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September 27, 2024
Outbound Sales

Top 5 Outbound Sales Challenges: Account Targeting

I’ve talked with over 100 sales leaders in the past 3 months and I am covering all 5 of their top challenges in depth each week….

Become an Expert in Account Targeting

Today we are talking about Account Targeting.

Everyone has an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), but if you're only relying on that to target accounts, you are missing the mark.

At HubSpot and Klaviyo I learned that the ICP is great, but it doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll close fast, bring in the most revenue, or stick around long enough to make it worth your time.

The ICP is just a starting point. Each segment needs to dig deeper to find the cleanest paths towards quota attainment.

So how do you do target the right accounts?

Here’s the playbook I’ve seen work time and time again:

1. Pick Deals You Can Actually Close 🎯

No matter how big the opportunity seems, if you can’t close it, it’s not worth your time. Too many reps chase shiny accounts that are either too complex or not a good fit. Start by identifying accounts where you realistically have a strong chance to win.

Tip: Look at your closed-won deals and identify the common factors. What industry? What size company? Stick to accounts that match your historical sweet spot.

2. Balance Size with Speed ⚖️⏳

Chasing big deals is great, but if they take forever to close, you might be missing your number and on a PIP by the time they come in. You need to balance the size of the opportunity with how quickly it can close.

What to do: Identify the accounts that not only have high revenue potential but also move quickly through the pipeline. Go back to your deals—what patterns do you see in fast-closing, high-value accounts? Prioritize those.

3. Target the Stickiest Accounts 🤝

The best deals don’t just close—they stick around, expand, and refer more business your way. Prioritize accounts that match your most loyal customers.

Pro move: Build a profile of your top accounts that are still with you after a year or more. What made them stick? Focus on finding similar customers who will not only buy, but grow with you.

ICP is just table stakes. If you’re not diving deeper into the specifics of what makes an account actually worth pursuing, you’re leaving revenue on the table.

So how do I find the RIGHT target accounts? Build a TAP (Target Account Profile):

  • Start with the Data: Pull up your CRM and create a dashboard of all your closed-won deals. Focus on key metrics like close rates, deal size, speed to close, and customer stickiness. These are the factors that tell you what types of accounts are the most valuable.
  • Download the Report: Once your dashboard is set, download the report. And upload as a pdf into GPT (or another AI tool) and ask it to analyze your deals and find your top accounts. Make sure it weighs factors like likelihood to close, speed of close, deal size, and stickiness—with extra weight given close rates and deal size.
  • Enrich Your Data: Next, take those top-performing accounts and upload them into a tool like Clay or another enrichment platform. The goal? To find every company that looks just like your best accounts in terms of size, industry, revenue, and buying patterns.
  • Distribute to Your Team: Once you have this enriched data, distribute it to your sales team as Tier 1 accounts. These are the highest-priority accounts, the ones most likely to close quickly, at scale, and with high retention. Make sure your team knows these are the deals that will move the needle.

So that's how you solve the account targeting problem…remember that ICP isn’t always what moves the needle for each segment of the sales org.

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