The best leaders know the difference between accountability and responsibility.
> Accountability is for a result
> Responsibility is for a task
Companies should define who is responsible for each activity on the customer journey.
Then, ensure the responsible role has the skills to complete that task.
I’ve found that identifying each task to be done, who is responsible for it, and who is accountable helps illuminate areas of confusion, identifies gaps, and can reduce frustration.
Some examples:
- Initial sale
- Onboarding kickoff call
- Implementation
- Success planning
- Account planning
- Product best practices coaching
- Technical project management
- Expansion prospecting
- Expansion sales
- Renewal management
- Advocacy invitations
- Support case management
- Etc…
There are patterns, but no one size fits all model for who does all of this.
But every company should spend time defining it.
How?
Get in a room with leaders and frontline doers in each role, talk through each task, agree, align, then train and enable the team (don’t forget that most important last step).
Remember, “the dog with two owners goes hungry.”
I think i just said RACI without saying RACI.
