Account-Based Prospecting Explained

After inspecting the prospecting motion of the best AEs across 65+ Enterprise companies this year, the most consistent AEs are MANIACALLY focused the “best” accounts. This is how an Enterprise AE who is at 172% YTD described her process to me: BACKGROUND “Most AEs simply waste a lot of time with people who will never buy, or can only transact for small $ and slow deals,” this AE told me. Having a dedicated Account Planning process to kick off the year, then revisited quarterly, allows her to be 10x more effective and do LESS prospecting volume than her peers. Her 2 step process looks like this: PART 1 --> Account Tiering Everyone knows about industry, personas, similar customers, and compelling use cases you can win. However, there is typically a subtle account characteristic that is different for every company that shines light on the true potential of an account. Here are a few examples: EX 1: At my previous company, Heap, website traffic, vertical, who their end-customers were, their customers’ average price point, etc. all mattered. However, the best accounts had a simple metric that was high signal – how many product and design employees did they have relevant to total headcount? The higher this ratio, the more likely they were to care about what Heap offered. EX 2: My friend is the VP sales at a startup that sells to accounting firms. Almost every accounting firm mentions “payroll” as an offering, but some accounting firms have BIG INVESTMENTS into payroll “practices.” He knows this by scraping their site to find how many times payroll is mentioned, whether they have case studies, etc. Basically, his job is to find who takes that part of their business very seriously. PART 2 --> Develop and constantly tweak your unique POV on the account What stands out to execs is NOT that you did your research. It’s the synthesis of your research. Your job is to form a well researched hypothesis of their business that shows why it’s at least worth engaging with you. Nothing else. The best POVs pique interest, share relevant stories, expand your prospects’ thinking, and constantly evolve with new convos and news. Here are a few frameworks for great POVs: - Painting a bold vision with/for them - Uncovering a problem they might not know they have - Trying to get to the root cause of their challenges - Challenging their status quo - Empathizing deeply with a current pain point they have Remember RELEVANCE > PERSONALIZATION. Your goal here is to pique their curiosity, show that you’ve synthesized a lot of research, and demonstrate that you’ve helped similar customers. TAKEAWAY: When it comes to prospecting as an AE, it’s easy to be busy. It’s hard to be strategic on a consistent basis. That's why you need a strong Account Planning process and ever evolving POV. You'll have better results if you spend 100% of your effort on the right accounts.

I’m extremely bullish on account-based GTM motions in 2026. As AI makes generic outreach cheap and ubiquitous, differentiation comes from precision, relevance, and deep context around a small set of high-value accounts. This sounds wonderful on paper until it’s time to set up a modern account-based GTM engine. IYKYK. For help I turned to Dan Rosenthal from Workflows.io. They’ve set up 250+ GTM systems including dozens of ABX implementations over the past year. Dan put together what I think is the most comprehensive & useful guide to *modern* ABM with HubSpot, Claude Code, Clay & best-of-breed tech. Read the full deep dive in Growth Unhinged here: https://lnkd.in/eyF9bgyb There are 7 steps — follow these in this order: 1️⃣ TAM & stakeholder mapping Dan recommends combining 3+ data sources to reach 90%+ of TAM coverage w/o blowing through your budget. AI research agents help qualify the list based on website content & do the merge/de-dupe. 2️⃣ Account research Most companies Dan works with gather 30+ custom data points with Claude Code & MCPs. Some interesting ones: closest coffee shop next to their office, competitor tech usage. 3️⃣ CRM cleanup & enrichment Nobody’s favorite step, but you can’t skip it. 4️⃣ Signal tracking Intent signals are hot. Reps also don’t trust a lot of them. And many signals have commoditized. The most valuable signals are from your first party data (website visitors, gated content, product usage, event attendance, outreach replies, etc.). 5️⃣ Awareness scoring If you embrace ABX, you need a way to see where you stand with your target accounts (no, MQLs/SQLs don’t work). Identified > Aware > Interested > Considering > Evaluating. 6️⃣ Demand generation With the scoring in place, reps can focus on the warmest accounts who already show interest. Use a mix of 1:1, 1:few, and 1:many campaigns. (Pro-tip: Dan says event invites have been a great CTA in outbound.) 7️⃣ ICP pipeline progression reporting Success can be harder to quantify w/o an arbitrary MQL goal. The upside: you’re now collecting far richer data about what resonates with your target accounts. — I hope you find this guide as useful as I do. Let me know what you think 🙏 -KP

