Account-Based Selling Plans

After 13yrs in sales, I learned the best AE's aren't better at prospecting, they just focus on the "right" accounts. If you want to move from transactional to strategic selling, use this 3-step Account Planning process: BACKGROUND: The first time a sales leader exposed me to Account Planning, I didn't buy it. In my first two sales roles out of school, first as a Sales Engineer and then as a transactional AE, the value of Account Planning was lost on me. It felt like grunt work. I wanted to sell! But man, was I wrong. Account Planning allowed me to be 10x MORE effective and prospect way LESS. Here is my 3-step process for Account Planning: (1) It starts with Account Tiering This is ranking all of your accounts to find the best ones to pursue. First, think about this solely on the account level: -- Are they ICP? -- Do you have success in that industry? -- Do they look like similar customers? -- Are there use cases you can crush? Next, think about access to the company: -- Were there previous opportunities? -- Do you have a warm intro? -- Do you have previous buyers/users in that account? -- Is there a compelling event that should pique their interest? (2) Create an Account Plan This means researching your BEST accounts to find ammunition and create a plan to break in. This is where you move from a 30,000 foot view to the ground level. Your goal is to understand their business as deeply as their own employees do. -- How do they earn money? -- How do they go to market? -- Who is their ICP? What do they care about? -- What currently presents a risk to their business? -- What are their execs thinking about? (3) Build your POV / Hypothesis What stands out to execs is NOT that you did your research. It’s the synthesis of your research. Your job is to form a well researched hypothesis of their business that shows why it’s at least worth engaging with you and your organization. The best POVs pique interest, share relevant stories, and expand your prospects’ thinking. Here are a few frameworks for great POVs: -- Challenging their status quo -- Empathizing deeply with a current pain point they have -- Painting a bold vision with/for them -- Uncovering a problem they might not know they have -- Trying to get to the root cause of their challenges Remember RELEVANCE > PERSONALIZATION Your goal here is to pique their curiosity, show that you’ve synthesized a lot of research, and demonstrate that you’ve helped similar customers. TAKEAWAY: When it comes to prospecting as an AE, it’s easy to be busy. It’s hard to be strategic on a consistent basis. That's why you need a strong Account Planning process. You'll have better results if you spend 100% of your effort on the right accounts. And there's way fewer accounts that matter than you think.

This year I spent 256 hours in meetings with strategic account sellers. Here’s the #1 issue driving them crazy (and how to escape this hell): Being forced to sell by activity rather than strategy! I heard this story over and over again. Senior sellers at SaaS companies being pressured by their leaders to meet high outbound activity metrics each week. They're treated like glorified SDRs rather than Strategic AEs… But with $150K - $200K base salaries. Here's the problem: Surpassing $1.5M - $5M+ ARR quotas will not happen by running call blitzes using senior reps. 7-figure transformation deals unfold by designing a high-quality executive buying experience for a smaller subset of accounts aligned to the unique characteristics of the AE. So if you’re a strat account seller and find yourself in this sticky situation, here’s a playbook you can use to get out of it: STEP 1: Break down how you spent your time over the past 4 weeks The key is a deep understanding of revenue-generating activities (RGAs) vs non-RGAs. Remember: Research, prep, and follow-up are RGAs - not just the call or meeting. BTW, I like using Timeular for detailed time tracking. STEP 2: Draft up an internal business case Use this to present your case on why replacing cold outreach time to focus on more creative and impactful strategies will improve your performance and grow the business. STEP 3: Outline your strategy Structure your plan like this: ⇢ Title that includes your BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front) Example: “The path from $400K to $4M deals” ⇢ Headline Example: “I will replace 2 mandatory call blitzes per week with strategic account win design sessions. This deep work will result in elevating my executive status within my top 10 tier-one accounts.” ⇢ The Problem Statement Example: “For the past 4 weeks, 200 cold calls during the mandatory call blitz windows have produced 2 meetings (a 1% call-to-meeting ratio), resulting in a 50% attendance rate.” ⇢ Recommended Approach Example: “By allocating two 1-hour blocks for strategic account win designs instead of the cold call blocks, I will develop specific plans for my top 10 accounts using tools such as account maps, creative strategies such as crafting open letters, and arranging peer network exchanges which have been proven strategies from other 7-figure sellers within a strategic sales community I have invested in. I will still have time to meet the required 80 weekly outbound outreaches.” ⇢ Outline The KPIs You will want to drill down into the key levers that matter (show current vs target): - Win rate - Deal size - Deal cycle Remember to set a date for your targets. The beauty of this model is that it’s a blueprint for how you can sell more effectively with your prospects too. Going through this exercise proves to both you and your leaders you can be more strategic. Which, in case they forgot, was what you were hired for in the first place! 🐝 P.S. This is a snapshot of my Timeular for 2023.

