Identifying target accounts is as easy as 1, 2, 3 🎯

Learn something new, get better results: the three pillars of target account criteria. Learn something new (from a [MarketingProfs course]( get better results: the three pillars of target account criteria. [MarketingProfs] [How to Select the Right Accounts for Your Organization]( Let's talk about something every account-based marketing program needs to take very seriously. It's the foundation that has the most impact on your success... selecting the right accounts for your target program. It's very tempting to just go to the sales team and ask them who they'd like to focus on. But that method alone is destined to fail. Instead, we need to build criteria for the accounts that we should be going after from a strategic basis. There are three pillars of criteria that we need to take into account. The first is firmograhic fit. Can we even serve these accounts? This is something that we as marketers are generally good at. What size organization are they? Where are they geographically located? What industry are they in? These attributes are something that we need to understand. Once we have narrowed down the list of all possibilities to those that have a good firmographic fit, we need to take into account the second pillar—the propensity to purchase. How likely are these accounts to need our product or service? Whatever the criteria that's specific to your business, it's important that you understand and document it as a condition for inclusion in your efforts. At the end of the day, you have to agree on the most important signals that can tell you an account is a good fit for your solution. For example, if you sell security software and an organization has recently had a breach in their data, that is a really good signal that they may be looking for a new security solution. There are other signals: How healthy are they financially? What's happening in the news? What does the technology they use tell you about their likelihood to need your product or service? The third pillar is engagement. How strong is their affinity to your product or service? Have they read a lot of our content in the past? Have they been reading about our category of solution on competitive sites or through the media? At first you may be thinking, but I only have that information when they've engaged with me. But that's not true. There are many ways that we can get signals about content they're engaging with outside of our own properties, like their social channels or through third-party data sources. —From "How to Select the Right Accounts for Your Organization" lesson 1 in the MarketingProfs course [Planning Your Account-Based Marketing Efforts]( presented by Samantha Stone To learn more (much more!) about target accounts, aligning with sales, and more, dive into one of our new courses. It doesn't take hours of training commitment in a single stretch to make a big impact on your career… most lessons are fewer than 15 minutes. The best way to start a course? [Go PRO]( MarketingProfs PRO subscribers get complete access to all of our current courses on topics from ABM to demand generation and those coming later this year like influencer marketing and SEO. Right now, you can still claim our 25% off introductory discount. And, our seven-day money back guarantee means it's a no-risk investment in your future. Learn something new. Get better results. [Say yes to PRO](. [I WANT BETTER RESULTS 🎯]( Copyright © 2000–2019 MarketingProfs, LLC All Rights Reserved Read our Terms of Service [here](. This email was sent to {EMAIL} as part of your MarketingProfs subscription. [Unsubscribe]( from all email | Manage your [email preferences]( MarketingProfs, LLC | 1985 Riviera Dr, Ste 103-17 | Mount Pleasant, SC 29464 | (866) 557-9625