasn’t ready for prime time?

In the end, curiosity got the better of me. I decided to wait and see what this new feature could offer. Once the Winter ’25 release dropped and I got hands-on with Account Plans, it became clear: this wasn’t just a cool new feature. It was a game-changer.

What Are Account Plans in Salesforce?

Salesforce’s new Account Plans feature, introduced in the Winter ’25 release, represents a significant leap forward in how organizations can strategically manage and grow their most important customer relationships. Unlike traditional methods that rely on external tools like spreadsheets or Quip documents, Account Plans are natively built into Salesforce, offering seamless integration with core data models and providing real-time insights and collaboration across teams.

At its core, the Account Plans tool helps sales teams:

• Set and align strategic goals for each account, ensuring that everyone from sales reps to leadership is working toward shared objectives.
• Track key milestones and progress, making it easier to adapt strategies based on real-time data.
• Collaborate more effectively by centralizing all relevant account information, tasks, and updates within Salesforce.

This native integration ensures a single source of truth for managing customer relationships, and it empowers teams to be more proactive in identifying growth opportunities, mitigating risks, and ensuring customer success. Whether managing a few key clients or overseeing an enterprise-level account strategy, this tool brings structure, visibility, and accountability to the process.

The Account Planning Data Model: A Closer Look

To fully appreciate the power of the Account Plans feature, it’s important to understand the data model behind it. Built on Salesforce’s robust relational data model, Account Plans are designed to integrate smoothly with existing Salesforce objects, making it easier to track, manage, and report on account strategies.

Here’s a breakdown of the key objects in the Account Plan data model:

1. AccountPlan: The Core Record
   The AccountPlan object serves as the central hub for each customer’s strategic plan. It holds key fields like account name, plan status, owner, and target revenue, and integrates with other Salesforce records like Accounts, Opportunities, and Contacts. By being a part of the overall Salesforce ecosystem, the AccountPlan object can connect to virtually anything via lookup relationships, ensuring that all relevant information about an account is captured and easily accessible.
2. AccountPlanObjective: Setting and Tracking Goals
   The AccountPlanObjective object is a related record that helps define and track the goals and objectives for each account. Salesforce includes an out-of-the-box Lightning web component that displays these objectives directly on the AccountPlan page, helping users quickly assess which goals are on track or need attention.
3. AccountPlanObjectiveMeasure: Measuring Success
   The AccountPlanObjectiveMeasure object tracks the progress of each objective through measurable metrics like numbers, currency, or percentages. You can set targets and track progress using visual charts, providing a clear view of how close the team is to meeting its goals. This is especially helpful for teams who want to see real-time updates on their progress.

By using these three core objects—AccountPlan, AccountPlanObjective, and AccountPlanObjectiveMeasure—Salesforce gives you a powerful, scalable solution for managing account strategies, and it integrates seamlessly with your existing data model.

Customizing Account Plans for Your Organization

The Account Plans feature is already incredibly useful out of the box, but the real value comes in how you can customize and extend it using the broader Salesforce platform. Here are a few ways to tailor Account Plans for your organization:

1. Enhancing Account Plan KPIs with Embedded Dashboards
   The default Account Plan KPI Lightning Web Component provides a set of valuable metrics like open opportunities by stage, revenue for the last and current quarter, and opportunity win rate. While these KPIs are valuable, I wanted to provide a more comprehensive snapshot of account health.
   
   My solution: Replace the default KPI component with an Embedded Dashboard from CRM Analytics. By embedding a custom dashboard, I can display not only standard KPIs but also additional metrics, like customer engagement and pipeline velocity, allowing users to interact with and drill down into data as needed.
2. Automating Objective and Measure Updates Using Flow
   One of the biggest challenges with account planning is keeping the data current. Manually updating objectives and measures is time-consuming and prone to human error.
   My solution: Use Flow to automate updates for AccountPlanObjectives and AccountPlanObjectiveMeasures. For example, build a Flow that automatically updates the progress of a revenue-related objective based on opportunities advancing through stages. This helps ensure the data remains up-to-date without requiring manual intervention, saving time and reducing the risk of errors.
3. Leveraging Einstein Generative AI for Account Summaries
   To streamline account plan updates, use Einstein Generative AI to automatically generate account summaries. The AI-powered summaries are consistent and ready for review, eliminating manual data entry.

In conclusion, Account Plans in Salesforce offer a powerful, scalable solution for managing strategic accounts. With deeper integration, advanced reporting, and enhanced automation, they far surpass the capabilities of Quip. For organizations looking to manage accounts more efficiently and with greater insights, Account Plans in Salesforce is the future of account management.

Stay tuned for future blog posts where I’ll dive deeper into how I customized Account Plans to meet my solution’s unique needs. From automation with Flow to integrating CRM Analytics dashboards and utilizing Einstein Generative AI for smarter summaries, I’ll be exploring all the ways you can make this feature even more powerful within your organization.