If I ran a commercial sales team of 20 reps and I wanted to beat my 2025 plan by $1M ARR, here’s what I’d do. First, some math. Let’s assume a $20k ACV and 20% win rate. To get an extra $1M ARR, I need: 50 more c/w deals ($1M / $20k) 250 new opportunities (60 / 20%) 12.5 more opportunities per rep (250 / 20) ~1 more opportunity per month per rep (12.5 / 12) That’s it. It's just 1 more opportunity per rep per month[1]. I don’t control marketing, so I’m not going to pray they have a breakthrough—I’m going to focus on outbound. I’d do this: 1️⃣ Identify Customer Lookalikes 2️⃣ Equip the Story 3️⃣ Prioritize Ruthlessly 4️⃣ Measure Account Coverage, Not Activity Let's go into detail. 1️⃣ Identify Customer Lookalikes Identify the prospect accounts in my team’s segment that look like *today’s* successful customers—the ones that do the same things and have roughly the same firmographics and technographics. Tag them AND identify the specific customers they look like. A black box score won't work here. 2️⃣ Equip the Story Give my team 1 paragraph with a use case and outcome for each customer with the most lookalikes. I’d lean on product marketing or write it myself after talking to CS. I might even be able to use AI to summarize CSM notes. 3️⃣ Prioritize Ruthlessly Prioritize these accounts for my team. That might mean a view into their current territory with those accounts ranked at the top or it might mean a full dynamic books approach where I assign those accounts in a small focused book. 4️⃣ Measure Account Coverage, Not Activity Measure my reps on *account coverage* not raw activity. I’d use every 1:1 and every team dashboard to highlight how many of those accounts we’re engaging, how much, how deeply and how well. If a rep isn’t actively working those accounts at all times AND basing their engagement on the right customer story, I’d need a very good reason why. If I don't get one, I’d reassign the prospect to someone else. If I’m disciplined about this[2], I’d bet my 2025 comp on that additional 1 opportunity per rep per month. And if that happens, so does my incremental $1MM. — [1] Yes, it’s actually 1.04 opps/rep/month but even I’m not that pedantic in a LinkedIn post. [2] I’d personally do all this with Gradient Works, but I’m obviously biased.

Two years ago, I would’ve needed to invest ~$100K in an ABM platform + a handful of workflow automation tools to assess and execute across key buying motions happening at my target accounts. That’s not the case today. The ability to assess data and build workflows no longer requires a six-figure line item or even five different tools. If you’re in B2B SaaS looking to close pipeline gaps today (let’s be honest, who isn’t), here are three account-based campaigns I’d build evergreen workflows around: Campaign #1: Closed-lost re-engagement → Closed-lost account expressed interest in solution that now maps to an upcoming product release. ⤷ Surround account with social ads with video of the assigned rep demoing solution. ⤷ For each view account, alert AE with slack with proposed touch points for follow up. why: This play recycles sunk acquisition cost by helping you re-engage familiar accounts instead of starting from scratch. Campaign #2: No-show revival → Engaged account no-shows scheduled meeting.   ⤷ Send personalized direct mail/gift referencing past engagement. ⤷ Add them to an email sequence inviting them to monthly peer-led roundtable events. why: This play aims to be a scalable way to warm up cold pipeline that your outbound team attempted to secure with marketing resources. Campaign #3 Activate whitespace → Lookalike accounts visit high-intent web pages.   ⤷ Enrich with relevant buying personas in CRM.  ⤷ Round robin to Enterprise SDRs/BDRs for tiered outreach. why: This play enables faster speed-to-lead and improves sales velocity by surfacing high-fit and high-intent accounts your team may not have discovered yet, without buying another stale list. Being the first to act on signals like these is exactly how you stay a step ahead of the competition. And the funny thing is, it no longer requires the time or budget it used to. Today, I can do any number of these in minutes thanks to partnering with Default. If you’re curious to see how, just let me know. I really do geek out over this. 😅

