New rules for account selection

Most ABM advice tells you to start your account selection by analyzing closed-won deals.

That’s great advice…if you’re still figuring out your ICP.

But for mature companies, it’s the wrong place to start.

If you already know who you sell to, your ABM account selection shouldn’t just reflect your historical wins: it should align with where the business is going next.

That means starting with your company’s top priorities for the year; like enterprise expansion, breaking into a new vertical, or capturing a new market segment.

Once you’re clear on those priorities, layer in where warm relationships already exist.

This ensures you’re not just “ABM-ing” in isolation, you’re running a strategy that ladders up to business goals and where sales already has access.

For mature companies, your account selection process should follow this order:

1️⃣ Company priorities first: tie directly to growth initiatives
2️⃣ Warm relationships second: leverage existing access points
3️⃣ Conversion analysis third: validate the selected relationship type

This creates natural sales alignment because your ABM targets are rooted in the same goals sales is chasing, and your outreach starts with higher-quality conversations.

When we started prioritizing accounts based on company goals + warm relationships, we saw faster buy-in from sales and higher conversion rates.

It’s not about guessing who might buy.

It’s about aligning where the company is going with the people who can help you get there.