Terms

Account-Based Selling

Account-based selling is a strategic B2B sales approach where marketing and sales teams collaborate to target a select group of high-value accounts with personalized campaigns. Instead of pursuing a large volume of individual leads, this model treats each target company as a unique market, requiring deep research into its specific needs and key stakeholders. This highly-focused strategy is designed to increase deal size, improve win rates, and foster long-term customer relationships.

Key Components of Account-Based Selling

The process begins by identifying high-value target accounts that fit an ideal customer profile. Deep research is then conducted to understand each account’s unique challenges and key decision-makers. This insight fuels the creation of highly personalized messaging and tailored outreach strategies designed for maximum impact.

A core component is the tight alignment between sales, marketing, and customer success teams. These teams collaborate to execute account-specific campaigns and build strong, long-term relationships. Success is tracked using account-based metrics to continuously measure and optimize the approach.

Benefits of Implementing Account-Based Selling

Adopting an account-based selling model offers significant advantages by shifting focus from quantity to quality. This strategic alignment of resources toward high-value accounts yields a higher return on investment and strengthens the entire sales process.

  • Revenue: Increases average deal size and customer lifetime value by focusing on high-potential accounts.
  • Efficiency: Optimizes resource allocation, directing sales and marketing efforts where they will have the greatest impact.
  • Relationships: Fosters deeper, long-term connections with clients through personalized engagement and tailored solutions.
  • Alignment: Unifies sales, marketing, and customer success teams, creating a cohesive and consistent customer experience.
  • Acquisition: Improves win rates and lowers customer acquisition costs by targeting best-fit companies.

Account-Based Selling vs. Account-Based Marketing

While often used together, account-based selling and marketing have distinct focuses and functions.

  • Selling: This sales-led strategy treats each account as a market of one, coordinating multiple departments to close high-value deals. It excels in enterprise settings with complex sales cycles, leading to larger contracts but can be resource-intensive. Mid-market firms may apply it selectively to their top-tier accounts.
  • Marketing: This marketing-driven approach focuses on creating personalized campaigns to engage and nurture specific accounts before sales involvement. It improves marketing ROI but requires strong data and alignment. It's effective for enterprises warming up key targets and for mid-market companies aiming to increase engagement with a select list of prospects.

Strategies for Successful Account-Based Selling

This is how you execute a successful account-based selling strategy.

  1. Identify high-value accounts that align with your ideal customer profile.
  2. Conduct in-depth research to understand each account's needs and key players.
  3. Align your sales, marketing, and customer success teams to deliver a cohesive experience.
  4. Create personalized outreach and campaigns to engage multiple stakeholders.
  5. Measure performance with account-based metrics and continuously refine your approach.

Common Challenges in Account-Based Selling

While effective, account-based selling is not without its hurdles. The strategy demands significant organizational commitment and precise execution to succeed. This creates a core trade-off between the potential rewards and the required investment.

  • Benefit: The highly personalized approach can lead to higher contract values and stronger, long-term customer relationships.
  • Drawback: This same approach is resource-intensive and can lengthen sales cycles, requiring significant investment and patience.

Frequently Asked Questions about Account-Based Selling

Is account-based selling only for large enterprises?

Not exclusively. While ideal for enterprise sales, mid-market companies can also apply its principles by focusing on a smaller, strategic list of high-value accounts. The key is adapting the scale to your available resources.

How is success measured in account-based selling?

Success is tracked with account-level metrics, not just lead volume. Key indicators include account engagement, pipeline velocity, deal size, win rates, and ultimately, customer lifetime value from your target accounts.

What is the ideal team structure for ABS?

A successful ABS team requires tight collaboration between sales, marketing, and customer success. Often, a dedicated "account team" is formed for top-tier targets, ensuring a unified strategy and consistent communication throughout the customer journey.

Other terms

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No Spam

“No Spam” is a commitment to sending only relevant, solicited messages. It means avoiding bulk, unwanted emails to respect the recipient's inbox.

No Spam

B2C2B

Learn about B2C2B, including how B2C2B transforms sales, key strategies for B2C2B success, & differences between B2C2B and B2B2C.

B2C2B

Sales Demonstration

A sales demonstration is a presentation showing a prospect how a product or service works and how it can solve their specific problems.

Sales Demonstration

Sales Acceleration

Sales acceleration refers to strategies and technologies designed to speed up the sales cycle, enabling reps to close more deals, faster.

Sales Acceleration

Brand Equity

Learn about brand equity, including understanding its importance, building strong brand equity, measuring brand equity, & real-world applications.

Brand Equity

OAuth

OAuth is an open standard for access delegation. It lets you grant apps access to your data on other services without sharing your password.