Here's a breakdown of what an Account-Based Sales model looks like. Designed to drive up win % while landing logos at a higher ACV $ upfront. The big idea: every deal gets a tailored set of account-specific docs, guiding a customer's buying process from problem → outcome. _____ → STAGES & FRAMEWORKS: - BDR/AE's collab on a research-backed POV + draft account plan ↓ - Which drives tailored outreach to engage buying teams execs early ↓ - Buying group collabs on a problem statement, mapped to the priority ↓ - SE's get a pre-demo brief, with a storyline scripted around this ↓ - AE's customer inputs above into a full biz case with target outcomes ↓ - Sales leaders get a written deal brief to spot gaps in < 60 seconds ↓ - Go-live plan shows a path from commercials to customer outcome ↓ - CS gets a handoff doc to guide transition post-sales ↓ - AM's get a written case for expansion to drive upsells Here, you're capturing each customer’s journey in a set of “living” docs that evolve and flow into each other: POV ↓ Account Plan ↓ Demo Brief ↓ Business Case ↓ Leader's Deal Brief ↓ Mutual Success Plan ↓ CS Handoff Doc 100% tailored for each account. Grab a set of editable frameworks for these here: https://lnkd.in/gG3XRbT2 ______ → PRINCIPLES: Written docs are the “container” your process lives in, because: (1) Content = context. Think of it like those Russian nesting dolls — each doc has context from the last doc nested inside the next one. e.g. POV drives a problem statement, that sits in the full biz case, which is context for a go-live plan, etc. (2) Content is evidence. It’s concrete, not abstract: - Less, "It was a good meeting, they're interested." - More, "Here are redlines adding data to our problem statement." It’s how we see where, exactly, a customer is in the buying journey. While making it visible to everyone. (3) Content is influence. It's in the room when you can't be. Scripting internal convo's happening about you, without you. ______ → EXECUTION: This isn't just for key accounts. It scales downmarket, too. It's why Fluint's AI is built around the first "living doc" that writes, learns, and redlines itself inside every deal  (see it here: fluint.io ) Letting you treat every account, like a key account.

The 2026 ABM Playbook ABM has historically been cost- and time-intensive. But AI has made it accessible to ANY company. Software players like Clay are reviving it. Service players like us are deploying it. And I believe it is the best GTM strategy in two scenarios: - You have a constrained TAM (<20k companies) and an ACV of $50k+. - You sell a high-ACV product to a segment that requires an enterprise/high-touch approach. I confidently say this because ABM is channel-agnostic. Put simply, account-based marketing is an account-based GTM strategy that works backwards from a list of target accounts. Many big companies already do this. + ABM is one of our most popular service lines. So after many trials and tribulations... Here's our 10-step ABM system: 1️⃣ ICP Model - Study the accounts in your CRM + TAM to formulate a scoring model. - Backtest the model to finalize your account qualification + scoring system. 2️⃣ TAM Map - Pull multiple lists from tools like Apollo.io, AI Ark, DiscoLike, & Ocean.io. - Aggregate, dedupe, and normalize the lists in Claude Code. 3️⃣ Qualification & Account Research - Do initial qualification on every account sourced using AI research agents (based on website). - For those that qualify, use Clay to enrich for every data point that you currently research manually. 4️⃣ CRM Sync + Account Tiering - Sync the research data to your CRM and apply the same enrichment flow to your existing records. - Automate your tiering system in the CRM: Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3. 5️⃣ Contact Sourcing - Source decision makers, champions, and influencers at qualified companies. - Find emails + phone numbers at scale using providers like Findymail & BetterContact. 6️⃣ Signal Tracking - Capture 1st, 2nd, and 3rd party signals across the TAL. - Sync to CRM as custom events/objects. Route to reps via Slack + CRM/SEP tasks. 7️⃣ Awareness Scoring - Roll signals up into 5 stages: Identified, Aware, Interested, Considering, Selecting. - Use these to build warm lists for reps and notify them when their accounts progress. 8️⃣ Demand Generation - 1:1 plays for Tier 1s/high-intent: gifting, microsites, manual outreach. - 1:many for the rest: ABM ads, automated outbound, parallel dialing, etc. 9️⃣ Sales Enablement - Build playbooks around signal activation, multi-threading, campaign strategies per segment, etc. - Workflows for: Account ownership, account digests, AI email drafting, AI cold call scripts, etc. 🔟 Reporting - Align sales + marketing on the same north star metric for the same set of accounts: ICP pipeline created & closed. - Other ABM-specific reports: Signal-influenced deals (7/30-day attribution), Awareness stage regression (Accounts MoM), Tier 1s with no activity (L30). Link to the full-res workflow in the comments 👇 Tomorrow I’m also dropping an in-depth guide with Kyle Poyar covering exactly how to build this using Clay, HubSpot, and Claude Code. Will drop the link here so save this post!