ABM is NOT: ≠ account-based ads + outreach to target accounts ≠ a substitute for demand generation Here are eight pillars of ABM: 1. 𝐀𝐁𝐌 𝐠𝐨𝐚𝐥𝐬 There are 4 goals ABM helps to achieve: - Net new revenue - generate sales opportunities - Pipeline acceleration - win stalled opportunities - Expansion - upselling or cross-selling to existing customers - Renewal / Churn prevention - renewing contracts with key customers Make sure to include all 4 campaigns in your marketing plan. 2. 𝐈𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐢𝐥𝐞 (𝐈𝐂𝐏) ICP includes: - Firmographics - Buying committee - Account qualification - Account segmentation - Account enrichment 3. 𝐀𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 - Engagement threshold to identify engaged accounts - Sources of intent data - Account-ICP fit Make sure all accounts are qualified and fit ICP. Avoid broad targeting or creating a wish list. 4. 𝐀𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐦𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 - Account key initiatives, strategy, and goals. - The role of every buying committee in the strategic initiatives, their KPIs, needs, and challenges - Value proposition mapping: how exactly your product fits their needs and what value it brings. 5. 𝐀𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭 𝐝𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐩𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 - Warm-up: how marketing and sales will create awareness inside buying committee, connect and engage with them. - Activation: how sales should activate accounts - Nurturing: how marketing and sales will stay in touch with target accounts 6. 𝐓𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐬𝐞𝐭 Here is the lean ABM team setup and 5 core functions. - Senior ABM manager - Researcher - Copywriter - Designer - SDR 7. 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐤 If you are building a pilot ABM motion, don't buy an expensive stack. Start with Sales Navigator and website traffic reveal software. If you have robust processes and scaling ABM, consider more expensive software to enhance your processes. 8. 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 Define key metrics and leading indicators for all 4 campaigns. Create simple dashboards to track campaign performance. Align everybody on reporting. --- The success of account-based marketing lies not in your stack or budget, but in solid foundations, and joint sales & marketing programs. Make sure you have a team and skillset that can dedicate enough time to develop ABM strategy and maintain the motion. And if you want to learn more about ABM, check out our flagship course:  https://lnkd.in/dCUX_sJX #abm #b2bmarketing #strategy

What's the most effective way to prospect into the C-suite at Large companies? One of my clients received a very positive, encouraging email from the CEO of a 4,000 employee Hospital which she had been contacting for several months. He responded after her 8th email. Each email was unique and added value, expanding on her initial point of view. Most sellers give up after 1 or 2 outreach attempts. When on average it takes 8 to book a meeting. Rather than sending a few generic emails to 100s of people, here’s what the elite performers are doing: 1. They identify a few top prospects that would be their “dream clients” 2. They identify 3-5 Senior Executives at those companies who would be most impacted by the outcomes which their products and services offer 3. They research those individuals to understand their top goals, challenges and priorities. 4. They develop a tailored, personalized point of view on how they can help these executives achieve their stated goals or solve top challenges with direct LINKAGE to what their company offers 5. Rather than using canned, generic sequences, they develop a series of personalized follow up messages which expand upon their initial point of view. These could include white papers, relevant customer stories, ROI studies, and additional details on how they can support the client with their most ambitious goals. So if you are working 10 "dream client" accounts with 5 executives prospects in each account, and each executive gets a series of 8 emails and calls, that’s 400 touch points to just 10 top accounts. This is the same volume as touching 100 smaller accounts 4 times, but will yield much greater results. Personalization and targeting works wonders. It’s the 80/20 rule in full effect. Win just a couple of these larger deals and you can blow out your number for the entire year, rather than grinding it out on a ton of smaller deals to barely reach quota. This is how the top performers in the Enterprise space are prospecting, and it’s working much better than sending out garbage to tons of people. Please note this is for large, A tiered prospects only. A healthy mix of hyper-personalized prospecting for A accounts, combined with semi-personalized prospecting for B accounts is best. But don't treat the A prospects like everybody else. And don't treat the Senior Executives at these companies like everybody else. Or you will get the same results as everybody else.