OAuth

Lead Scoring

Lead scoring is the process of assigning points to leads based on their attributes and actions to determine their sales-readiness.

Lead Scoring

Sales Pitch

A sales pitch is a persuasive presentation of a product or service, aimed at convincing a potential customer to make a purchase.

Sales Pitch

Customer Lifecycle

The customer lifecycle is the journey a person takes from first becoming aware of your brand to becoming a loyal, repeat customer.

Customer Lifecycle

Return on Investment (ROI)

Return on Investment (ROI) is a key performance metric that measures the profitability of an investment relative to its initial cost.

Return on Investment (ROI)

Operational CRM

An Operational CRM is a system that automates and improves customer-facing business processes like sales, marketing, and customer service.

Operational CRM

Average Revenue per User

Average Revenue per User (ARPU) is a key performance indicator that calculates the average revenue generated from each user or subscriber.

Average Revenue per User

Overcoming Objections

Overcoming objections is the process of addressing and resolving a prospect's concerns or hesitations to move a sale forward.

Overcoming Objections

Marketing Funnel

The marketing funnel is a model illustrating the path potential customers take, from initial awareness to making a purchase.

Marketing Funnel

Call for Proposal

A Call for Proposal (CFP) is a document that solicits proposals, often through a bidding process, for a specific project or service.

Call for Proposal

No Forms

No Forms is a method for capturing lead data directly from your website visitors' profiles without requiring them to fill out any forms.

No Forms

80/20 Rule

The 80/20 rule, or Pareto Principle, posits that 80% of results come from just 20% of the effort. It's a key concept for prioritization.

80/20 Rule

Forecasting

Forecasting uses historical data to make informed predictions about future trends, helping businesses anticipate outcomes and plan accordingly.

Forecasting

Always Be Closing

“Always Be Closing” (ABC) is a sales mantra meaning every action a salesperson takes should be with the ultimate goal of closing the sale.

Always Be Closing

B2B Sales

Learn about B2B sales, including key strategies for B2B success, types of B2B sales models, & B2B vs. B2C sales: understanding the differences.

B2B Sales

SDK

A Software Development Kit (SDK) is a set of tools that allows developers to create applications for a specific software package or platform.

SDK

Customer Relationship Management Hygiene

CRM hygiene involves regularly cleaning and updating your customer data to ensure your CRM system remains a powerful and reliable tool.

Customer Relationship Management Hygiene

Proof of Concept

A Proof of Concept (PoC) is a small exercise to test whether a business idea or project is technically feasible and has real-world potential.

Proof of Concept

Pipeline Management

Pipeline management is the process of tracking and managing potential customers as they move through the different stages of your sales process.

Pipeline Management

Champion/Challenger Test

A Champion/Challenger test pits a new 'challenger' against the current best-performing 'champion' to see which one performs better.

Champion/Challenger Test

Opportunity Management

Opportunity management is the process of tracking potential sales from first contact to a closed deal, helping teams prioritize and win more.

Opportunity Management

Marketing Automation Platform

A marketing automation platform is software that automates marketing actions. It helps manage tasks like email campaigns and lead nurturing.

Marketing Automation Platform

CPQ software

CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) software is a sales tool for creating accurate, configurable quotes for complex products and services.

CPQ software

Pay-per-Click (PPC)

Pay-per-click (PPC) is an ad model where you pay a fee each time your ad is clicked. It's a method of buying targeted visits to your website.

Pay-per-Click (PPC)

Buying Criteria

Buying criteria are the specific requirements and standards a customer uses to evaluate products or services before making a decision.

Buying Criteria

Letter of Intent

A Letter of Intent (LOI) is a document declaring the preliminary commitment of one party to do business with another, outlining the chief terms.

Letter of Intent

Audience Targeting

Audience targeting is the process of segmenting consumers into specific groups to deliver more personalized and relevant marketing messages.

Audience Targeting

Functional Testing

Functional testing verifies that software performs its intended functions as specified in the requirements, ensuring it works as users expect.

Functional Testing

Sales Strategy

A sales strategy is a comprehensive plan that outlines how a business will sell its products or services to achieve its revenue goals.

Sales Strategy

Channel Partners

Channel partners are third-party firms that help market and sell a company's products or services, acting as an indirect sales force.

Channel Partners

Smile and Dial

"Smile and dial" is a high-volume sales tactic where reps make numerous cold calls from a list, often with little to no prior research.

Smile and Dial

Soft Sell

A soft sell is a low-pressure sales tactic that uses subtle persuasion and relationship-building to gently guide customers toward a purchase.

Soft Sell

Ramp Up Time

Ramp-up time is the period a new hire takes to get fully up to speed and become a productive member of your go-to-market team.

