The AE Personal Business Plan Reboot — 60-Min Training

Direct Answer

Section 1 — Open & Frame the Hour (5 min)

Open by stating the rule out loud: "The number on your comp plan is a goal. The plan you write in the next 55 minutes is how you actually hit it." Mike Weinberg's core idea in *Sales Management Simplified* is that AEs drift when no one forces them to plan their own business — managers babysit pipeline instead of coaching strategy.

This hour fixes that.

• Tell reps what success looks like at minute 60: a one-page plan, signed by them and you, with named accounts, weekly activity, and a dollar amount of upside.
• Set the tone: "I am facilitating. You are writing. I will not write your plan for you."
• Pre-work assumption: every AE arrives with their territory list, last 4 quarters of pipeline, and comp plan in hand. If they did not, that is the first coaching moment.

The template they will fill — print it or paste it in a shared doc:

``` AE PERSONAL BUSINESS PLAN — [Name] — [Quarter/Year]

1. Territory snapshot: _________ accounts, $_____ TAM, _____ in-cycle
2. Top 10 named accounts: 1. ___ 2. ___ 3. ___ ... 10. ___
3. Bench (next 15 prospects):1. ___ ... 15. ___
4. Weekly activity contract: ____ calls, ____ emails, ____ meetings, ____ demos
5. Skill gaps (3 honest): 1. ___ 2. ___ 3. ___
6. Comp math at 100/120/150%: $______ / $______ / $______

Signed AE: _______ Signed Manager: _______ Review date: _______ ```

Section 2 — Territory Deep-Dive & Named-Account Ranking (15 min)

This is the heaviest block. Reps open their territory list and do two things: size it and rank it.

Territory snapshot (5 min). Andy Paul calls this "knowing the box you sell inside." Each AE answers, on paper:

• How many accounts are in my patch right now?
• What is the realistic TAM (account count × average ACV in our segment)?
• How many are in-cycle (someone on my team has touched them in 90 days)?
• What is my coverage ratio — pipeline-dollars divided by remaining quota? Mark Roberge's benchmark in *The Sales Acceleration Formula* is 3x-4x coverage to forecast confidently.

Named Top 10 (10 min). Anthony Iannarino's *Eat Their Lunch* is the reference here: do not "work the territory" — go after the dream accounts that move the number. Rank every account on three dimensions, 1-5 each:

1. Fit — do they match our ICP (segment, stack, headcount, trigger)?
2. Reachability — do we have a warm path, a champion, or an open door?
3. Deal size — would this close at or above segment average ACV?

Sum the score, sort descending, cap the list at 10. Lisa Magnuson's *Top Sales Producer* calls these "Top-Line Accounts" and argues a focused 10 will out-produce a sprayed 50 every time. Reps who try to keep 20 "top" accounts get pushed back to 10 — pick.

Section 3 — The Named-Prospect Bench (10 min)

The Top 10 will not all close. The bench is the insurance policy.

• 15 named prospects ranked just below the Top 10 — same fit/reach/size scoring, ready to be promoted the moment a Top 10 dies.
• Each bench account gets one specific outbound play for the next 13 weeks: an executive briefing, a customer-story warm intro, a peer-referral ask, an event invitation, or a point-of-view email.
• Iannarino's nurture cadence — 14 touches over 12-13 weeks across phone, email, video, social, and direct mail — is the default unless the rep argues for something better.

Coaching question every manager should ask in this block: *"If your top 3 accounts ghost you in week 4, which three bench accounts do you promote, and what is the first move?"* If the rep cannot answer in 30 seconds, the bench is not real yet.

Section 4 — Weekly Activity Contract (10 min)

Plans without activity math are wishes. Reps back into the activity number from quota.

The math, walked live on a whiteboard:

• Quota ÷ average ACV = deals needed.
• Deals needed ÷ historical win rate = opportunities needed.
• Opportunities needed ÷ meeting-to-opp conversion = discovery meetings needed.
• Meetings ÷ meeting-set rate = outbound dials/emails needed.
• Divide all of it by 13 weeks in the quarter.

Roberge's discipline in *The Sales Acceleration Formula* is to track leading indicators weekly, not lagging revenue monthly. The rep writes a one-line contract:

*"To hit $X in bookings this quarter I will run A calls, B personalized emails, C first meetings, and D demos every week — measured every Friday at 4pm."*