In my last post, I spoke about how many startup founders approach marketing like casting a wide net into the ocean, hoping to catch a fish. The reality? Most of the fish swim away, leaving you with wasted resources and little to show for it. So, what’s the solution? It’s time to trade the wide net for a laser-focused approach, Account-Based Marketing (ABM) where you reel in the right accounts with precision and purpose. Here’s how ABM can transform your marketing: 1️⃣ Start with Deciding The Accounts You Want To Go After Followed by Account Research: Build a refined list of potential accounts. Use tools that provide intent data to identify companies actively searching for solutions like yours. 2️⃣ Do Industry Research Every industry is a different puzzle with its pieces. Dive into the industries you’re targeting to understand their specific needs. 3️⃣ Segment and Prioritize Decide the right ABM strategy: 1:Many for broader outreach. 1:Few for targeted industry clusters. 1:1 strategic for high-value accounts. 4️⃣ Create Tailored Messaging and Content Personalization is your secret weapon. Focus on crafting customized content about the pain points and solutions you are offering. This will help you build a relationship with an account.  5️⃣ Adopt an Omnichannel Approach Use multiple touchpoints, email, LinkedIn, display ads, and more. Monitor what works best and optimize your campaigns accordingly. 6️⃣ Focus on In-Market Accounts Don’t waste your bait on fish that aren’t hungry. Concentrate your efforts on accounts actively showing buying intent, this ensures your resources are spent wisely. Always remember the rule, "Only 5% of buyers are in-market and ready to buy". 💡 Here’s the takeaway: ABM is like planting a garden. It takes time, care, and the right tools, but when done right, it yields a harvest of meaningful connections and sustainable results. Want to explore how ABM can elevate your startup’s marketing? Let’s connect! #ABM #accountbasedmarketing #b2b #startups #LinkedInCreators #B2BMarketing #Linkedin

Have a dream account you've been trying to break into? You've chased them for 6+ months, but you're met with crickets. Try this. Step #1. Name the big, ugly problem your solution solves. Not "we save you time and money!" or "we help you increase efficiency!" or "we help streamline your operations and increase productivity!". Those are generic value props. Not customer problems. Tip: If you're stuck at a "so what" problem, keep asking, "What's the negative consequence of this problem?" until you land on something you can imagine their leadership team caring about. Ex: instead of "we save your engineers 4 hours a week", it might be "the Engineering team is 2 months behind on our new AI product launch". Step #2. Take your best guess at how they're solving that problem today. No one is "doing nothing". Every problem has a solution in place. It might be a bad solution. But, if it's a big problem, there's a way they're getting by today. Even if it's DIY band-aids. Tip: You speak with execs ALL WEEK. You know the alternatives to using your solution. If you think you don't, go back and look at what closed-lost prospects said when they told you 'no'. What did they decide to do instead? Step #3. Name what makes that alternative solution desirable. AKA - why is "good", good enough? Don't criticize it. Put yourself in the shoes of the buyer. What makes status quo desirable? Tip: Don't fall into the trap of "they don't know there's a better way". Just because there's a "better way", doesn't mean they'd do it. Humans are funny like that. We make decisions daily that go against rational logic. Buyers are no different. Step #4. Now, you have a list of potential beliefs/assumptions that might be causing your prospect to feel comfortable with status quo. Pick your best guess at which one you think is most likely, based on what you know about the account and the prospects. Now, time to introduce an enemy to those belief/assumptions. Here's an example. Let's say you're selling deal room tech to an account that just launched a new AI product for ENT accounts. Your hypothesis = they're losing ENT deals b/c their prospects are involving IT stakeholders late-stage, and reps haven't had to involve IT before. You're guess is status quo = let's train the sales team to multithread. Here's one option: "Jen - sounds like the Sales team is heads down with the AI launch. Not sure if reps seeing change resistance from ENT accounts. But, ACME was up against it when they launched Zeta. They trained their teams to multi-thread, but kept running up against "surprise" IT stakeholders who squashed the deal late-stage. Open to seeing how they reduced late-stage losses by finding "surprise" IT stakeholders before the 11th hour? Either way - congrats on the launch." Our hypothesis might be wrong. But, by being specific, we spark the human desire to correct. A correction = a reply. A reply = more information. More information helps us act.

