For contract manufacturers, the path to growth lies in focusing not on more leads but on the right leads. Account-based marketing offers a strategic approach to this end by aligning sales and marketing efforts around a clearly defined list of high-value target accounts—the “right” leads. But the first step (and often the most challenging) is identifying who these right-fit accounts are.
For your ABM efforts to reap the most reward, you need to focus on the prospect accounts with the highest revenue potential for your business. But selecting high-value accounts isn't just a box-ticking exercise. It requires a sharp understanding of your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), smart data analysis, and close collaboration across teams.
With the right approach, your sales and marketing teams can work together to lay the groundwork for a successful ABM campaign by uncovering, assessing, and prioritising the high-value accounts most likely to deliver long-term value.
Here’s how.
Before you can identify your ideal accounts, you need a clear picture of what “ideal” actually looks like. This why you need an Ideal Customer Profile. Your ICP is more than a list of demographic data—it’s a framework for aligning what your business does with what customers need and the market potential available.
For contract manufacturers, this means asking:
Consider the revenue, margins, retention, and strategic fit of verticals you already serve, as well as those you have yet to venture into. For example, if you’re a toll manufacturer, you may find that life sciences clients offer higher margins and longer-term partnerships than food and beverage firms.
Then, look at your production capacity and consider whether your production scale supports Tier 1 OEMs or whether your sweet spot is serving agile, innovation-led start-ups. Think about both immediate and long-term capacity, current contracts coming to an end, or new facility space opening up.
When assessing the competitiveness of your expertise, look at past wins where your team solved complex problems or helped a customer scale. What did these customers look like, and are there others in the market experiencing similar problems you have proven expertise in solving?
Effective ABM campaigns are built on insights, not intuition. They draw heavily on reliable, accurate data to steer everything from strategy to messaging. Once you’ve defined your ICP, the next step is to use your data to segment your prospect universe by potential impact.
This includes evaluating the estimated deal size and lifetime value, margin analysis, and any upsell and cross-sell potential. Use your CRM and ERP data to model revenue and profitability by customer segment, but bear in mind that not all revenue is equal. High-volume, low-margin contracts, for example, can be more of a resource drain and significantly limit flexibility.
An ABM approach can also prove fruitful for strengthening and expanding existing customer relationships. Using data, consider whether there are any adjacent or value-added services you can offer existing accounts, such as regulatory support, new production lines, or packaging options. Ask customer services teams for any valuable data insights that can help identify opportunities based on customer feedback and interactions.
Your sales teams also have valuable insights beyond data that can help uncover high-value accounts worth pursuing. Because they are on the frontline, they often have insights that don’t show up in spreadsheets, so combining quantitative data with their qualitative intelligence is key to surfacing the most promising targets.
Ask your sales team:
Here’s where strategy meets pragmatism. Once you’ve assessed your list of potential targets, it’s time to strike the right balance between the number of accounts you’ll target and how you’ll target them.
Too few accounts, and you face a higher risk of failure, while too many accounts could dilute your focus and efforts. For example, 5–10 accounts may not provide enough opportunity volume to deliver meaningful results, but targeting 200 accounts will spread your resources too thin, undermining the personalised approach that makes ABM effective.
A good rule of thumb for mid-sized contract manufacturers might be to tier accounts.
Tier 1 accounts, your most strategic accounts, could be 5–15 high-value targets that would benefit most from tailored one-to-one outreach. Once secured, these big fish would drastically impact your profitability.
Tier 2, high-potential accounts, could be 30–50 accounts that share similar characteristics or needs and can be targeted together under semi-customised campaigns. By taking a one-to-few messaging approach, you can target these accounts with a degree of personalisation while benefiting from economies of scale.
Tier 3 accounts, being a broad but not exact match with your ICP, could be upwards of 100 possible accounts that you engage with through one-to-many campaigns. These accounts are nice-to-haves that can be reached without significant time or resource spend.
Accounts can move between the tiers based on how their needs, the market, or your capabilities change. For example, a tier 2 account might introduce a new product to the market that you could effortlessly produce at scale, making it a more high-value account than before. So keep tabs on your tiered list of accounts and pivot your focus as required.
To sharpen your account list, get your sales and marketing teams together and workshop these questions:
Use these prompts not just as filters but as conversation starters to align your team around what success looks like—and how to get there.
Selecting high-value accounts is both an art and a science. It demands cross-functional collaboration, strategic foresight, and a willingness to test and refine. For contract manufacturers, the value of ABM lies not just in better leads—but in deeper, more profitable customer relationships built around shared value and strategic alignment.
By taking the time to get this first step right, you’ll set the stage for more targeted messaging, stronger sales conversations, and, ultimately, more profitable growth.
Do you need help defining your ICP, uncovering high-value accounts, or launching your ABM programme? Get our guide to ABM for manufacturers, or contact the Equinet team now.