Stage 1: Identify and tier key accounts
Deliverable: a tiered account list. Tier 1 (top 5 to 20 accounts, dedicated KAM resource). Tier 2 (next 20 to 50, shared KAM resource). Tier 3 (everyone else, standard account management).
Owner: head of revenue or CRO, in partnership with sales operations.
Salesforce: Account Tier custom field on the Account object. Tiers refreshed annually based on revenue, strategic value, and growth potential.
Stage 2: Build the account plan
Deliverable: a written account plan covering current state, goals, key relationships, whitespace, risks, and action items.
Owner: the assigned key account manager.
Salesforce: account plan stored on the Account object. Prolifiq CRUSH provides the structured template and refreshes automatically as Salesforce data changes.
Stage 3: Map relationships
Deliverable: a relationship map showing the buying committee, executive layer, influencers, and detractors. Includes contact metadata, influence score, and access path.
Owner: key account manager, often with input from sales engineering and customer success.
Salesforce: native relationship mapping via Prolifiq CRUSH. Stakeholders are Salesforce Contact records with custom fields for influence, access, and engagement.
Stage 4: Run whitespace analysis
Deliverable: a quantified view of expansion opportunities by product, business unit, geography, and use case. Whitespace = potential minus current.
Owner: key account manager.
Salesforce: whitespace dashboards inside CRUSH. Each product/BU/geo combination is scored against opportunity size.
Stage 5: Execute the plan
Deliverable: completed action items from the plan, measured weekly or biweekly.
Owner: key account manager plus cross-functional teammates.
Salesforce: action items as Tasks linked to the Account. Activity reporting surfaces overdue items.
Stage 6: Run QBRs and EBRs
Deliverable: quarterly business review with the buyer's leadership. Annual executive business review with C-suite. Both demonstrate value and surface expansion.
Owner: key account manager, with executive sponsor for EBRs.
Salesforce: QBR cadence tracked at the Account level. CRUSH and ACE deliver the QBR content from inside Salesforce.
Stage 7: Renew and expand
Deliverable: closed renewal at or above retention target. Closed expansion deals.
Owner: key account manager.
Salesforce: renewal opportunity created automatically 6 to 9 months before renewal date. Expansion opportunities surfaced from whitespace analysis.
Cadence overview
Weekly: KAM reviews active opportunities and plan execution.
Monthly: Cross-functional account review with sales engineering, CS, marketing.
Quarterly: QBR with customer. Internal account plan refresh.
Annually: EBR with customer executive layer. Account tier review.
Frequently asked questions
What are the stages of the key account management process?
Identify and tier accounts, build the account plan, map relationships, run whitespace analysis, execute the plan, run QBRs and EBRs, then renew and expand.
How often should key account plans be updated?
Refresh quarterly alongside QBRs. Refresh the relationship map any time there's a leadership change on the customer side.
What tools support the KAM process?
Salesforce-native account planning (Prolifiq CRUSH), relationship mapping, content delivery (Prolifiq ACE), and conversation intelligence (Gong, Chorus).
CTA
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