Account Based Marketing & Sales: The Future of Sales & Marketing eGuide

How to successfully secure key target accounts

With the sheer amount of content and campaigns taking up today’s marketing space, people are craving a more personalised, memorable approach that will stand out among the noise.

Account-based marketing and sales (ABM&S) is the key way of doing this, and is a strategy that focuses on customer experience over and above everything else, while requiring sales and marketing teams to work together towards identifying exactly who you’re looking for.

ABM&S has become a popular tactic for many marketing, sales and customer success teams looking to stay ahead of the curve.

But why, exactly?

Increase your performance and sales with a new sales and marketing approach.

The Benefits of ABM&S

Together with an increase in visibility to your direct target market, streamlining both the content and unique offering is almost guaranteed to lead to more sales and an ongoing relationship with future accounts.

It’s vital to direct your marketing sales efforts to the correct places for maximum impact, and ABM&S enables you to do just that by first identifying your target accounts, and then working backward to create campaigns that speak directly to key decision-makers.

For many customer-centric companies, this strategy works far better than working to attract a large number of prospects, then developing niche content to move ideal prospects through a funnel.

After all, you wouldn’t market milk to lactose intolerants, so why spend the time and money marketing your unique offering to those you’re not looking to speak to?

By adjusting from a lead-centric to an account-centric mentality, you’re focusing not on what it is you do, but why it is they need you. These feelings of relatability will naturally lead you to close deals more quickly and easily, while upping your ROI.

Account-based marketing focuses on a few large and important accounts or those potential accounts that hold the greatest promise of adding to your bottom line.

That’s why it’s so critical to have a high-touch and highly targeted message to these individuals, because of their revenue potential and impact to sales and marketing.

Of course companies require different strategies depending on their goals, but in terms of ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) and target audience, ABM&S is considered the most effective for those seeking:

» An effective way to reach high value customers that saves both time and effort, while guaranteeing results

» A way for marketing teams and sales teams to work in sync, sharing knowledge and building morale

» An automated marketing process to streamline steps in the process, such as lead generation automation or email follow-ups

» A strategy to build ongoing personal relationships with key decision-makers

So, should you adopt ABM&S?

There’s no denying that ABM&S has proven success, with cloud-based data warehouse Snowflake growing by over 300% and increasing click-through rates by 150%  – raising $500 million in just 15 months. And that’s just one of many examples.

More than 40 percent of companies currently utilising ABM&S plan to grow their future efforts in the coming years by further using the tactic – which provides thorough data surrounding engagement and resources.

Traditional demand generation and ABM&S strategies both have their appeal, but by adopting elements of ABM&S to your revenue plan you will begin to see faster rewards.

But is it the right strategy for your unique business? Let’s find out.

In order to determine whether or not ABM&S is best suited to you and your unique company goals, you need to ask yourself the following questions:

» Does our sales cycle involve a research/evaluation phase due to the cost or level of commitment required from the buyer, often with multiple stakeholders?

» Do our sales and marketing teams want to make a bigger impact using a more strategic focus?

» Do our existing buyers (who generate the most revenue) have distinct characteristics?

» Have you identified certain accounts with the potential to generate more revenue with similar distinct characteristics?

» Have you identified organisations with needs that your solution clearly addresses?

» Do your unique company goals include expanding into a new segment, territory, or vertical, or alternatively going after your competitor’s customers?

» Does your company offer several products or services, and have set goals to grow buyer lifetime value through upsell and cross-selling?

If any of those questions piqued your interest or had you thinking, “yes”, then keep reading!

ABM&S has been compared to learning a new strategic language, with both marketing and sales teams having to adopt new ways of thinking and a unique approach than what they may be used to.

With this new tactic on the rise, it’s important to know exactly what changes need to be made within your company to get it right the first time, every time.

Marketers should make the following shifts:

Lead-centred approach

Reactive engagement

Random individuals

Account-based approach

Proactive engagement

Specific personas & buying groups

Sales should make the following shifts:

Manual processes

Sales-only data

Working independently

Technology and automation

Combined sales and marketing data

Collaborating with marketing teams

ABM&S: what do you need to consider for success?

There’s no denying an ABM&S programme can take your business to the next level, but exactly what is the best approach to deliver on your specific goals is dependent on a number of factors, which are vital to your ongoing success. Each component of ABM&S acts towards addressing different buyer segments through both inbound and outbound tactics.

Executing an effective ABM&S strategy will enable you to create a long-lasting positive impression on buyers in key, high value target accounts, so where do you begin?

Start by considering the following key factors:

» The size of your offering

The higher the value, the greater the level of customisation required to onboard potential customers.

» The complexity of your product

The more complex, the more work you’ll need to do to explain it. This translates directly into more precise personalisation to recognise a customer’s specific goals and pain points.

» The size of your targeted organisation

Various approaches are required depending on the size of the company. For example, targeting a Fortune 500 is very different from going after a small business.

» The amount of stakeholders in the targeted organisation

A small business may only have one key member, but a large company could have dozens of decision-makers that you’ll need to make an impression on.

» The strategic importance of clients

Aside from revenue, securing one or more clients within a specific industry could open further doors and may warrant a one-to-one marketing approach – even if the deal is considered small.

» The perception of your company to others

If you are lesser known, you will need to conduct a more strategic marketing plan than if you have impressive brand equity.

» The competitive environment

If your industry already has a variety of key players, you’ll need a strong strategy to stand out. Are you entering as a small fish in a big pond, or a big fish in a small pond?

» The internal setup of your organisation

Whether or not you have enough resources is a huge consideration. You need a skilled team to successfully achieve your objectives, or a strong game plan.