Ramp Up Time

De-dupe

De-duping, or data deduplication, is the process of eliminating duplicate copies of data within a dataset to improve accuracy and save space.

De-dupe

Data Cleansing

Data cleansing, or data scrubbing, is the process of detecting and correcting inaccurate records from a dataset to improve data quality.

Data Cleansing

Microservices

Microservices is an architecture where apps are built as a collection of small, independent services that communicate with each other over APIs.

Microservices

CRM Analytics

CRM analytics is the process of analyzing data from your CRM to uncover insights that help you better understand and serve your customers.

CRM Analytics

Accounts Payable

Accounts Payable (AP) is the money a company owes its suppliers for goods or services bought on credit. It's listed as a current liability.

Accounts Payable

Dynamic Pricing

Dynamic pricing is a strategy where businesses set flexible prices for products or services based on current market demands and other factors.

Dynamic Pricing

SFDC

SFDC stands for Salesforce Dot Com, a popular cloud-based CRM platform that helps companies manage their customer interactions and data.

SFDC

Private Labeling

Private labeling is when a company rebrands a product made by a third-party manufacturer and sells it as their own.

Private Labeling

Employee Engagement

Employee engagement is the emotional commitment an employee has to their organization, motivating them to contribute to the company's success.

Employee Engagement

Consideration Buying Stage

The consideration buying stage is where potential customers have defined their problem and are now actively researching and evaluating solutions.

Consideration Buying Stage

B2B Data

Learn about B2B data, including sources and types of B2B data, leveraging B2B data for sales success, & ensuring the accuracy of B2B data.

B2B Data

Customer Retention Cost

Customer Retention Cost (CRC) is the total amount a company spends to keep an existing customer over a certain period of time.

Customer Retention Cost

Mid-Market

Mid-market companies are businesses larger than small businesses but smaller than large enterprises, often defined by revenue or employee size.

Mid-Market

Sales Rep Training

Sales rep training is the process of equipping your sales team with the skills, knowledge, and tools to effectively sell and hit their targets.

Sales Rep Training

Bounce Rate

Learn about bounce rate, including understanding bounce rate implications, key factors affecting bounce rate, & reducing your bounce rate effectively.

Bounce Rate

Virtual Private Cloud

A Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) is a secure, isolated section of a public cloud. It lets you provision your own logically isolated resources.

Virtual Private Cloud

Freemium

Freemium is a business model offering a product's basic features for free, while charging for advanced or supplemental features.

Freemium

Sales Methodology

A sales methodology is the framework that guides how your sales team approaches the entire sales process, from prospecting to closing deals.

Sales Methodology

Customer Loyalty

Customer loyalty is a customer’s devotion to a brand, shown by their repeat purchases and engagement, driven by positive experiences and trust.

Customer Loyalty

AI Data Enrichment

AI data enrichment uses artificial intelligence to automatically enhance and update raw data, making it more complete, accurate, and valuable.

AI Data Enrichment

Serviceable Obtainable Market

Serviceable Obtainable Market (SOM) is the portion of the market you can realistically capture with your current resources, sales, and marketing.

Serviceable Obtainable Market

B2B Buyer Intent Data

Learn about B2B buyer intent data, including sources and types of buyer intent data, & key benefits of leveraging buyer intent data.

B2B Buyer Intent Data

Touchpoints

A touchpoint is any time a potential or existing customer comes in contact with your brand, from seeing an ad to receiving an email.

Touchpoints

Account-Based Everything

Account-Based Everything (ABE) is a strategy aligning sales, marketing, and success teams to focus on a specific set of high-value accounts.

Account-Based Everything

Service Level Agreement

A Service Level Agreement (SLA) is a contract defining the level of service between a provider and a client, including metrics and penalties.

Service Level Agreement

Warm Calling

Warm calling is contacting prospects with a prior connection, like a referral or social media interaction, to make your outreach more relevant.

Warm Calling

Warm Outbound

Warm outbound is a sales strategy for contacting prospects who've shown interest in your brand through prior engagement, like website visits.

Warm Outbound

Target Buying Stage

The Target Buying Stage identifies a prospect's position in the buying journey, from initial awareness to the final decision to purchase.

Target Buying Stage

Voice Search Optimization

Voice search optimization is the process of optimizing your content, SEO, and online listings to appear in and rank for voice-based searches.

Voice Search Optimization

Serverless Computing

Serverless computing is a cloud model where the provider manages servers, so developers can focus on code without worrying about infrastructure.

Serverless Computing

B2B Marketing Channels

Learn about B2B marketing channels, including maximizing B2B channel effectiveness, & exploring digital vs. traditional channels.

