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There’s this pattern I’m running into right now.
And it’s creating more friction than most teams might realize.
It shows up when we start talking about target account lists.
On the surface, sure, everything looks fine.
You have your ABM strategy defined.
You’ve build your list around your ICP.
Everything looks good, right? So what’s the problem?
When you take a closer look, something seems off.
Customers and prospects are sitting in the same list.
Why this becomes a problem fast
When you start mixing accounts at different stages of the customer journey, you’re not just creating a messy list.
You’re breaking the strategy before it even starts.
Because all of a sudden you’re trying to answer completely different questions:
Is the goal to retain or expand existing customers?
Or is the goal to acquire net new logos?
Those are not the same goal, and they shouldn’t be treated like they are.
Start with the GTM goal, not the list
Before you build an account list, you need to get clear on one thing:
What GTM goal or strategic initiative are we going after and why?
There are really only two starting points:
1. Customer accounts
Retention
Cross-sell
Upsell
2. Prospect accounts
Strategic logos
Industry expansion
Market expansion
That’s it, and everything else (your ABM strategy) comes after.
Because once you define the goal, the segmentation starts to fall into place.
Where things usually break
I’m seeing this happen in real time.
A large account list gets pulled after an ABM strategy has been created.
Just one big list of accounts in your ICP.
No clear segmentation of accounts.
No real connection to a GTM goal(s).
Meanwhile, your RevOps team probably has a named account list of key prospects, or customers identified by cross-sell, up-sell or by retention risk.
But instead of building your account list around a GTM goal and corresponding GTM segments, we clump everyone together in the same list for the ABM strategy.
That my friends, is backwards.
Why clean segmentation drives everything else
This isn’t just about organization, it’s about execution and results.
Because customers and prospects require completely different approaches:
Messaging
A customer already knows your product. A prospect most likely doesn’t.
Content
A customer needs expansion use cases. A prospect needs education and proof.
Sales motion
An AE expanding an account operates differently than an SDR prospecting into one.
When you combine these into a single strategy, you end up with generic messaging that doesn’t land with either group.
And then you wonder why engagement is low and you’re not seeing success.
The bigger issue: relevance
The entire point of ABM is to be specific.
Specific to a set of accounts.
Specific to a goal.
Specific to where those accounts are in their journey.
That’s how you create relevance.
And relevance is what drives:
Engagement
Meetings
Pipeline
Revenue
When you mix segments, you lose that.
And when you lose that, it becomes almost impossible to measure what’s actually working.
A simple way to fix this
Before building your next account list, pause and ask these questions:
What goal or strategic initiative is our ABM strategy going to support?
Does this mean we should focus on customer or prospect accounts?
Which customer or prospect accounts do we need to focus on?
From there you should begin building your account list:
Create the list based on customer or prospect accounts
Add additional filters that further align the accounts to the goal
Share the list with sales and align on a final segment of accounts
If your account lists feel messy right now, there’s a good chance it’s not a data problem (although that could definitely be another possibility).
It’s a process and segmentation problem, and fixing that is one of the fastest ways to improve how your ABM strategy performs.
ABM Consulting Now Available!
Are you building or refreshing your ABM strategy, but not sure where to start? I’m now offering limited spots for ABM consulting services to help you get your ABM strategy in the right place to be successful.
This is a low-cost, high-reward offer for your team to build a strategy that works and makes an impact, this year.
Simply fill out this form with your details and we’ll schedule time to talk soon!
For more details on ABM Tactics consulting services, click here.
