Create and Access Account Lists

Context

Having one or more target account lists is a fundamental requirement for Account-Based Marketing (ABM). Account lists serve as role models to fuel your search for successful opportunities in cooperation with Demandbase data-driven account-selection methodologies.

Demandbase provides some pre-built account lists based on your CRM. See Demandbase System Account Lists.

Recommended Account Lists

As you get more experienced with ABM, you'll want to fine-tune your account lists with the expertise you have in your field. You can have as many or as few account lists in Demandbase as you want, such as:

• An Account List for All Accounts. 
• An Account List for each AE/BDR/SDR/xDR of their accounts.
• An Account List for each Geographic Territory.
• An Account List for each Vertical (Software, Finance, Health).
• Or a combo of the above using several lists!

By creating several account lists, you can better measure program impact and sales effectiveness within specific sectors or your industries, verticals, or other groupings of accounts. Account lists allow for each revenue team member to see the accounts, insights, and reports that are relevant to the accounts they care about.

An account can belong to one list or many lists.

Account Lists Types

The types of account lists you can create include:

• Dynamic: An account list that adds or removes accounts automatically as your data changes. Demandbase updates dynamic lists based on the sync interval configured in the Data Sync Settings page.
• D365 (Microsoft Dynamics) View: An account list created using an existing Microsoft Dynamics account list view.
• Salesforce Report or Salesforce View: An account list created using an existing Salesforce Account report or view.
• Static: An account list that does not update automatically. Accounts are manually added and deleted from the list. 

Tips:

• We do not recommend using a dynamic account list for a pilot program where you want to track data over time. Create a static account list instead.
• Demandbase also creates an account list automatically for CSV file imports. See Import or Reimport Account or Opportunity Data from a CSV File.
• You can create folders to organize and manage your lists. See Create and Manage Folders for Account, Person, and Opportunity Lists.

Prerequisites/Preparation

• Read Understanding Account Lists, the Heart of Your ABM Strategy.
• Decide on a name for your main target account list that inspires your team to be successful. Our list at Demandbase has grown pretty large, so we call it DB4K. You might like to call yours, the Gold List.
• New Account lists fully populate once the data syncs with Demandbase. This may take some time.

Prerequisites for Salesforce Report List Type:

To link your Demandbase account list to a Salesforce report, the following criteria must be in place:

• Must be an Accounts report (not a Lead, Contact, or Campaign Member report, etc.)
• Cross Object Filters are not supported, but we support Cross Object Report Types. 
• The report must be in Tabular or Summary format. We do not support Matrix or Joined report formats. 
  • For reports grouped by rows, you must list the Account Name or Account ID as an individual column to properly associate the data with the corresponding Demandbase account. For example, if you group rows by Account Name, you must add the Account ID as a column. If you group rows by Account ID, you must add the Account Name as a column.
  • All records and fields in the Salesforce report must be visible to the Demandbase-Salesforce integration user. If a field isn’t visible to the integration user, the report will ignore filters based on the field and add accounts to the list.

Prerequisites for Microsoft Dynamics View List Type:

To link your Demandbase account list to a Dynamics View, you must grant permissions to the integration user. See Step 2 (OAuth): Create Microsoft Dynamics Integration User for instructions. 

Steps: Create a Dynamic Account List

To watch a video about this process, see Creating a Dynamic Account List (Video).

1. From the left navigation bar, go to  Database > Account Lists and click Create New.
2. In the Create a new list window, enter the following:
   • Name: Enter a name for the list.
   • List Type: Select Dynamic list. For example, you may want to create a dynamic list of MQA accounts that have not had any sales touches in the last 14 days.
   • Visibility: Select who can view the list.
3. Click Create List. 
4. In the window that opens, use Basic or Advanced Selectors to identify the accounts for your account list and click Save.
   The following example shows Advanced Selectors used to identify accounts in the MQA Journey Stage with no sales touches over the last 14 days. 
   Tip: Click the refresh icon to see the number accounts that meet the Selector criteria.
   
5. After accounts have been imported, the message Successfully Updated List displays. This can take some time.
6. Select the List tab to see the accounts added to your list based on your Selector criteria.

Steps: Create an Account List from a Microsoft Dynamics Account View 

1. From the left navigation bar, go to Database > Account Lists and click Create New.
2. In the Create a new list window, enter the following:
   • Name: Enter a name for the list.
   • List Type: Select D365 view.
     
     
   • Select Report: Select a Microsoft Dynamics Account view from the list. 
   • Visibility: Select who can view the list.
     • Public: Visible to everyone in your company.
     • Private: Visible only to the creator of the list and any Demandbase users with an Admin role.
3. Click Create List. After accounts have been imported, the message Successfully Updated List displays. This can take some time.

Steps: Create an Account List from a Salesforce Account Report or View

Important: All accounts referenced by Account ID and Account Name in the Salesforce Report/View are added to the Demandbase account list. For example, if you add Parent Account as a column, all Parent Accounts are added to the account list as well. 

1. From the left navigation bar, go to  Database > Account Lists and click Create New.
   
2. In the Create a new list window, enter the following:
   • Name: Enter a name for the list.
   • List Type: Select SFDC report or SFDC view.
     
     
   • Select Report: Select a Salesforce report or view from the list.
   • Visibility: Select who can view the list.
     • Public: Visible to everyone in your company.
     • Private: Visible only to the creator of the list and any Demandbase users with an Admin role.
       
3. Click Create List.
4. After accounts have been imported, the message Successfully Updated List displays. This can take some time.
   

Steps: Create a Static Account List

1. From the left navigation bar, go to  Database > Account Lists and click Create New.
2. In the Create a new list window, enter the following:
   • Name: Enter a name for the list.
   • List Type: Select Static list.
   • Visibility: Select who can view the list.
     • Public: Visible to everyone in your company.
     • Private: Visible only to the creator of the list and any Demandbase users with an Admin role.
       
3. Click Create List.
   
4. In the List tab, click Add Accounts.
   
   
5. Use Basic or Advanced Selectors to filter accounts and click Continue.
   The following example shows Basic Selectors used to filter for US computer software companies.
   Tip: Click the refresh icon to see the number accounts that meet the Selector criteria.
   
   
6. Select accounts to add to the static account list using one of the following methods:
   • From the table, select the checkboxes for accounts you want to add.
     
     
   • Select the checkbox next to the Account Name column header to select all accounts on the current page in the table.
     Tip: To select all accounts on all pages, click the Select available … rows link above the table.
     
     
7. Click Add Accounts to add the selected accounts.
   Tip: You can repeat this process to add more accounts to an existing static list.
   

Outcome

To access you account lists, from the left navigation bar, go to Database > Account Lists. To open an account list, click the list name in the Account Lists table.

If you want to take action with one or more accounts in an account list, select them from the table and click Take Action.

Next Steps

You can add one more level of sophistication to your account-list building by adding keyword sets to detect account intent and creating account lists based on keyword sets.

To edit or delete account lists, see Manage Account Lists.