Account-based marketing has the potential to help grow your company revenue and help your business meet and surpass sales goals. Through a more deliberate, strategic approach, businesses are finding that they can drive more value from their sales by targeting accounts and businesses as a whole and using very specific, customized communications to grow these relationships.
What is an enterprise business?
While enterprise just technically means “business”, the phrase “enterprise-level” has come to mean “multi-level or complex organizations”, as opposed to small or medium-sized businesses. Some organizations define if they are ready for ABM sales and marketing strategies based on if they require enterprise-level solutions in other areas, like IT. The truth is that any size B2B business can potentially see a benefit towards meeting their sales goals from ABM strategies.
ABM also makes sense as a strategy to sell into enterprise-level businesses; that is where there is a longer sales cycle, specifically managed by several different decision-makers and influencers whose sign-off and input is needed before any approvals are given.
How account-based marketing can get you close to your sales goals.
Many businesses have already seen the benefits of using personalized marketing to increase sales. If you want to use account-based marketing and account-based selling effectively, focus on these areas.
1. Start with the correct software support
It’s almost impossible to effectively run account-based marketing campaigns or account-based selling without programs like a customer relationship manager tool or automated marketing program. Focus on tools that help you appropriately segment your audience, track interactions, and engagement, and can scale as your business grows. While no specific software can guarantee greater sales, it’s much harder to meet sales goals in modern business without the right software in place.
It’s also important to focus on the right processes to get the most out of account-based sales and marketing. Are your marketing and sales teams aligned? Are the tactics of both groups work together to support the same business goals? Are your teams regularly working together to figure out what the target customer really wants and needs from your business? Do you regularly analyze data and make use of it in your outreach? Targeting specific accounts and delivering custom content that speaks to their needs is only so effective without the best-practices of modern and sales and marketing in place.
2. Account identification is important
The right tools can help you identify the right accounts and knowing who the right accounts are can ultimately help you close more deals. What’s the “right” account look like? It starts by identifying the common characteristics between previous high-value sales and current un-converted customers. Links in industry, company size, business revenue, and more can provide a map for identifying the accounts you should put your effort towards. But right also means customers that are likely to want or need or product or service – not just the ones you stand to make a huge profit from. putting your attention and effort towards the most relevant accounts – targeting campaigns, sponsorships, and events around these specific businesses – can make a huge impact on helping you meet sales goals.
3. Custom content is key
Account-based marketing and sales assets need to work in two ways – they need to be specific to the problems of a business and also be relevant to the specific stakeholders and decision-makers at that business. This means creating a lot of personalized content to deliver to a lot of audience segments. Solution-oriented vs. product-specific content is key. What are your customer’s biggest challenges? Can you speak to facility managers as well as executives and business owners and communicate the value of your brand to each stakeholder effectively? The content that creates the most value with your high-value customers is whatever helps them understand why your business is the best solution
4. Customers and account management is crucial
Sales and marketing aren’t often seen as customer service jobs, but they should be. Both teams have some responsibility towards the overall customer experience. That’s why one of the best ways to see increased revenue is through repeat business – good account-based marketing and account-based selling lend themselves well to nurturing customers both before and after a sale and increasing overall customer loyalty. Account-based approaches help build relationships with clients that result in references, referrals, and easier buy-in next sales cycle.
There are several different aspects of ABM and ABS that can build your business and grow sales beyond goals. Ultimately, the account-based method of sales and marketing creates better relationships that improve your odds of closing deals, making sales, and earning repeat or referral business. Not only can account-based strategies help you more regularly hit sales goals, but it can also help you set sales goals going forward. If your B2B business needs to rethink your sales approach, consider slowly building an account-based sales strategy. While there is a significant amount of effort put into securing the business of your target accounts, if done well, it can also significantly impact your sales and revenue.