How to build a target account list from scratch
By Anna Fontanes | March 2026 | 10 min read
Most teams build target account lists wrong because they start with the list before defining the criteria.
"Let's build a list of 50 accounts to target." They create a spreadsheet. They start researching companies that seem relevant. After a week they've got a list of 50, and they start reaching out.
The problem: they never actually defined what "relevant" means. So they've got 50 random companies that vaguely fit their ICP, with no clear reason for targeting them now.
Here's how to do it right: define ICP, identify signals, map universe, prioritise, action.
Step 1: Define your ICP with specificity
ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) is how you describe your perfect customer. Most ICPs are too vague.
Bad ICP: "Mid-market SaaS companies that use HubSpot."
Better ICP: "B2B SaaS companies with revenue between £2M and £8M, founded in the last 7 years, doing product-led growth, with a founding team that has SaaS experience."
Good ICP: "B2B SaaS companies with revenue between £2M and £8M, founded in the last 7 years, doing product-led growth, with a founding team from SaaS backgrounds, that have raised at least seed capital, and are in the UK or US markets."
The better your ICP definition, the better your list will be.
How to write your ICP:
Ask yourself:
- What size company (by revenue)? Give a range.
- How old (by founding date)? Are you targeting mature, established, or new?
- What geography?
- What business model? (B2B SaaS, B2B services, marketplaces, etc.)
- What customer base do they target? (SMB, mid-market, enterprise)
- What maturity? (bootstrapped, VC-backed, profitable, pre-revenue?)
- Are there any deal-breaker characteristics? (avoid regulated industries? avoid specific regions?)
Write these down. This is your ICP.
Step 2: Identify your buying signals
A buying signal is something that indicates a company might buy what you're selling right now.
Don't skip this step. This is what separates a target account list from a random list.
For most B2B sellers, buying signals include:
- Growth signals: Revenue growth 30%+, headcount growth visible in job postings, funding announcements
- Director appointments: New Finance Director, new Commercial Director, new Head of Operations - signals organisational change and expansion
- Job postings: Hiring in revenue functions, operations functions, tech functions - signals company is scaling and investing in infrastructure
- Compliance signals: Bringing in new legal hire, compliance officer - signals preparing for scale or acquisition
- Funding: Seed round, Series A, growth capital - signals capital availability and growth mode
For your business specifically, you might add:
- Company just switched to your competitor (they're in market)
- Company in acquisition mode (signal: lots of M&A activity, recent acquisitions)
- Company moving geographies (expansion signal)
- Company entering new market (signals growth investment)
What signals matter for you? List 3 - 5 signals that would indicate a company is in buying mode for what you sell.
Step 3: Map your universe
Now you combine ICP definition + buying signals to identify all companies that fit both.
This is where tools help enormously, but you can do it manually:
Automated: Use a tool that searches by ICP criteria and buying signals. You get a universe of 1,000 - 5,000 companies (depending on how specific your ICP is).
Manual: Use Companies House or LinkedIn to search for companies matching your ICP. Filter for companies showing hiring or growth. You'll identify 100 - 300 companies over a few hours.
Your "universe" is all companies that fit your ICP + are showing at least one buying signal.
For most UK SMB sellers, this is 500 - 2,000 companies.
Step 4: Prioritise within your universe
You've got your universe (let's say 1,000 companies). You can't reach out to all 1,000 at once. You need to prioritise.
Prioritisation criteria:
- Signal strength: Companies showing multiple signals (hired a new Director + 30% growth + posting jobs) are higher priority than companies showing one signal
- Signal recency: Companies that appointed a director in the last 30 days are higher priority than companies where the appointment was 6 months ago (signal is fresher)
- Deal size: If you know some companies are higher-value, prioritise them
- Competitive situation: Companies using a competitor's tool might be in-market and ripe for switching
Score your universe using these criteria. Your top 100 - 200 companies are your "target account list" - your ABM list.
Example scoring:
- New Finance Director in last 90 days: +3 points
- Revenue growth 30%+: +2 points
- Hiring in relevant functions: +2 points
- Founded in last 3 years: +1 point
- VC-backed: +1 point
Companies with 7+ points are "very high priority." 4 - 6 points are "high priority." 1 - 3 points are "medium priority."
