Free Template: How to prioritize your target accounts for ABM

Scenario: You’re gearing up to kick off your new Account-Based Marketing initiative, but you’re faced with an important question: what accounts should you start with?

Most B2B sales organizations have a long list of hundreds of top-tier target accounts. Choosing the right pilot accounts for your fledgling ABM program can make the difference between a promising initial success and a momentum-crushing failure.

SiriusDecisions talked about their methodology for prioritizing ABM accounts at their 2016 SDSummit. It is a surprisingly simple methodology. I find many consultants recommend overly complex methodologies that are difficult to deploy without a lengthy and expensive consulting engagement… but this is a refreshing exception to that.

Creating an ABM Total Opportunity Index Score

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[Source: SiriusDecisions]

Rate each account on a short list of key criteria. In the example pictured here, it is 7 simple questions that can be answered off the cuff by any semi-informed sales rep, requiring little or no in-depth research. Each question gets a value from 1 to 5, then you total up the score to calculate the ABM Total Opportunity Score for each account. Sort your accounts top to bottom and start executing ABM at the top.

This methodology is not built for extreme precision, but it is fast and it allows you to narrow your focus quickly. Schedule a 30-minute WebEx with each sales rep and drag them through the process, account-by-account, during the meeting. Done! It’s the antidote for analysis-paralysis.

You might want to factor in a few other practical criteria. For example…

Maybe you have a lot of target accounts in one specific industry. Start with one of the top scorers in that industry because then you will be able to leverage your work for other top accounts in the same industry. For example, for my recent project we started with a banking pilot account and developed a library of ~50 emails related to banking use cases, which are now being adapting for other top banking target accounts.
Maybe you have a sales rep who is totally crushing it, or one who is really bought-in to the value of ABM. Start with a rep that has is willing to participate enthusiastically and has a better-than-even chance of closing some business.

Free download

I’ve converted the SiriusDecisions methodology to a spreadsheet for automatic score tabulation and easy sorting >>>>> download it here (free, no form) <<<<<.

It is easy to adapt this tool for your own ABM Opportunity Index qualifications. For example, on a recent project we used the following ABM factors to tabulate the scores and rank the accounts:

Account is very large (score 5 for >$50B; score 3 for $10-50B; score 1 for $1-10B)
Account is in a prioritized industry (score 5 for FinServ, Retail, Telco, Hi-Tech, Govt; score 3 for Insurance, Media/B’cast, Mfg, Healthcare; score 1 for Other)
Presence of a reference account in same industry (score 5 for more than one reference account in same industry; score 3 for a reference account in same industry; score 0 for no reference account)
No. of contacts in internal database (score 5 for >200; score 3 for 100-200; score 1 for <100)
Recency of engagement (score 5 for within past 30 days; score 3 for between 2 and 6 months; score 1 for >6 months)
# of meetings had already (score 5 for >2 meetings; score 3 for 1-2 meetings; score 0 for 0 meetings)
# of opportunities past & present (score 5 for >5 opps; score 3 for 3-5 opps; score 1 for 1-2 opps)

Give it a try and let me know what you think!

About Bob Hebeisen

My name is Bob Hebeisen and I'm a Boston-based marketer, currently seeking new full-time and contract opportunities. I formerly held the title of Head of Marketing for Glance Networks as well as Field Marketing and Channel Marketing roles at PTC and SDL. I have spent most of my 20-year career in Business-to-Business (B2B) technology marketing. Reach out to me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobhebeisen/

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