Had a conversation recently with an executive interest in moving from a lead-centric revenue model to an account-based approach. They saw the value but weren’t sure how to make the transition work in practice. I walked them through what actually needs to change: 1. Aligned KPIs The biggest gap in most transitions? The revenue team is still measured on lead volume. - Pipeline and conversion at the account level need to be the focus. - Speed matters, but velocity—how efficiently high-fit accounts move through the funnel—is what actually drives revenue. - Different targets causes friction (more on whether this is intentional is another story...) Without this alignment, marketing, sales, and SDR teams will pull in different directions. 2. Lead-to-Account Matching This surprises a lot of teams. They assume because they’re targeting accounts, their systems are tracking them correctly. But in reality: - Leads still enter as standalone records with no connection to an account. - SDRs work contacts without full context on account-level activity. - Sales misses out on early-stage engagement from the right accounts. Fixing this is table stakes. Without clean lead-to-account matching, the entire system falls apart. 3. Account Scoring & Buying Group Visibility Lead scoring isn’t enough in an account-based motion. The real question is: how engaged is the buying group? - Are multiple stakeholders active, or is it just one person? - Is the account signaling actual buying intent or just casual interest? - Are the right personas engaging? Account scoring should reflect engagement from the full buying team, not just isolated actions. 4. Clean Account Assignments, SLAs & Ownership This is where teams get stuck. In a lead-centric model, ownership is clear—SDRs work leads, AEs work opportunities. In an account-based model, it’s more nuanced: - Who owns an account when a new lead comes in? - What if it's an existing customer who could buy more (or buy something else)? - How do SDRs prioritize outreach when multiple personas engage? - What happens when marketing engagement overlaps with sales activity? And most importantly—what are SLAs to ensure high-intent accounts actually get worked (and, let's be honest - what qualifies as "worked)? If you don’t define this upfront, leads and accounts sit in limbo and pipeline suffers. 5. Account Planning & Cross-Functional Execution An account-based approach only works if everyone is operating from the same playbook. That means: - Marketing, SDRs, sales, and customer success align on which accounts matter most now and in the long term. - There’s a shared plan for prioritization, outreach, engagement, and activation. - Everyone has the same north star on focus and impact measurement (those pesky KPIs). When teams aren’t aligned, accounts fall through the cracks. Not all that great for an account-focused go-to-market model. TL;DR – I probably should’ve just said “Talk to Terry Flaherty at Forrester.” 😅

If I was the GTM leader for a niche company with only 500 target accounts, here's the exact ABM motion I'd run to capture majority market share within 365 days. Most companies with tiny TAMs still do spray-and-pray outbound. That's insane. When you have <500 target accounts, you don't need scale. You need surgical precision. 𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲'𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸: 𝗣𝗵𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝟭: Account Intelligence (Month 1) → Build detailed profiles for ALL 500 accounts → Map 20-30 stakeholders per account → Track technology stack, recent funding, pain signals → Tier accounts: 50 Tier 1, 150 Tier 2, 300 Tier 3 𝗣𝗵𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝟮: The 3-3-3 Strategy For each account, identify: → 3 power users (daily tool users) → 3 decision makers (VP/Director level) → 3 executives (budget owners) Sequence them completely differently with tailored messaging. 𝗣𝗵𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝟯: White Glove Treatment (Tier 1 Only) → Week 1-2: Map entire decision unit → Week 3-4: Surround sound (executive videos, custom demos, targeted ads to ALL stakeholders) → Week 5-8: Value creation (custom ROI analysis, exclusive partnerships) 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗠𝗼𝘃𝗲𝘀: 𝟭. 𝗜𝗴𝗻𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗧𝗶𝗲𝗿 𝟯 𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝟲 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵𝘀 Better to win 30% of 100 accounts than 1% of 500. 𝟮. 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗶𝘁𝘆 "We're only onboarding 20 new clients this year." Make them compete to work with you. 𝟯. 𝗕𝘂𝘆 𝗮 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗲𝘁𝗶𝘁𝗼𝗿'𝘀 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁 If a small competitor is struggling, acquire them for the customers. 𝟰. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗧𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗮𝗻 𝗛𝗼𝗿𝘀𝗲 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆 Build a free tool that solves a related problem. Get user-level adoption before selling enterprise. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗰𝗸: → 6sense/Demandbase ($100K): Intent data + website deanonymization → Sendoso ($30K): Physical gifting at scale → Mutiny ($40K): Website personalization by account → Userled: Account-based advertising 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘀: → 30% penetration of Tier 1 (15 customers) → 15% penetration of Tier 2 (22 customers) → $5-7M ARR by month 12 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁: When everyone knows everyone in your market, it's not about more activity. It's about strategic account domination. Most GTM leaders think small TAM means small revenue. They're wrong. Small TAM means you can know every decision maker personally. Use that advantage. Oh and I would NOT use Valley but spend time writing each of those messages myself. Not every market is a fit for us (or any tool for that matter) Strategy dictates the tech stack, not the other way around.