Your target account list is your "very high priority" and "high priority" accounts.
Step 5: Research and action
You've got your target account list (let's say 100 companies). Now you research each one and reach out.
What to research:
- Why are they on your list? (What signal triggered them?)
- What do they actually do?
- Who should you reach out to? (CEO? Head of ops? Head of sales?)
- What's your angle? (Why are you reaching out now?)
This is 20 - 30 minutes per company if you're doing it manually. Use an AI agent or automation to cut that to 5 - 10 minutes.
Reaching out:
For your top 20 accounts: personalised email or LinkedIn message. Reference the signal that made them high priority.
For your next 30 accounts: personalised email, but more templated. Same signal + same angle, adjusted for each company.
For your remaining 50: prioritised list for outreach when you have capacity.
Common mistakes at each stage
Stage 1 mistakes:
- ICP is too broad ("all SaaS companies")
- ICP is too specific ("only companies founded by ex-Salesforce people")
Fix: Test your ICP on 20 companies. Does it feel right? Are you including companies you actually want to work with? Does it exclude companies you don't?
Stage 2 mistakes:
- Signals are too generic ("revenue growth" without a threshold)
- Signals don't correlate with buying intent (watching for director appointments when you should be watching for hiring)
Fix: For each signal, ask: "Would a company showing this signal be more likely to buy from us?" If not, it's not a signal.
Stage 3 mistakes:
- Universe is too large (5,000+ companies) - makes prioritisation impossible
- Universe is too small (<100 companies) - not enough pipeline
Fix: Adjust your ICP until your universe is 500 - 2,000 companies.
Stage 4 mistakes:
- Prioritisation is too subjective (just picking companies you like the sound of)
- Prioritisation is too simplistic (just company size, no signals)
Fix: Score consistently. Use a rubric. Stick to it.
Stage 5 mistakes:
- Too much time on research, not enough on outreach
- Reaching out without real context
Fix: You only need to know enough to reference the signal. You don't need a PhD on every company.
Why this process works at scale
Once you've done this once, it becomes continuous.
Your universe doesn't change dramatically week to week. But signals do. New directors get appointed. New jobs get posted. New funding gets announced.
You monthly rescore your universe. Your top 100 companies changes as new signals emerge. You work through your top 20, then move to the next 20.
It's a system, not a project.
The hardest part of target account list building is identifying and prioritising by signals at scale
Firmbase handles stages 1 - 4 (ICP definition, signal monitoring, universe mapping, prioritisation). You handle stage 5 (research and outreach).
Start your free trial and build your first target account list based on signals, not guesses.
FAQ
Q: How many accounts should I put on my target account list?
A: Start with 50 - 100. If you're doing real research and personalisation, that's a full workload for most sellers. You can expand to 200+ once you've worked through your first 100.
Q: How often should I update my target account list?
A: Monthly is realistic. New signals emerge continuously. Your list should reflect current signals.
Q: What if a company on my list stops showing signals?
A: Move them down your priority list. Replace them with companies showing stronger signals. Your list should be dynamic.
Q: Should I focus on one signal or multiple signals?
A: Multiple signals are stronger indicators than single signals. A company with multiple signals is in better buying mode than a company with one signal.
Q: What if I don't know what buying signals are relevant for my product?
A: Look at your current customers. What signals were they showing when you first reached out? That's a signal. What changed in their business when they bought? That's a signal.
Q: Can I build this manually without software?
A: Yes, but it's time-consuming. 1,000-company universe, manually scored and tracked in a spreadsheet, takes 20+ hours of work upfront. Software cuts that to 2 - 3 hours.
Q: What if my ICP is really specific and my universe is only 50 companies?
A: You might need to broaden your ICP. 50 companies isn't enough for sustainable pipeline. Adjust your ICP definition and expand.
Author Bio
Anna Fontanes is a revenue operations consultant who has built account scoring and ICP frameworks for UK B2B sales teams across SaaS and professional services. She specialises in making structured prospecting work for teams without dedicated ops resource.
