Bob Thompson’s Post

A successful ABM program starts with the right target accounts. Our latest blog post explores 10 practical strategies for creating the ideal TAL, from firmographics to engagement history. https://okt.to/yl0tVO #ABMstrategy #B2Bmarketing

We got some surprising results from our recent study, where we explored the impact of ABM strategies among over 400 decision-makers in B2B companies. We actually found less misalignment than expected between marketing and sales - and more misalignment between executives and management within each team. Here’s Barbie Mattie’s insights into the what, why, and what’s next of these results - https://bit.ly/3wAdpbu #ABM #accountbasedmarketing #saleseffectiveness #marketingandsales

Not all ABM metrics are equal important. The key is to use metrics that are relevant to your 'specific' ABM goals. If your goal is to increase account engagement, metrics like website visits, content downloads, and webinar attendance are relevant. If your goal is to accelerate the sales cycle, you look at metrics like sales cycle length, deal size, and revenue. Using relevant metrics helps you track what matters most to your business goals. It eliminates the noise of irrelevant data. Your ABM metrics can be divided into 2 main categories: 𝐀𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭 𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥 𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐬 To understand the behavior and engagement of individual accounts. They show how a specific account is interacting with your brand. This can inform your strategy for that specific account. Examples - account engagement rate, account influence, and pipeline velocity. 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐦 𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥 𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐬 To understand the overall performance of your ABM program. They give you a bird’s eye view of how your strategy is working across all accounts. Examples - total target account engagement, program ROI, and overall pipeline impact. It’s important to track both the account and program levels. This dual-level approach allows you to see both the forest and the trees, so to speak. You can identify trends at the program level, and then drill down into individual accounts. You'll know the why behind those trends and exactly where to optimize. For example, if your program-level metrics show a decrease in engagement, you can look at your account-level metrics to identify which accounts are driving that decrease. From there, you can develop targeted strategies to boost engagement with those accounts. And that’s how the right metrics help make data-driven decisions for optimization. PS - I post insights, playbooks and comics on ABM and B2B marketing. Follow for more - Arun. #b2bmarketing #gtmstrategy #accountbasedmarketing

Not all ABM metrics are equally important. The key is to use metrics that are relevant to your 'specific' ABM goals. If your goal is to increase account engagement, metrics like website visits, content downloads, and webinar attendance are relevant. If your goal is to accelerate the sales cycle, you look at metrics like sales cycle length, deal size, and revenue. Using relevant metrics helps you track what matters most to your business goals. It eliminates the noise of irrelevant data. Your ABM metrics can be divided into 2 main categories: 𝐀𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭 𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥 𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐬 To understand the behavior and engagement of individual accounts. They show how a specific account is interacting with your brand. This can inform your strategy for that specific account. Examples - account engagement rate, account influence, and pipeline velocity. 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐦 𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥 𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐬 To understand the overall performance of your ABM program. They give you a bird’s eye view of how your strategy is working across all accounts. Examples - total target account engagement, program ROI, and overall pipeline impact. It’s important to track both the account and program levels. This dual-level approach allows you to see both the forest and the trees, so to speak. You can identify trends at the program level, and then drill down into individual accounts. You'll know the why behind those trends and exactly where to optimize. For example, if your program-level metrics show a decrease in engagement, you can look at your account-level metrics to identify which accounts are driving that decrease. From there, you can develop targeted strategies to boost engagement with those accounts. And that’s how the right metrics help make data-driven decisions for optimization. PS - I post insights, playbooks and comics on ABM and B2B marketing. Follow for more. #b2bmarketing #gtmstrategy #accountbasedmarketing

Have you heard about ABM and thought it was just for the big players or seemed too complex? Think again! Our latest blog clears up common misconceptions and shows how ABM can benefit businesses of all sizes. Learn how to tailor your approach, align sales and marketing, and focus on high-value accounts. Read it here: https://hubs.ly/Q02Frg2p0 #ABM #AccountBasedMarketing #MarketingStrategy #B2BMarketing #SalesAndMarketing #BusinessGrowth

Here is how I move "𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐀𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐬" to the next buying-stages in my ABM Programs > Stalled Accounts Meaning: • Accounts engage with ads and emails that highlight case studies and product pages but no inbound demo requests are generated. • Email open rate and ads CTR are good but few buying-intent signals are shown. • Sales reach out to them, but few demos/meetings are being accepted (Sounds interesting but I'm busy bro—brush-off). In this case, the first thing I do is verifying whether these accounts fit my ICP or not. If yes, I use web behavior data in my CRM/MAP to have more accurate insights on what buying stage they are in. → Product-related pages and webinars they attended, Keywords they research, their score (predictive scoring...) I also use intent tools (e.g: 6sense) that tell me in which buying-stage these accounts are in. If it is proven after these checking process that they are very knowledgeable about our product category and they have good involvement with our brand... I automatically conclude that these accounts need content that address their "objections" or they need "urgency." In case of objections... I ask sales to use conversational insights tools (like Einstein) to give me reports about all sales conversations with these accounts (including all contacts) to have a 180° view of what keeps them stalled. [The other 180° is left to what they didn't say. Holding meetings with decision-makers will help in understanding what internal factors hinder their decision.] Once objections are spotted, I tell the marketing team to create industry personalized content that address their objections, and store it in Seismic System... Then I retarget them with ads that address those same objections (I segment accounts based on objections and I tailor my campaigns for them) Once the "objection" campaigns are ran, sales follow up, but this time, they're enabled with content that address objections, and they have more insights about accounts However, if it is an urgency matter, I harness all my marketing and sales forces to make accounts aware of a heavy discount/offer, or by highlighting competitive threats for converting them as soon as possible! If after all of this, a percentage of these accounts haven't shown an intent in closing... Direct mail gifts, regular ads, regular sales outreach (+ meetings) will always be great for being always top of mind once first- or third-party data/triggers show that account is ready for adopting your product category Tips: • Also focus on Competitive Differentiators in your marketing campaign and sales conversations. • Be data-driven... train marketing to learn launch campaigns and when sales must reach out based on data + buying stage. They key here is to know how to analyze and spot where your accounts are stalled by analyzing web behavior and intent data to have great insights about why and where these accounts are stalled. #ABM #accountbasedmarketing