While you want to achieve ambitious goals, you don’t want to take on more than is possible. Assessing the above factors will guide you into the best ABM&S strategy for your unique offering.

Get the ball rolling

Kickstarting a new sales and marketing strategy can be daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. Utilising the T.E.A.M. Framework of Target, Engage, Activate, and Measure is a simple way for teams to begin to plan, operate, and evaluate their desirable campaigns.

Moreover, it opens the door to shared goals and fluid communication – ensuring all departments are working towards joint success.

How do you begin?

Following

Define Your strategic accounts

Strategic planning usually begins with identifying your target persona, but rather than standard marketing practices, ABM&S is not about speaking to an individual – but an organisation.

Begin identifying your target accounts by determining the common makeup of organisations that bring in the largest MRR (monthly recurring revenue) at your company. Define the industry, company size, location, annual revenue, upsell opportunity, and profit margin for those yielding your business the highest long-term profits.

Put your investigation goggles on

Understanding the makeup of your target organisations is vital to discovering how best to approach them. Work directly with strategic thinkers within your sales department to brainstorm which accounts match your desired criteria, and who the key stakeholders are. Knowledge is power with ABM&S, and learning the intricate makings of how these target organisations think and operate is a direct influence on how you build your strategy to reach them. Utilise social networks such as LinkedIn and Facebook to gather more intel or pick the brains of people within your company that have had prior contact with your targets.

the below steps will ensure you start off on the right foot with implementing ABM&S for your business.

Create personalised content & messaging

Once you’ve determined who it is you want to reach, you need to discover how best to communicate your message to them. Understanding stakeholders’ specific pain points is vital to cutting through the noise, and your messaging and imagery should appeal to how you can solve them.

The core of AMB is that it’s completely personalised, so your content needs to be curated to the needs of each account. Work together with your design and sales team to ensure you’re communicating the right message to the right people.

Decide on the best channels for your campaigns

All the hard work put in up until this point will mean nothing if you’re promoting your campaigns in the wrong places. Understanding where stakeholders spend their time online, and what their activity is like while on social platforms, is vital to ensuring your content is making its mark. Reach the key players where they are by making use of powerful networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn that offer unique data, insights and the opportunity to promote your content directly to your target accounts.

Execute your account-based campaigns

You’ve put in the ground work, and now it’s time to run your campaign. Because the goal is to be as personalised as possible, your content needs to be as streamlined as possible. It’s important not to overwhelm future prospects with repeat messages across multiple channels. You want to be seen and heard, but not bothersome.

At the same time, ensuring that your channels are set up to speak to multiple individuals within your targeted organisation is vital to making an impression. The more stakeholders you reach, the better – as long as there’s balance between catching your prospect’s attention and keeping content targeted.

Measure & share your results

The best time to measure and evaluate the effectiveness of your campaign is after a run time of 30 to 60 days. It’s important to gain insights after the fact to accurately understand where you succeeded, and how you can improve.

Base your evaluation on following criteria:

» Did the content prove to be engaging? If so, how?

» Are you seeing more engagement from targeted accounts?

» Are you expanding on the number of known stakeholders within these organisations?

» Did any targeted leads prove to be a success?

» Did you generate any revenue from these campaigns?

» What could be improved on going forward?

It’s important not to be discouraged if the initial campaign results are not as you hoped. Online marketing is a powerful method of measuring your efforts, and will help you to see exactly how things can be altered for future success.

Every business has the primary goal of increasing sales and securing target accounts.

How to go about this however, is up to you. ABM&S has been tried and tested for customer-centric companies, and has been proven to be a highly successful strategy to achieve the following:

» Reach high value customers while saving time, and guaranteeing results

» Build a morale and shared knowledge platform between marketing and sales teams

» An automated method of streamlining time-sensitive steps in the strategy process

» Build ongoing personal relationships with key decision-makers

So, organisations seeking maximum campaign impact, increased ROI, and a direct channel of communication to key target accounts, should adopt ABM&S for improved (and highly impressive) results.

With these newly-gained insights into the world of account-based marketing, your organisation will be able to create meaningful connections with those that matter. Rather than spending a ton of time creating content for everyone and anyone, your message will reach your targets and create a lasting impact.

That’s the power of marketing to a chosen few rather than everyone.

Why Equals Five?

We are YOUR marketing team that delivers the growth and scale that YOU need. Our marketing teams are experts in delivering marketing for scale-up businesses.

Equals Five’s broad and deep range of marketing experts means that we can deliver fully integrated sales and marketing strategies and programmes that are more than the sum of their parts.

All of our marketing specialists and experts are highly qualified and experienced, we only recruit the best, and our success is intrinsically linked to yours.

Whether your aim is to generate sales pipeline, build your brand reputation, open up new routes to market or to better exploit your existing customer base, your marketing team from Equals Five will help you to build and execute those marketing strategies and programmes that meet those goals, and deliver tangible business results for your company.

» We understand that marketing is a science, and not an art.

» We are your own dedicated marketing team, at a fraction of the cost.

» We provide all the marketing specialists, and experts, that you need to help you grow and scale your business. The big difference is that all these experts work for you part-time, under contract, so you only pay for these marketing specialists when you need them.

» We really get to know your business because we are part of your business! We are part of your team. We work for you, we are committed, focused and dedicated.

Imagine having an experienced, and complete, marketing team for the same cost as a fully weighted, full-time, senior marketing manager!*

Are you ready to take a giant leap forward with your marketing?

Are you ready to build your dream marketing team? Are you ready to take a giant leap forward in the way you market and scale your business?

Then please get in touch for an informal chat on how we can help you achieve your aspirations for your business.

Please contact us by emailing us at hello@equalsfive.co.uk or by calling us on +44 (0) 1202 201930