In order for your business to be successful, how many clients do you really need?
If the answer is 100, or 1000 even, then why not direct all of your attention towards a smaller group of companies? If you need 100 companies, then how many relevant companies do you really need to specifically nurture – 1000? Or less?
Account Based Marketing directs content and marketing towards a specific set of companies. Instead of casting a wide net, key prospects are identified and content and messaging is creating to target stakeholders within each of these companies.
For years, sales people have been taking an account based approach, interacting and nurturing multiple stakeholders.
Marketing has traditionally played a numbers game while sales just needs a few qualified leads they believe will close. ABM provides the framework for sales and marketing to shorten sales cycles.
Sales and marketing have to align because they need to be in sync on account-specific messaging.
Buyers want to know how you help them personally, and they expect you to have taken some effort to understand their business needs.
A targeted approach takes more planning upfront, sales people can provide a personalised approach to a select number of high-value accounts, meaning better conversion as buyers open up to your outreach and content as they can understand how you can help them.
According to Jessika Phillips, from Now Marketing Group, Inc. ABM builds trust.
ABM clients are looking online for answers to solve a problem or reach a goal, allowing you to actively communicate how you can help them by providing quality information.
Clients are drawn to you for answers and when they find them, they learn to trust you.
Once trust is built, a relationship is formed, and this, in turn, leads to sales.
According to CEB in 2016 a B2B purchase involves 6.8 stakeholders and suppliers must learn to empower customer learners and influencers. They must address large and diverse buying groups and very often simplify the decision for overwhelmed buyers.
Great ABM suppliers challenge their customers to a new way of viewing their business, and they align customer stakeholders to the same thinking.
They guide them through the hurdles and objections they will face through their internal buying process, pre-empting and giving them the tools to advocate and get buy-in.
All this sounds expensive. Not so, according to Elyse Flynn Meyer of Prism Global Marketing Solutions.
By integrating your sales and marketing efforts, you can focus your marketing team on working directly with sales to target and develop content for key accounts and build a successful communication channel with sales.
At Pitch121, we believe that ABM works for all B2B organisations providing the focus is on high-value accounts with multiple stakeholders. We also believe in being specific, in ‘hanging your hat on just one thing’, and letting your content do the selling for you.
Pitch121 can help you discover who your ideal clients (FANs) are, contact [email protected] and ask for our free FAN discovery report.