Whenever ABM comes up, we inevitably discuss how it aligns marketing and sales—but what does that alignment actually look like in practice? Diana Marquez Davila breaks down the practice of ABM into insightful pieces. She simplifies ABM and offers practical strategies for aligning your sales team effectively. Learn how metrics, trust, and shared success can bring your sales team on board and drive your ABM efforts to new heights. Link to the full article: https://lnkd.in/gNqpD88b

#ABM Needs to Be Personal to Drive Enterprise Account-Based Growth – Not Just Personalized When you have complex solutions, lengthy sales cycles, accounts going dark after sales engagement, annual contract value (ACV) of $75K to $10 million+ and “at risk” enterprise accounts, you need a more personal account-based approach that focuses on the individual social, digital, email, and live interaction. You need less automation. And, more humanization and relevance across all levels to tackle the group of struggling moments that sit at the center of every enterprise deal. I discuss a more personal account-based approach in this article: https://lnkd.in/gdbbRrut Not only does ABM need to be personal to the accounts you want to move to revenue (or greater revenue if it's an existing account) but... ABM Needs to Be Personal to Your Business Revenue Challenges ABM has become a technology-driven “thing to do” for the top of the funnel. For example, the CMO of a channel sales tech firm described her ABM program by the technologies they used such as 6sense, RollWorks, a division of NextRoll, Demandbase or Terminus. While they gained traction, they were challenged to win multi-year contracts with accounts that would need a deal size of more than $75K per year. Accounts that large would consistently move forward with what they “saw” as a safe bet, which was Salesforce or another large player in the market. They needed to apply ABM to change the account experience so #GTM teams can go upmarket and win higher value accounts. ABM should be a business strategy on how your teams will fix your specific business challenges that are tied to the fundamentals of revenue. As Declan Mulkeen 🎯🎯🎯strategicabm | Account-based Marketing Agency posted today on LinkedIn: "Make sure you adapt ABM to your company and your context. ABM is all about personalization. And that's not just personalizing the experience that each account receives. It's also about: Personalizing ABM to your goals. Personalizing ABM to your context. Personalizing ABM to your organization. Personalizing ABM to your company culture." Connect with me (Kristina Jaramillo) to see how you can make ABM more personal to your organization and to the accounts you want to win, protect and expand. You can also connect with Amanda Bendrey - our new fractional sales leader and ABM consultant. Welcome to the team Amanda!

Someone commented on some post: "The obsession with ‘buyer intent signals’ undervalues the trust-building that gets buyers interested in the first place". I agree. Don’t get me wrong, I use signals and intent data too, but wouldn’t base a GTM strategy on it unless I'm taking low-ARPU products to market. Take a 100k ACV enterprise solution with a high-friction monetization model. It has complex buying journeys that need hand-holding and sales team involvement to contextualize value, but these don’t always happen when a buyer is 'in-market'... so you might chime in too late relying on a signal-based approach. Here’s where the 95-5 rule, suggesting only 5% of your market is ready to buy at any time, can be misapplied (in sales)… Efforts to boost sales dev efficiency, reduce CAC, speed up deal cycles and conversions, suggest leading with signals are key, but without sales<>marketing alignment, this narrow focus can undervalue brand and marketing work. Unless a solution is a category leader, is in a consideration set, or has some mindshare, purchase cycles haven't magically shortened to outcompete competitors or alternatives who’ve positioned themselves well when the buyer was not 'in-market'. Wouldn’t it be smarter to position a solution as the #1 choice for future buyers before their needs arise? That’s why I give lead-scoring approaches priority (specifically in ent sales dev)—without discarding signal-led motions. I get it… engaging with content like e-books or webinars says NADA about a buying window, but it doesn’t have to! SDRs have a bad rap because some think their job is to sell. It isn’t. They gather insights, start conversations, and build relationships. If a prospect happens to be in-market, that's a bonus. Ideally, reps are proactive before a prospect is in-market. They explore buying cycles and problems early, secure buy-in, and/or sync with marketing to run ABM campaigns. This early engagement contextualizes the solution’s value, positioning it favorably against competitors before a buying window opens. This aligns with sales leaders’ preferred plays that include reconnecting with past customers at new companies, revisiting closed-lost and old deals, and leveraging warm referrals. They take advantage of leads that have a share of mind for their solution and connect preparing for when the buyer is in-market. Anyways… That's why I'm proud of our work at Superside. The team does a killer job creating content and hosting virtual/in-person events that genuinely add to our community's lives. That's why, at least for us, Sales-Marketing alignment has proven to be fruitful. So, thanks to Brock, Diana, Miles, Denny, Rómulo, David, Andreas, and every person enabling our success 🙏. Disclaimer: I'm cautioning against blindly going to market with a ‘signal-based ’-first approach without consideration for market-model-channel fit alignment, not against integrating signal-based plays into outreach workflows. Would you think otherwise?

Unleash the potential of ABM with strategic account insight! Learn how personalized engagement and cohesive sales-marketing efforts empower B2B marketers to achieve real business impact and build enduring customer relationships. Read more at: https://lnkd.in/dZ_6hQHx #abm #insights #accountbasedmarketing #marketing