Account-based prospecting gives a small agency one place to understand a named company before deciding what to do next. It is particularly useful when several people could be connected to the work and your team risks approaching them independently.
The output here is a workboard for one account. It is different from an ideal customer profile, which defines a segment, and a target account list, which compares companies. Start this board only when there is a clear reason to investigate this particular organisation.
Choose the account and one working hypothesis
Describe the agency service in a sentence and explain why the company is worth researching. Include the source behind that explanation. A product launch could make a messaging project worth discussing; it does not prove the company wants an agency or has money available.
Identify the existing relationship before searching for more people. Check whether anyone in your team is already speaking with the company, has a live proposal, handles its account or has received a refusal. Give one person responsibility for coordinating the next action.
Write the hypothesis as a question you are prepared to have disproved. For example: “Does the team need help adapting this launch material for a second audience?” This gives your research a purpose without declaring that you have diagnosed the company’s problem.
Build one account workboard
Illustrative planning exercise: Cedar Lane Studio and its possible client, Beacon Works, are fictional. No project, budget or result is being reported.
| Workboard area | Completed example |
|---|---|
| Service hypothesis | Explore whether the new product’s launch material needs adaptation for channel partners. |
| Account evidence | The fictional company has published a new product page and a partner page. |
| Existing relationship | One colleague knows a product-marketing contact; no active project is recorded. |
| Function to understand | Who owns partner enablement for this product? |
| Unknown dependency | Whether partner material already exists and whether an external studio is relevant. |
| Coordinating owner | One named agency colleague, responsible for checking the relationship first. |
| Next action | Ask the existing contact who handles this work before approaching another person. |
| Stop condition | Existing owner declines help, or an active colleague-led conversation already covers it. |
Keep source links, checked dates and actual replies beneath the board. A new title or public announcement should not silently change the status to “opportunity”. That status needs evidence from a relevant conversation or another agreed qualification event.
Decide whether another contact is useful
More contacts are useful when they answer a specific gap. If the current conversation says procurement handles supplier onboarding, identifying the relevant function may help. If your only reason is that the first person has not replied, contacting the whole department can create conflicting approaches.
Map functions with a purpose: someone close to the work, someone who can explain the decision process and someone responsible for delivery dependencies. One person may cover several functions. Use the role-mapping article to keep observed responsibility separate from assumed authority.
Selected LinkedIn profiles can support this work. Inspect the current profile and company context, then collect only the records relevant to the remaining research question. Leadsforlinked can export selected profile records as CSV; the resulting rows do not tell you that the people form a buying committee or have agreed to an approach.
Progress the account through evidence
Define practical states your team can explain: researching ownership, in conversation, waiting for an agreed item, proposal requested, not suitable or closed. Avoid moving an account forward because someone accepted a connection or watched a piece of content.
For the fictional example, “the contact introduced the partner-marketing owner and asked for two scope options” is a material development. “Three relevant profiles found” is completed research. Both belong in the board, but they support different next actions.
When a real buyer is ready for a relevant offer, explain that offer. When the task is uncertain, ask the question that resolves it. When a refusal is clear, stop. The board should make these decisions easier for the next colleague, rather than produce a schedule of automatic reminders to every person attached to the company.