Had a conversation recently with an executive interest in moving from a lead-centric revenue model to an account-based approach. They saw the value but weren’t sure how to make the transition work in practice. I walked them through what actually needs to change: 1. Aligned KPIs The biggest gap in most transitions? The revenue team is still measured on lead volume. - Pipeline and conversion at the account level need to be the focus. - Speed matters, but velocity—how efficiently high-fit accounts move through the funnel—is what actually drives revenue. - Different targets causes friction (more on whether this is intentional is another story...) Without this alignment, marketing, sales, and SDR teams will pull in different directions. 2. Lead-to-Account Matching This surprises a lot of teams. They assume because they’re targeting accounts, their systems are tracking them correctly. But in reality: - Leads still enter as standalone records with no connection to an account. - SDRs work contacts without full context on account-level activity. - Sales misses out on early-stage engagement from the right accounts. Fixing this is table stakes. Without clean lead-to-account matching, the entire system falls apart. 3. Account Scoring & Buying Group Visibility Lead scoring isn’t enough in an account-based motion. The real question is: how engaged is the buying group? - Are multiple stakeholders active, or is it just one person? - Is the account signaling actual buying intent or just casual interest? - Are the right personas engaging? Account scoring should reflect engagement from the full buying team, not just isolated actions. 4. Clean Account Assignments, SLAs & Ownership This is where teams get stuck. In a lead-centric model, ownership is clear—SDRs work leads, AEs work opportunities. In an account-based model, it’s more nuanced: - Who owns an account when a new lead comes in? - What if it's an existing customer who could buy more (or buy something else)? - How do SDRs prioritize outreach when multiple personas engage? - What happens when marketing engagement overlaps with sales activity? And most importantly—what are SLAs to ensure high-intent accounts actually get worked (and, let's be honest - what qualifies as "worked)? If you don’t define this upfront, leads and accounts sit in limbo and pipeline suffers. 5. Account Planning & Cross-Functional Execution An account-based approach only works if everyone is operating from the same playbook. That means: - Marketing, SDRs, sales, and customer success align on which accounts matter most now and in the long term. - There’s a shared plan for prioritization, outreach, engagement, and activation. - Everyone has the same north star on focus and impact measurement (those pesky KPIs). When teams aren’t aligned, accounts fall through the cracks. Not all that great for an account-focused go-to-market model. TL;DR – I probably should’ve just said “Talk to Terry Flaherty at Forrester.” 😅

Lately I’ve been borderline obsessed with pointing out the flaws of the marketing qualified lead (#MQL) paradigm. If we’re ever going to find out what works, we need a unified (and account-based) view of go-to-market effectiveness. Thankfully, there are people who’ve been championing this for far longer than I have – and Shari Johnston is chief among them. Shari built and ran the account-based practice at GTM consultancy Winning by Design since 2019 (PS, congratulate her on the promotion to COO!!). Shari joined Growth Unhinged to unpack the steps to going account-based. Pro-tip: it's an account-based *strategy*, not account-based *marketing*. Full story: https://lnkd.in/etywaiqG The TL;DR: 1️⃣ Target account list This is the core building block of an account-based strategy – everything comes together if folks can all agree on the list. “Many people dismiss it. They assume they have a target account list, but the list is not in the CRM, it’s not accessible, and there’s no data on where their accounts are or where stakeholder engagement is.” 2️⃣ Team An account-based approach requires different skills from traditional demand gen marketing, Shari says. “Marketing being structured by channel doesn’t fit well in ABM where you need to look at the entire customer experience.”  3️⃣ Orchestration The heart of an account-based strategy is running plays to influence target buyers within target accounts. Shari recommends orchestrating different types of plays depending on average deal size of target accounts: - Deal sizes >$100,000: Focus on 1:1 plays like a C-level outreach program, customer stories, and referral requests. - Deal sizes of $50,000-$100,000: Focus on 1:few plays like targeted content or virtual roundtables. - Deal sizes of <$50,000: Focus on 1:many plays like content syndication or ABM chat engagement. 4️⃣ Technology It can be tempting to jump right to technology too early and before having everything else in place. The key is less about an expensive (and sprawling) GTM tech stack. It’s about having the underlying infrastructure to support account-based including a tech stack that’s integrated, collecting the right data, and being able to measure success in an account-based way. 5️⃣ Measurement “If your target accounts don’t know about you, they’ll never buy from you,” Shari emphasizes. She looks at account-based metrics based on where they are in their journey. At a high-level, this includes (a) awareness, (b) education, and (c) selection. Hope y'all find this useful! 🙏 #abx #marketing #gtm

