Account tiering, categorizing accounts based on their projected value and aligning them with tailored sales engagement strategies, isn’t just a nice-to-have tactic; it’s an operational imperative in today’s B2B sales world.
When done correctly, account tiering places a disproportionate amount of time, budget, and resources towards the “highest value” accounts.
Unfair to the “lesser” accounts? Sure. But sales is not about being equitable; it’s about working smarter and more efficiently. Low lift; high impact.
Too many organizations fall into the trap of measuring and engaging all accounts the exact same way. #AllAccountsTreatedEqually.
Wrong.
As companies evolve from pure demand gen/MQL-focused activities … to ABM … to ABX (what’s the difference?), it’s imperative we match what we do for each account to what we know and the expected value of each account. Again, working smarter.
Top-performing organizations aren’t smashing all accounts together, treating them all as the same. It’s time to break out target accounts into tiers, as follows:
Matching entitlements (what we do as sellers and marketers) to account tiers ensures we focus our limited resources on the accounts with the highest potential … aka, “do more with less!”
More efficient resource allocation.
More strategic sales approaches.
That’s really the main reason account tiering is essential.
Why? Both approaches lead to higher ROI. And that’s why we’re all here in salesland, right?
Some examples:
Resource optimization: Account tiering ensures resources are not spread too thinly over your most important accounts and not over-spent on accounts less likely to yield high returns. Time/effort/budget is more aligned with that potential return.
Net result: Higher ROI
Higher customer satisfaction (and retention): More attention and customized service for your highest value accounts tend to lead to happy customers … and customers who are less likely to churn.
Net result: Higher ROI
Data-driven decision-making: Account tiering is not a one-time exercise. It requires ongoing refinement and tweaks driven by data. Sales teams must recalibrate their efforts in real-time.
Net result: Higher ROI
Scalability and growth: Ideally, the number (and value) of accounts grow as your business grows. Account tiering is a scalable strategy that can grow with your company, ensuring that even as the account list expands, the focus remains on tier-resource alignment.
Net result: Higher ROI
“These results resonate with sales teams that are not yet tiering or are not as deliberate about it. By showing the reps the increased impact to the prioritized accounts, this drives the account tiering effort overall, not to mention all the other exponential benefits of sales and marketing aligning on which accounts are most critical.”
John Eitel
Executive Sales Leader
Jennifer Hughes
Principle Digital Expert
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