What’s really going on

Ask a B2B team which accounts they’re targeting and you usually get one of three answers: “the big names in our sector”, “everyone who fits our ideal customer profile”, or a long export from a database. All three feel productive. None of them tells you where to start on Monday morning.

The big names are attractive, but they are also the accounts everyone else is chasing, with the longest buying processes and the most procurement. “Everyone who fits” sounds focused, but if 4,000 companies fit, you’ve described a market, not a target list. And a database export gives you contacts, not reasons to get in touch.

The result is predictable. Marketing runs campaigns at a broad audience, sales cherry-picks the accounts they like, and both work the same list half-heartedly. Effort gets spread so thin that no account gets the attention it takes to actually win it.

What’s missing is the combination of two questions. Fit: does this account look like the clients you win easily, serve well and keep? Timing: is something happening there right now that makes a purchase likely? Fit tells you who could buy. Timing tells you who will. You need both.

How to tell this is your problem

Your target list has more than a few hundred accounts. Nobody can give that many accounts real attention.

Sales and marketing work from different lists. Or nobody knows which list is the real one.

Most outreach starts with “I came across your company”. That’s a sign there’s no real reason to reach out right now.

You win deals you never targeted, and lose the ones you did. Your list is based on wishes, not on evidence.

How to fix it

1. Define fit using your best clients, not your dream clients

Take your ten best clients from the last two years: the ones that were easy to win, good to work with and profitable. Write down what they have in common. Think sector, size, how they’re organised and what tools they use, but above all: what problem made them come to you. That pattern is your fit profile. Because it’s based on evidence, it’s far more reliable than a wish list.

2. Build a short list of 50 to 100 accounts

Use your fit profile to build a first list of accounts that match. Keep it short on purpose. Fifty well-chosen accounts that you really work will beat 5,000 that you spray. You can always add more once the first group is moving.

3. Add buying signals

Now look at timing. Buying signals are events that make a purchase more likely: hiring for roles related to what you sell, new funding, a new leader in the department you serve, a merger or reorganisation, a change in technology, new regulation in their sector, or repeat visits to your pricing page. Pick the four or five signals that, looking back, came before most of your best deals. Track those, and only those.

4. Combine fit and timing into tiers

Tier 1 accounts fit well and show a signal now. Tier 2 accounts fit well but show no signal yet. Everything else waits. Review the tiers every month, because signals come and go: an account can move from tier 2 to tier 1 overnight when they hire a new commercial director.

5. Give each tier its own plan

Tier 1 gets a personal plan that marketing and sales run together: who is involved, which problem they probably have right now, which message and content fits, and who reaches out when. Tier 2 gets lighter, always-on attention: useful content, a steady LinkedIn presence and the occasional check-in, so you’re known and trusted the moment a signal appears.

An example

Imagine a software company selling planning tools to logistics firms. Their target list: every logistics company in the Benelux, around 3,000 accounts. When they look at their ten best clients, a pattern appears: mid-sized carriers with 200 to 1,000 employees, running an outdated planning system, that had just hired a new operations director. That last detail turns out to be the strongest signal of all.

The new list: 80 carriers that fit, of which 12 show a signal right now. Those 12 get a personal plan; the other 68 get regular, useful content. Same team, same budget, but now every conversation starts with a reason to talk.

Common mistakes

Starting with the logos you want. Dream accounts are fine as a long-term goal, but they’re rarely where this quarter’s pipeline comes from.

Tracking every signal you can find. More data isn’t better. A handful of proven signals beats a dashboard full of noise.

Building the list once and never touching it again. Fit changes slowly, but timing changes every week. A monthly review keeps the list alive.