As sales and relationship managers, we know it's important to do our homework. We also know there is a lot to learn about our customer's business and their needs. We could brainstorm for hours all the different things we would like to learn, which could lead to a few logical questions:

How do you keep everything straight?

How do you know what to prioritize?

How can you tell when you've learned enough?

There are no exact answers to these questions, but there is a tool that can help us get closer to them - the IMPAX POSI Grid.  

The POSI Grid takes everything we've learned about the customer and helps us to organize and categorize it into four distinct quadrants:
Profile - Who are they, what do they do, who do they do it for, etc.
Objectives - Where they are headed in the future (timebound, measurable goals).
Strategies - The things they are doing to accomplish their objectives.
Issues - The challenges that could stand in the way of attaining their objectives.

The POSI Grid is a versatile tool and can be used to capture information in (at least) three different areas:
Corporate - Knowledge about the customer's business at a high level.
Departmental - Information pertaining to a particular department (or departments) you are focused on.
Individual - Learnings about a specific key player in your relationship.

Used correctly, the POSI Grid becomes an ever-evolving repository of all your knowledge about the customer - complete with details, specifics, and customer language - and is updated continuously by you and your team.