Account Selection & Tiering

Overview

Account selection is the hardest part of ABM. Pick wrong and you waste 6 months. Pick right and you 3x your close rate. This skill builds a weighted scoring model to tier your TAM into Strategic, Scale, and Programmatic accounts.

Authoritative Foundations

• TOPO (now Gartner) — Account selection — Score accounts on fit first, then layer intent and engagement to decide tier; fit without intent is a nurture list, not a target list.
• Winning by Design — ICP — Define the ideal customer profile from closed-won customers who retain and expand, not from the largest logos.
• ITSMA — Account-Based Marketing — Tier-based ABM (1:1 / 1:few / 1:many); measure pipeline from target accounts, not lead volume.
• Lars Nilsson — Account-based sales development (ABSD) — Select and sequence accounts by buying signals, not firmographics alone; the account list is a living ranking, not an annual export.

When to Use

• "Which accounts should we target?"
• "Tier our target account list"
• "Build an account scoring model"
• "Prioritize our TAM for ABM"