A new year usually brings a new set of goals for the GTM org.
Enterprise expansion.
Vertical expansion.
New product launches.
Cross-sells and upsells.
This is the moment most teams should reset their ABM strategy.
But too often, the reset starts in the wrong place.
New channels.
New tools.
Random accounts.
That’s not where momentum comes from.
The real starting point for ABM
Your ABM strategy should start with one clear question:
What is the business trying to accomplish this year?
Once that answer is clear, everything else should flow from it:
Which accounts matter
Which segments to prioritize
How Sales and Marketing work together
How success is measured
This is exactly how I ran ABM at Clari.
How we approached it at Clari
At the company level, we had a clear goal: vertical expansion within three core sub-verticals.
I aligned ABM directly to that priority.
The key decision was where to start.
I didn’t go after cold accounts that had never heard of us.
I focused on accounts in each sub-vertical that already knew who we were.
Specifically, accounts with multiple closed lost opportunities.
These accounts:
Had already identified pain points we solved
Had evaluated our product
Had existing context documented in the CRM
Had buying committees and champions we could reference
That context mattered more than intent signals or firmographics.
It gave our SDRs confidence.
And confidence changes everything.
Why this works, especially for expansion goals
When you’re expanding into a new vertical, you need early wins.
You need:
Proof points
Reference customers
Momentum you can build on
Closed lost accounts give you that faster than cold outreach ever will.
Within 90 days, this approach delivered:
Seven figures in pipeline
Two new lighthouse customers
An SDR Performer of the Quarter
Those early wins made it easier to pull in colder accounts later.
Success created credibility.
This isn’t just for vertical expansion
The same approach works regardless of the company goal.
Closed lost accounts can support:
Enterprise expansion
Cross-sells
Upsells
New product launches
The constant is not the tactic.
The constant is starting with accounts that already showed intent.
Your path to an ABM refresh in 2026
Here’s the “secret”:
Align ABM to company goals, then start with accounts that already know you.
The hard part isn’t knowing that.
The hard part is executing it well.
That’s exactly what the ABM Targeting System is built to help with.
It’s a coaching plan where we:
Clarify your company’s GTM priority
Translate that into account selection criteria
Use closed lost or churned data to focus on the right accounts
Align Sales and Marketing around the strategy
Define success metrics tied to meetings, pipeline, and revenue
If you want to learn more, you can explore it here:
Want a quick gut check?
Reply to this email with your company’s primary goal for the year, and I’ll respond with a short summary of how I’d structure an ABM program around it.
This is the kind of clarity that makes ABM easier, not harder.
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