Expansion and retention are new revenue, yet here is the reality (and the playbook we use. 1/ AEs desperately send outbound messages to other business units, stakeholders or regional teams. 2/ AEs don't collaborate with marketing, but marketing is challenged to drive expansion revenue. 3/ Marketing has limited overview of the deal history and doesn't have access to Champions and power users. 4/ Relationship with enterprise accounts is managed by account owners that don't cross-share the insights about the strategic initiatives of the key client, the value they get from the product. 5/ There is no culture to leverage client success process to build relationship with key clients and accelerate their time to value. In these companies retention = locking an account into an annual contract and sending product press-releases. Expansion = doing same old school lead generation to the same account but different business units. When I was ABM lead I've developed a framework that we adjusted later at Fullfunnel.io to drive expansion revenue. 1. Embed expansion/upsell signals in the client success process. You must embed onboarding and in-depth customer interviews with Champions and power users. Start with strategic initiatives and how they are impacting other regions, business units and teams. Understand your Champion's role and KPIs. Define business triggers that led them looking for your solution. 2. Incentivize your CS team to accelerate time to value for accounts with high expansion potential 3. Track customer satisfaction and set up milestone interviews tracking before/after. Debrief Champion and power users on the positive impact of your product on their KPIs and JTBD. 4. Create an internal case study. Even if you under strict NDA, agree with your Champion to create an "internal" case study that you'll be sharing only with the teams and units of this account. Define which units are likely to benefit from your solutiuon. 6. Embed engagement and relationship building with the buying committee members of your target units on the channels they are active in. 5. Develop a series of account-based events co-hosted with your Champion. The best way to nurture a bigger group from a target account -> hosting an event where you address a strategic challenge while your Champion presents how they solved it. 7. Suggest 1-1 strategy sessions with your SMEs to audit & refine strategic challenges of other units and create a logical bridge between their priorities and your product. -- Expansion ≠ 21 outbound touches supported by programmatic display ads. Expansion & retention = accelerating time to value for your enterprise customers. Building strong relationship with your Champion and making him a hero of the organization. Developing meaningful engagement touchpoints with other units that are likely to have a similar to your Champion's challenge and create activities that develop a logical bridge between their priorities and your product.

The Secret to Winning Upmarket Customers? Ditch Leads and Embrace Account-Based Selling 8 Proven Secrets to Transform Your Sales Strategy from Lead-Based to Account-Based: Account-based prospecting is way harder than lead-based prospecting, which is why many teams struggle with the transformation. Follow these 8 proven tips to succeed with high-$$$ upmarket and enterprise ICP: 1. Preach the Priority of ICP Accounts: Poor salespeople often focus on volume over quality. Converting ICP accounts is harder but generates more revenue with higher win rates. 2. It’s Outbound, Not Inbound: In an inbound motion, sales gets hand-raisers who need to be qualified. In an Account-Based motion, sales gets qualified accounts (MQA) that are prioritized for prospecting. 3. Separate the Motions to Different Teams: Assign dedicated account-based SDRs/BDRs for prospecting. Don’t mix this motion with inbound prospecting. It’s OK to run 2 motions in parallel! 4. Rewards are the Fuel for Sales: Account-based prospecting is tougher than inbound, so you should offer 1.5-2X commissions compared to inbound efforts. 5. Incentivise Marketing Alignment: When sales books meetings with marketing-influenced ICP accounts, pay a higher commission, not lower. Incentivize sales for alignment. 6. Learn Iteratively with Quarterly Pilots: Start small with a 1-2 person Tiger-Team and expand as you gain traction. Avoid trying to change everything at once. 7. Use Signals, Personalization, and Collaboration: Sales should focus on accounts showing intent signals and on a small number of priority ICP accounts. Marketing should nurture the rest. 8. Sales Leader Must Drive the Change: The sales leader must be committed to using Account-Based approach to win high-$$$ pipeline and understand how it differs from an inbound motion. Without the sales leader’s commitment, the transformation will fail. Which tips do you think have the biggest impact? Share the numbers in the comments and let's discuss.