What’s up everyone! Welcome to 🌮 Taco Tuesday, a weekly newsletter by ForgeX.

In here we share the latest and greatest around our Account-Based GTM research, provide our perspective on trending topics, and highlight what’s new at ForgeX.

Send us any questions or topics we should break down here ⬇️

🕵️ Choosing the Right Criteria for your Target Account List

Determining the right criteria while selecting and prioritizing your accounts has major implications on your likelihood of success.

Whether you’re leveraging the Enterprise ABM or Growth ABM deployment models, there are 2 areas where you should be partnering with your GTM teams to set qualification and disqualification boundaries:

1. Account Selection

   • How should we determine which accounts should be part of our target account list?

   • What parameters should be in place for an account to drop out of the target account list?

2. Account Prioritization

   • How should we prioritize which accounts should receive more GTM resources and effort?

   • What criteria determines whether we should increase or decrease the prioritization of GTM resources and effort for an account?

When it comes to deciding the criteria you’ll be leveraging to answer the questions above, it can vary based on your ABM deployment model and the specifics of your organization’s account-based GTM strategy.

Here are a few examples that we recommend for both qualification and disqualification criteria.

Qualification Criteria Examples:

• Account Fit:

  • Vertical

  • Employee Count

  • Budget

  • Location

  • Annual revenue

  • Revenue Potential (considering both first-deal and LTV)

  • Iconic Reference (a prominent account that other accounts in the industry will emulate)

  • Alignment with target market and solution offerings

• Relationship Depth:

  • Existing Relationship with Stakeholders

  • There has been a 'Closed-lost' Opp

• GTM Engagement Touchpoints: marketing, sales or customer service interactions.

• Buying Intent Signals: triggers that indicate an account should be prioritized.

• ***Custom Criteria

Disqualification Criteria Examples:

• Marketing Opt-Out: an account explicitly says they don't want to receive marketing efforts.

• Competitor Wins: a competitor wins the account.

• Market Shifts: Significant changes in an industry that impact market conditions.

• Budget Constraints: reduced financial capacity to invest.

• Organizational Changes: structural changes that impact decision-making.

• Decreased Engagement: drop in interaction and responsiveness.

• Strategic Realignment: shift in business priorities away from your offerings.

• ***Custom Criteria

❌ Two Mistakes to Avoid

1.) The Revolving Door Trap:

• Cycling accounts in and out of your target account list too quickly is a recipe for disaster. Without consistently receiving ABM treatment, the accounts aren’t given enough time for your GTM efforts to work. For example, swapping target accounts in and out on a weekly basis will lead to poor results.

• Here is what we’ve uncovered through our ABM Benchmark Audits:

  • 90-days is usually when a thorough audit of the target account list is conducted.

  • ABM leaders are finding the most success when boundaries around # of target accounts covered at a time is set with the broader GTM teams at the beginning in order to set proper expectations.

2.) Siloed Account Selection:

• Neglecting to include the broader GTM teams into target account list selection process is not conducive to setting the ABM program up for success.

• Making a data-driven first pass at the TAL is a great first step, but this should be reviewed and ultimately signed off by your other GTM partners.

🎯 Give an ABM Benchmark Audit, Get Access to Our Full Benchmark Database

We are benchmarking the data and insights needed to answer the questions every B2B marketer, CXO, VC and board member is asking:

1. How are the leading account-based programs doing it?

2. How do we launch an account-based GTM strategy that actually drives revenue?

3. How does our program stack up against the industry leaders and what should we do to improve?

What’s New at ForgeX?

🌮 Events

Upcoming:

• The Power of ABM: Cross-Functional Collaboration for Success

  • With: 

    • Davis Potter, CEO @ ForgeX

    • Tyler Pleiss, Associate Director of Growth Marketing @ Movable Ink

    • Chelsey Axline, Director of Customer Marketing @ Signifyd

    • Nick Bennett, CCO @ TACK

  • We’ll Discuss:

    • 👉 The key principles of Account-Based Marketing.

    • 👉 Strategies for effective cross-functional collaboration.

    • 👉 How to align sales, marketing, and customer success teams.

    • 👉 Real-world examples of successful ABM campaigns that drive both acquisition and retention.

    • 👉 Tools and techniques to enhance your ABM efforts and support customer growth.

On-Demand:

• 🎥 Building and Leading a Powerhouse ABM Team for Success

🌮 Research & Insights

• Research Report: The 2024 Strategy Guide and Landscape of B2B Agencies with ABM Capabilities

• Agency Directory: Access here

Have an awesome rest of the week y’all!

LFG,

Davis