What is an account map?
An account map is a strategic document that outlines the key accounts you want to target and win as a business. It helps align sales and marketing teams on the most important accounts to focus their efforts on.
The map identifies your best customers and prospects, their value to your business, and the strategy you’ll use to win them. It acts like a blueprint to capture new business from your desired accounts.
An effective account map should:
- Prioritize the accounts with the most potential
- Outline the value proposition for each target
- Define roles and responsibilities for winning each account
- Track progress and status for each target
Having an account plan helps sales teams understand the accounts to focus on and how to tackle them. It also enables marketing to deliver the right messages to the right targets at the right time.
Why create an account map?
There are several key reasons to create an account map for your B2B sales and marketing activities:
- Focus resources – An account map identifies your best opportunities and ensures sales and marketing align their limited time and resources on the top accounts.
- Improve win rates – By doing research and planning for each key account, you can craft tailored messaging and value propositions to improve win rates.
- Create visibility – An account map gives leadership visibility into the status of your most important deals and accounts in the pipeline.
- Drive growth – Targeting the right accounts allows you to drive business growth by winning new customers with the most potential.
- Coordinate activities – An account map enables different teams to collaborate and coordinate their efforts for each target account.
In summary, an account plan is a strategic tool to focus resources on your best opportunities and win key accounts by aligning sales and marketing.
How to create an account map
Here is a step-by-step process for creating an effective account map:
1. Identify target accounts
First, conduct research to identify a list of target accounts and contacts to pursue. Ideal targets include:
- Existing customers – Upsell opportunities
- Lost accounts – Win-backs
- Prospects already engaged – Accelerate deals
- New prospects – Warm introductions
Leverage prospecting tools, past sales records, and market research to build your initial list. Focus on accounts that align with your ideal customer profile.
2. Prioritize accounts
Next, rank your target account list based on revenue potential and likelihood to buy. Use criteria like:
- Company size/revenue
- Presence of key stakeholders
- Fit with your offering
- Problems you can solve
- Timing of their purchase plans
- Channel presence and endorsement
Focus on the top 10-20% of accounts with the highest potential first. You can pursue the lower tiers later.
3. Research accounts
Conduct in-depth research on your priority accounts to identify key stakeholders, initiatives, challenges, and success factors. Learn what matters most to the account.
Research methods can include:
- Reviewing their website, news, social media
- Holding discovery calls
- Gathering intel from industry events, partners, or employees
- Technology monitoring (cookies, intent data)
Document your findings in the account plan.
4. Define the strategy
Outline the specific strategies and plays you’ll run to win each priority account. Document details like:
- Executive sponsorship required
- Key contacts and challenges
- Ideal first meeting
- Value proposition and messaging
- Products and pricing to lead with
- Proof points and collateral needed
- Incentives and discounts
- Multi-touch nurture campaigns
- Budget and resources required
The more detailed the better to arm both sales and marketing with what they need to drive engagement.
5. Document status and results
Track the stage for each account, such as:
- Prospecting
- Early discussions
- Proposal
- Negotiation
- Won/Lost and amount
Update status and share results regularly to inform future strategy and activity.
6. Identify key roles
Outline the specific people responsible for executing the strategy for each account, such as:
- Sales development rep – Prospecting
- Account executive – Meetings and proposal
- Solutions architect – Demo and technical validation
- Marketing campaign manager – Nuturing
Ensuring roles are defined enables execution and follow-through.
Best practices for account mapping
Some best practices to ensure your account map drives success include:
- Limit targets to top 20% of accounts only
- Tie strategies back to customer’s business goals
- Outline detailed next steps for sales and marketing
- Regularly review and update statuses
- Use executive sponsorship where required
- Map contacts and relationships
- Note key events, milestones and dates
- Share plan across departments and teams
An account map is a living document. Continuously update it with the latest account intelligence and status. Review quarterly to add or remove accounts based on results and new opportunities.
Account map template
To help you get started, here is an account map template you can customize with columns for each key component:
Account Name | Key Contacts | Revenue Potential | Win Probability | Current Status | Ideal First Meeting | Value Proposition | Strategy | Actions | Owner |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ABC Company | John Smith, CEO | $100,000 | 70% | Prospect | CFO intro call | Reduce churn | Free trial + executive briefing | Send trial invite email | Susan |
XYZ Inc. | Jane Thomas, CMO | $250,000 | 60% | Lead | Pricing call | Boost conversions | ABM nurture campaign | Create campaign assets | Mark |
This template helps you document all the key information needed to orchestrate targeted sales and marketing activities that will win the account.
Account intelligence tools
To accelerate your research and gain account insights, consider account intelligence solutions like:
- ZoomInfo – Contact and company data
- Dun & Bradstreet – Technographics
- 6Sense – Predictive intelligence
- Demandbase – Firmographics
- Clearbit – Enrich contacts
- LinkedIn Sales Navigator – Relationships
These tools analyze website traffic, intent signals, and business data to uncover real-time intelligence on your accounts. They can help identify buyer committees, map org charts, track leads, and monitor trigger events.
Steps to implement your account map
To put your account plan into action across sales and marketing, you’ll need to:
- Distribute the plan and hold training sessions
- Map content offers and campaigns to each account
- Send targeted emails and LinkedIn outreach
- Equip sales with value props and collateral
- Track and report on account progress
- Review and optimize the plan quarterly
Be sure to continually monitor performance anddouble down on what’s working to deliver account growth.
Conclusion
A structured account map helps align sales and marketing around winning key accounts. It focuses resources on the most valuable opportunities and provides a blueprint to engage and convert them into customers.
By researching accounts, defining strategies tailored to each one, and documenting the plan, you gain alignment across teams responsible for delivering success.
Regularly review and refresh the account map based on results and new prospects. When implemented effectively, an account plan can become a high-impact engine for acquiring and retaining your best customers.