In Partnership with 42agency

Today’s problem: account selection is too complicated

1:1, 1:Few, 1:Many. Tier your accounts. Follow the pyramid.

Knowing how to select target accounts today is too complicated.

You get lost in the data, tools, advice, and everything downstream suffers:

  • Sales doesn’t align

  • Pipeline slows down

  • Engagement tanks

  • Your ABM “strategy” becomes activity

And yet through it all, when the dust settles, ABM strategies will still end up overlooking the accounts that are statistically more likely to convert.

That’s the mistake we made — until we didn’t.

And fixing it changed everything.

The secret: churned customers make the best ABM targets

We analyzed our churned customers since COVID and found something surprising:

  • Higher win rates

  • Higher ACV

  • Faster sales cycles

  • Higher retention once they returned

The accounts we already lost turned out to be our strongest opportunity to win again.

This single insight did something no alignment meeting ever could:

It united Marketing and Sales instantly.

Sales didn’t need convincing. The data made the case.

Why churned customers fix account selection

1. They create instant sales alignment

These accounts come with context:

  • Known buying committees

  • Known objections

  • Known usage patterns

  • Known friction points

Sales suddenly knows who to reach out to and what to say.

That alone accelerates everything.

2. They produce efficient, high-quality pipeline

Efficiency happens when you stop guessing.

Churned customers aren’t strangers — they’re familiar.

That familiarity leads to:

  • Faster qualification

  • Shorter cycles

  • Better conversion

  • Higher retention

Which is exactly how we generated:

$2M in pipeline and $1M in revenue in six months.

No new tools. No expanded team.

Just smarter account selection.

3. They eliminate targeting doubt

There’s no ICP workshop or intent data score that beats known history.

You’re not predicting fit — you’re acting on it.

This is why win-back segments outperform net-new in almost every dataset I’ve ever seen.

It’s not magic. It’s just better math.

Account selection is the lever. Win-backs are the shortcut.

If you want a more aligned, efficient, pipeline-generating ABM motion…

Start with the accounts who:

  • Have context

  • Have familiarity

  • Have proven potential

Your best accounts aren’t always new.

Sometimes, they’re the ones who already left.

P.S.

This win-back-first targeting approach is a core part of the ABM Targeting System — the session where we rebuild your targeting logic using the data you already have.

If you’re tired of ABM feeling slow, misaligned, or random… this is where we fix it.

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I’m here to help when you’re ready:

Author: Tyler Pleiss