The Secret to Winning Upmarket Customers? Ditch Leads and Embrace Account-Based Selling 8 Proven Secrets to Transform Your Sales Strategy from Lead-Based to Account-Based: Account-based prospecting is way harder than lead-based prospecting, which is why many teams struggle with the transformation. Follow these 8 proven tips to succeed with high-$$$ upmarket and enterprise ICP: 1. Preach the Priority of ICP Accounts: Poor salespeople often focus on volume over quality. Converting ICP accounts is harder but generates more revenue with higher win rates. 2. It’s Outbound, Not Inbound: In an inbound motion, sales gets hand-raisers who need to be qualified. In an Account-Based motion, sales gets qualified accounts (MQA) that are prioritized for prospecting. 3. Separate the Motions to Different Teams: Assign dedicated account-based SDRs/BDRs for prospecting. Don’t mix this motion with inbound prospecting. It’s OK to run 2 motions in parallel! 4. Rewards are the Fuel for Sales: Account-based prospecting is tougher than inbound, so you should offer 1.5-2X commissions compared to inbound efforts. 5. Incentivise Marketing Alignment: When sales books meetings with marketing-influenced ICP accounts, pay a higher commission, not lower. Incentivize sales for alignment. 6. Learn Iteratively with Quarterly Pilots: Start small with a 1-2 person Tiger-Team and expand as you gain traction. Avoid trying to change everything at once. 7. Use Signals, Personalization, and Collaboration: Sales should focus on accounts showing intent signals and on a small number of priority ICP accounts. Marketing should nurture the rest. 8. Sales Leader Must Drive the Change: The sales leader must be committed to using Account-Based approach to win high-$$$ pipeline and understand how it differs from an inbound motion. Without the sales leader’s commitment, the transformation will fail. Which tips do you think have the biggest impact? Share the numbers in the comments and let's discuss.

"Someone at Acme Corp showed intent." Cool. Who? "The account is surging." Great. Which human? "They're in-market." Fantastic. What's their name? This is why account-based intent is broken. It's too fluffy. You're calling blind. Emailing ghosts. Chasing shadows. While your actual buyer already moved on to your competitor. Here's the reality: ✗ Businesses don't buy. People do. ✗ Accounts don't have pain. Humans do. ✗ Companies don't raise hands. Individuals do. Yet we're still playing guessing games with "account-level signals." On October 1st, I'm joining Influ2 and my good friend Katie Penner to blow this wide open. We're talking CONTACT-LEVEL intent. - See exactly WHO visited your site - Know WHAT they looked at - Understand WHEN they're actually ready - Plus (and this blew my mind) AI Search intent as well!? What?! But here's the kicker: The signal means nothing if you blow the outreach. "Hey, I saw you were on our website" = Delete "I noticed your company showing intent" = Trash "Looks like you're researching solutions" = Ghost That's why I'm sharing my KPICC framework for email/LI/Video/Voicemail: - **K**now - here's what I know about you/company/persona (not just the trigger) - **P**roblem their persona/company may be dealing with - **I**mpact of that problem, what it actually causes.   - **C**TD - Connect The Dots why you're reaching out. - **C**TA - Call to Agreement (not always action) Real playbooks. Real examples. Real results. Teams using contact-level signals see 3-4x higher conversion. Not because the data is better (though it is). Because they finally know WHO to call and WHAT to say. No theory. No fluff. Just tactical plays you can steal. Stop guessing. Start knowing. See ya'll there... https://lnkd.in/eCVNc6sE