Target account list
A target account list is the defined set of companies an account-based programme will pursue, agreed between marketing and sales before any campaign runs. It is the single input everything else depends on: tiering, budget allocation, campaign targeting and measurement all derive from it.
How is a good list built?
From the ideal customer profile first, then filtered by whether you can realistically reach and win the account. Fit without reachability produces a list of admirable companies nobody can get into. Sales should name accounts too, because reps know things a firmographic filter does not.
How big should it be?
Small enough that every account gets meaningful attention at its tier. If tier one has eighty accounts and one marketer, it is not tier one. The list size is really a statement about capacity, and treating it as a statement about ambition is how programmes spread themselves to nothing.
Who owns it, and how often does it change?
Jointly owned, reviewed quarterly. A list marketing maintains alone gets ignored by sales; a list sales maintains alone drifts toward whoever they spoke to last. Quarterly is frequent enough to respond and slow enough to measure against. See account tiering for how to band it once it exists.