B2B Marketing Channels

Firmographic Data

Firmographic data is information used to classify firms. It includes attributes like industry, employee count, location, and annual revenue.

Firmographic Data

Sales and Marketing Analytics

Sales and marketing analytics involves measuring and analyzing performance data to maximize effectiveness and optimize return on investment (ROI).

Sales and Marketing Analytics

Customer Engagement

Customer engagement is the ongoing, value-driven relationship a business builds with its customers to foster brand loyalty and awareness.

Customer Engagement

User Interface

A User Interface (UI) is the point where humans and computers interact. It encompasses all visual elements like screens, icons, and buttons.

User Interface

Account-Based Analytics

Account-Based Analytics measures engagement and impact across target accounts, not just individual leads, to guide B2B sales and marketing efforts.

Account-Based Analytics

Sales Engineer

Sales Engineers blend deep technical knowledge with sales acumen, demonstrating a product's value and solving customer problems to drive revenue.

Sales Engineer

Simple Object Access Protocol Application Programming Interface

A Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) API is a web service that uses XML to exchange structured information between different applications.

Simple Object Access Protocol Application Programming Interface

Interactive Voice Response

Interactive Voice Response (IVR) is an automated phone system that uses voice and keypad inputs to interact with callers and route their calls.

Interactive Voice Response

Sales Team Management

Sales team management is the process of leading, coaching, and motivating a sales team to achieve its sales goals and drive revenue growth.

Sales Team Management

Customer Success

Customer Success is a business strategy focused on proactively helping customers achieve their goals with your product or service.

Customer Success

ABM Orchestration

ABM orchestration aligns marketing and sales actions across channels to deliver seamless, personalized experiences to high-value accounts.

ABM Orchestration

Lead List

A lead list is a curated database of potential customers (leads) with contact information and other key data for sales and marketing outreach.

Lead List

Customer Data Management (CDM)

Customer Data Management (CDM) is the process of collecting, organizing, and analyzing customer data to create a unified view of your audience.

Customer Data Management (CDM)

Competitive Intelligence (CI)

Competitive intelligence (CI) is the ethical gathering and analysis of market data to inform strategic business decisions and gain an advantage.

Competitive Intelligence (CI)

Batch Processing

Learn about batch processing, including benefits of batch processing, best practices for implementation, & common use cases.

Batch Processing

Email Deliverability

Email deliverability is the ability for your emails to successfully land in your recipients' inboxes instead of their spam folders.

Email Deliverability

Branded Keywords

Learn about branded keywords, including identifying your branded keywords, & strategies for optimizing branded keywords.

Branded Keywords

BANT Framework

Learn about BANT framework, including implementing BANT in sales strategy, advantages of the BANT methodology, & BANT vs. other qualification models.

BANT Framework

Real-time Data Processing

Real-time data processing is the method of analyzing data the instant it's generated, enabling immediate actions and decision-making.

Real-time Data Processing

Marketing Automation

Marketing automation uses software to automate repetitive marketing tasks, such as email marketing, social media posting, and ad campaigns.

Marketing Automation

Ballpark

Learn about ballpark, including estimating with ballpark figures, understanding ballpark estimates in sales, & ballpark estimates vs. precise quotes.

Ballpark

Supply Chain Management

Supply Chain Management oversees the entire production flow of a good or service, from raw materials to final delivery to the consumer.

Supply Chain Management

Video Selling

Video selling uses personalized video messages to engage prospects, build rapport, and guide them through the sales funnel to close more deals.

Video Selling

Inside Sales Metrics

Inside sales metrics are quantifiable measures used to track the performance, activities, and effectiveness of an internal sales team.

Inside Sales Metrics

GDPR Compliance

GDPR compliance means following the EU's strict data protection laws to ensure the secure and lawful handling of personal data.

GDPR Compliance

Site Retargeting

Site retargeting is a marketing strategy that shows ads to people who have previously visited your website but left without converting.

Site Retargeting

System of Record

A System of Record (SoR) is the authoritative data source for a specific type of data. It acts as the single source of truth for an organization.

System of Record

Lead Scoring Models

Lead scoring models rank prospects by assigning points for their behaviors and demographics, helping sales teams prioritize their outreach.

Lead Scoring Models

End of Quarter

“End of Quarter” (EOQ) refers to the final weeks of a business quarter when sales teams rush to meet quotas, often leading to a flurry of deals.

End of Quarter

Sales Presentation

A sales presentation is a formal pitch by a salesperson to a prospective customer, showcasing a product or service to secure a sale.

Sales Presentation

Customer Lifetime Value

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is the total revenue a business expects from a customer throughout their entire relationship with the company.

Customer Lifetime Value