The Recipe I Use to Book My Biggest Opportunities

(Step-by-Step)

Jan 26, 2025

Read time: 5 min

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Perfect timing to talk about The Recipe I Use to Book My Biggest Opportunities: The Account-Based Recipe.

Because next week, I’m breaking down how Snowflake uses it as a strategy. Here’s a sneak peek:

SDRs book 2-4x more meetings on ABM accounts.
Meetings booked: 36/100 accounts (vs 10/100 on non-ABM).
Deals close 2x faster from SQO to Won.

After coaching and shadowing outbound teams over the past few years, here’s what I’ve noticed:

Reps build prospect lists with just one contact per account, usually from LinkedIn.
Or they add 5 prospects from the same account but send them all the same generic message.

While this might feel efficient, it’s holding you back.

Here’s why:

You lose the chance to personalize. Without digging deeper, your outreach sounds flat.
B2B buying isn’t a one-person show, decisions involve multiple stakeholders. Ignoring the team means ignoring how deals are made.
Sending the same message to 5 people? It doesn’t make you stand out, it makes you look lazy.

In today’s recipe, we’ll cover why a prospect-based approach is one of the biggest mistakes you can make.

Instead, I’ll show you how to shift to an account-based recipe, a strategy that works not just for enterprise accounts but for any segment.

Let’s get cooking.

If you’d rather watch or listen than read, you can check out the video version of this recipe on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple at 05:26:

The Account-Based Recipe

Step-by-Step Recipe for Implementing the Account-Based Strategy

Account-based messaging means crafting your outreach to target the whole organization’s initiatives and challenges, not just one person. It takes solid research and a strategic approach to make it work.

Step 1: Account Research

Use These Research Sources:

Public Companies:

10-K Reports: Get a clear picture of financial health and priorities.
Earnings Calls: Learn about performance and future plans.

Private Companies:

Press Releases & News: Stay on top of recent updates.
Funding Rounds: Spot growth phases and key investment areas.
Exec Interviews: Understand leadership goals and vision.

All Companies:

New Exec Hires: Often signal strategy changes.
Scaling & Hiring Trends: Indicate growth and challenges.
PE Acquisitions: Can lead to restructuring or new initiatives.
Internal research source: Talk to end-users for insights into current challenges.

Step 2: Build your Point of View (POV)

This part is the most underrated part of your outreach.

What’s the “Point of View”?

It’s about building a hypothesis based on what you’ve learned about your account. Then, connect how your product can help solve their specific challenges.

What problems can our product solve based on our research?
What goals can we help them achieve?

Example of challenges:

A $50 million funding round: This signals aggressive growth plans, potential scaling issues, broken processes, and a need for solutions to support rapid expansion.

Step 3: Map Out Key Stakeholders

Identify the people at different levels of the organization who have a say in purchasing decisions.

Who to focus on:

C-Level Executives and VPs (Above the Line): Decision-makers.
Directors and Managers (Below the Line): Influencers and key players.
Individual Contributors and End-Users: Those who’ll actually use your product and can provide valuable insights.

Crafting Tailored Messages for Every Org Level

Above the Line (ATL): C-Level Executives and VPs:

Focus On:

Strategic initiatives
Long-term vision
Business impact and ROI

Messaging example for a Chief Data Officer:

Improve decision-making processes
Build trust in data across the business
Position the data team as a profit center, not just a cost center
Promote data democratization throughout the organization

Below the Line (BTL): Directors, Managers, Individual Contributors

Focus On:

Day-to-day operations
Practical solutions
Efficiency and productivity gains

Messaging Examples:

For Data Engineering Managers:

Speed up hiring by giving them a centralized place to find all KPI definitions and datasets.
Boost team productivity by allowing them to locate the datasets they need in minutes, not hours.

For Data Engineers:

Reduce manual work when running impact analysis.
Get the job done faster with a central tool to find all datasets and the context needed for building data pipelines.
Spend less time on manual documentation.

The Account-Based Recipe in Action

There are tons of ways to approach this, but let me break down 3 examples you can start using today:

Spot a pain point online and use it
Hiring a new Exec
The top-down vs bottom-up approach

Spot a pain point online and use it

A single pain point shared on a podcast can be pure gold for your outreach.

Here’s the play: Find one big pain or initiative mentioned in an interview or article that ties to your solution.

Example: A CRO talks about a major challenge on a podcast.

Step 1: Reach out to the CRO, mention the pain/initiative, and how your solution can help.
Step 2: Contact their direct reports. Ask how this issue impacts their work and highlight how your solution could help solve that.

Why target multiple people?

Because the CRO is likely getting hammered with emails, and if it’s a big priority for them, someone on their team is probably owning it. A priority for the CRO is a priority for the team.

Hiring a new Exec

For every account I target, I reach out to the new exec, their boss, and their direct reports. Why? Because the impact isn’t just on the new exec, it affects the whole organization.

For the CEO: A new exec brings fresh ideas and possibly new challenges as they shake things up. This can be both exciting and stressful for the CEO.
For direct reports: The team will have to adapt to new leadership styles, processes, and expectations, which can be tough but also an opportunity for growth.

Two examples:

First time they’re hiring for this role: The goal is building the function from scratch.
4th exec in the same role: The focus is on making the team more efficient or rebuilding the function.

Both are totally different scenarios with different impacts on the business and teams.

The top-down vs bottom-up approach

When tackling an account, there are two ways to go about it:

Top-down approach: This is the quickest way to get a meeting or referral. You start by reaching out to VP/C-level execs, and if they don’t respond, you work your way down. Often, C-level execs will direct you to the right person on their team.
Bottom-up approach: This takes more time but has a higher success rate for closing deals. You begin with individual contributors, gather insights, then move up to managers, directors, and finally VP/C-level. This approach allows for more personalized messaging and better-quality opportunities.

I’ve used both approaches, and they both work—it just depends on the situation.

How to Implement the Bottom-Up Approach

Step 1: Start Low (End-users)

Connect with them on LinkedIn.
Easier access, non-threatening questions, and they can give you valuable insights.
The goal is to find out if the problem you solve actually exists—the “hidden” problems often surface here.
By connecting with end users, you’ve built a network of mutual connections with decision-makers. Now, instead of 0 mutual connections, they’ll see you have 30+.

Step 2: Move to the Middle (Managers, Senior Managers)

Use your insights from the end-users to reach out: “I spoke with [name] and learned your team is experiencing [specific issue].”
Ask managers if they’re aware of the problem and if they’re trying to fix it.

Step 3: Go to the Top (Directors, VPs, C-Level)

Use your insights from the Middle Managers to reach out: “I spoke with [manager] and learned the team is experiencing [specific issue], and [manage] is working on finding a solution.”
Now that you know what the managers are trying to fix, approach the execs with possible solutions.
Show them what you’ve learned and how it’s impacting their team—this positions you as someone who understands their challenges and can offer real solutions.

Real-World Feedback

A CRO shared on LinkedIn:

Another story from a VP at Snowflake:

Key takeaway

The account-based recipe, whether starting from the top or bottom, helps outbound reps craft more targeted and relevant outreach. It makes messaging relevant, aligns with each account’s needs, and creates higher-quality opportunities with better conversion rates.

That’s a wrap for today!

What's your biggest takeaway from today's newsletter?

See you in the next newsletter.

Cheers,

Elric

Chef, Outbound Kitchen

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