Manager signs it. The number is non-negotiable for 13 weeks; only the tactics inside it can change.

Section 5 — Skill Gaps & Comp Upside Math (15 min)

Skill gaps — 8 minutes. Each rep names three honest weaknesses that cost them deals last year. Common entries: multi-threading above the buyer, building business cases, negotiating without discounting, technical objection handling, executive presence. For each gap the rep commits to one concrete action — a book, a ride-along, a peer shadow, a recorded role-play with the manager.

Andy Paul's rule of thumb: *"If you cannot name what you are working on this quarter, you are not improving."*

Comp upside math — 7 minutes. Reps too often forget what hitting the number actually pays. Walk through the comp plan and write three numbers:

• At 100% of quota: OTE = $______
• At 120% of quota: OTE + accelerators = $______
• At 150% of quota: OTE + accelerators + president's club = $______

The gap between 100% and 150% is usually 60-100% more income because of accelerators. Magnuson's point in *Top Sales Producer* lands here: top producers are not working harder than everyone else — they are working a smaller, better list with a clear money target in their head.

Section 6 — Sign, Schedule, Close (5 min)

End the hour with three concrete acts:

• Sign the page. Rep signs, manager signs, date it. A signed plan is a contract, not a brainstorm.
• Schedule the review cadence. Weekly 15-min activity check-in (Friday 4pm), monthly 30-min plan review (first of the month), quarterly 60-min rebuild (this meeting again next quarter).
• State the one thing each rep will do Monday morning. Force specificity: not "prospect more" but *"send the warm-intro ask to [name] in [account] before 10am Monday."*

Close with Weinberg's reminder: the rep owns the plan; the manager owns the coaching cadence. If either side skips their job, the plan is paper. If both sides hold it, this is the highest-leverage hour you will run all quarter.

FAQ

Q: What if a rep refuses to commit to a weekly activity number? A: That is a coaching conversation, not a plan problem. Either they distrust the conversion math (then walk it together with their own historical data) or they are protecting themselves from accountability. Roberge's stance: activity targets are non-negotiable; the tactics inside them are.

Q: We run this annually — is quarterly overkill? A: Annual sets the strategic frame; quarterly refreshes named accounts, bench, and activity. Magnuson's research on top producers shows they replan their top-line account list every 90 days minimum because deals close, champions leave, and triggers shift.

Q: How do we handle a rep whose Top 10 looks like a wish list? A: That is exactly the value of the fit-reach-size scoring. If a rep ranks Fortune 50 logos as 5/5/5 with no champion, no warm path, and no segment fit, the score forces an honest conversation. Iannarino: *"Dream accounts are dreams until you have a plan."*

Q: Should new AEs (under 90 days) do this? A: Yes, with a lighter version. Skip the historical win-rate math (they do not have it yet), use team averages, and weight Section 5 (skill gaps) heavier than Section 2 (named accounts).

Q: What does the manager bring to this meeting? A: The rep's last 4 quarters of pipeline, the rep's territory list, the comp plan, and a printed copy of the template. Nothing else. Andy Paul: *"Managers who walk in with their own plan for the rep have already lost the meeting."*

Sources

1. Mike Weinberg, *Sales Management Simplified* (AMACOM, 2015) — chapters on AE accountability and the manager-as-coach model.
2. Anthony Iannarino, *Eat Their Lunch: Winning Customers Away from Your Competition* (Portfolio, 2018) — named-account targeting and the 14-touch nurture cadence.
3. Mark Roberge, *The Sales Acceleration Formula* (Wiley, 2015) — leading-indicator activity tracking and coverage-ratio benchmarks.
4. Andy Paul, *Sell Without Selling Out* (Page Two, 2022) — territory ownership and personal-business-plan discipline.
5. Lisa Magnuson, *The Top Sales Producer Series* (Top Line Sales) — Top-Line Account methodology and 90-day replanning cadence.
6. Trish Bertuzzi, *The Sales Development Playbook* (Moore-Lake, 2016) — supporting framework for outbound activity math.
7. Jeb Blount, *Fanatical Prospecting* (Wiley, 2015) — daily activity discipline and pipeline-coverage logic.