Making Account Based Marketing Work

in less than 500 words...

This week Forrester published a blog addressing ABM and how Marketing can step up to get Sales to Embrace it (Source)

Here are a few tips and tricks that I have learnt over the years about how to make Account Based Marketing successful in strategic accounts.

Balanced Account Team

The concept of a Balanced Team originally comes from agile. A balanced team is defined as “...an autonomous group of people with a variety of skills and perspectives that support each other towards a shared goal. “ (Source)  Having a Balanced Account Team for strategic accounts makes sure that the relationship does not only sit with Sales and that the customer is covered from all sides. For high touch ABM this team is usually made up of Sales, Technical/Pre-Sales, various parts of Marketing including Field, ABM, Customer and Online, SDR/BDR and Customer Success (for expansion within existing strategic accounts). Being on the ground and close to the customer, Field Marketing usually leads the initiative.

Leverage the Power of Budget and Set Metrics

In most cases, Field Marketing and ABM will own the budget for ABM activities.  The Sales Account Owner owns the revenue number. For example, If Sales needs to generate $1 Million in an account, they will need $3 Million in Pipeline and (from personal experience) 50 to 70 touchpoints/ engagements within the account with different personas. Depending on the mix of activities, setting a  budget to the account and working on it with the team in a transparent way also shows the rest of the team (and especially Sales) that there is a tangible investment being made into their account to achieve a shared goal.

The ABM Plan

An Account Based Marketing plan should include: 

• account background and overview

• the account journey to date including any insights

• Sales Account Plan including milestones and goals

• the team involved and ownership

• the marketing plan for the year with 1:1 direct engagements and where the account is being integrated into 1:FEW and 1:MANY activities

• Budget and Metrics

Execution

In order to execute the plan and see success, make sure you set up regular check-ins with the team throughout the period of the program. These check-ins should include (but are not limited to) project progress, metric updates, interesting engagement factors, challenges and new insights and opportunities.

Build a relationship to the account from the marketing side. The customer will always value having another point of contact. Some examples: you have customer tickets to a coveted event, invited them; An executive, evangelist or advocate from your company is available for customer conversations, organize the meeting. Working directly with the customer and attaining positive results also builds trust with Sales.