Spear Marketing Group’s Post

CustomerThink Editor's Pick by Howard Sewell Selecting the right target accounts is the absolute foundation of a successful ABM strategy. However, many companies seem to adopt more of a “wish list” approach, as if choosing which accounts to target can be completely arbitrary, or based on whichever accounts sales says they want to chase after, and then ABM will just magically generate engagement and opportunities from those accounts. That can be an expensive mistake.

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 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

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

Success Story: How Customer-Centric Strategies Help Boost Revenue One of our clients, a mid-sized storage unit company struggled with to connect with its target audience effectively. Despite a robust product offering, the company faced challenges in reaching the right customers and low occupancy rates. @Aligned Initiative, a B2B marketing agency, was engaged to help the client refine its segmentation strategy, understanding of their ideal customer profile (ICP, and drive targeted revenue growth. Our approach: 🔸 Smart Segmentation: Focused on local audiences, small businesses, and individuals with urgent storage needs based on behavioral patterns, firmographic and technographic data 🔸 Targeted Campaigns: Delivered direct outreach with webinars and telemarketing to educate and nurture mid-tier prospects, and 1:1 campaigns for top-tier accounts 🔸 Aligned Teams: Defined shared goals including lead quality and conversion metrics, via a single-view CRM system to ensure seamless tracking of leads across the funnel The Results: 🔺 Occupancy increased by 40% in 6 months   🔺 50% boost in engagement through targeted campaigns   🔺 A loyal customer base that keeps coming back  Testimonial: Their tailored strategy was a game-changer! We’re now meeting customer needs faster than ever while growing our business." Need to unlock growth for your business? Let’s chat! Please visit our website www.alignedinitiative.com to get a quote today. #CustomerSuccess #MarketingStrategy #SmallBusinessGrowth #StorageSolutions #B2BMarketing #SalesAndMarketing #Amsterdam #GetALIGNED

Do you even need to scale ABM? 🤔 A controversial question from our table at this morning's ABM Club in London, hosted by the lovely team at EI Global B2B Marketing Intelligence. Such fantastic discussions and plenty of ideas exchanged, all around the topic of scaling ABM. A few notes I scribbled down... 🎯 Define what 'scaling' means to you: is it replicating 1:1 activities to new accounts, is it broadening to a handful of accounts with an industry approach or common challenge, or is it about targeting a much larger set of accounts? We even had an example of 'scaling back' to reduce the number of 1:1 accounts supported. ABM is managed differently in every organisation, so make sure you document what it means to you and set clear expectations internally. 🎯 How do you scale to more accounts, without diluting the impact and essence of ABM? Do you have the right resource & tech stack in place, sufficient budget, buy-in from sales? Does this mean existing 1:1 accounts get less attention? Could a broader 1:many ABM campaign sit with a different department internally? Consider the impact it will have on your team and the business and weigh up the pros and cons. 🎯 Who is putting pressure on you to scale? Is there an expectation from sales or marketing leaders to touch more accounts, to support more teams, to generate more revenue? Or do you think you should be scaling because everyone else is? Ask yourself 'do I need to scale ABM right now, or should I continue to focus and deliver value for my existing 1:1 accounts?'. Again, depending on your ABM maturity, this is going to vary dramatically between organisations, but make sure you have a clear strategy in place. So many other pointers and takeaways, so thanks again to everyone who joined and shared their experiences Xavier White Neil Bacon Nickie McDade Kate Tomlinson Emma Hewage (to name but a few) and thanks EI for organising Tony Jarvis Rachel Reasbeck.

What if I told you one single strategy can shorten your sales cycle by 50%? It's ABM (Account-based marketing) It might sound like a bold claim, but it’s true! (ABM) can speed up your sales process in ways you might not expect. Here’s the scoop: 1. Focused Targeting: By zeroing in on high-value accounts, you’re not wasting time on leads that won’t convert. 2. Team Alignment: ABM brings your sales and marketing teams together, ensuring everyone is on the same page and working towards the same goals. 3. Personal Touch: Every piece of outreach is done to the specific needs of the account, making your interactions more meaningful and effective. 4. Efficiency: Concentrating on fewer, more promising prospects means you can move them through your pipeline faster and more smoothly. 5. Data-Driven Insights: ABM leverages data to understand account behavior and preferences, helping to tailor the approach even more precisely. 6. Enhanced Customer Experience: With personalized engagement, the customer feels understood and valued, which builds trust and speeds up decision-making. 7. Resource Optimization: By focusing resources on the most promising accounts, your team works smarter, not harder. Here’s how we at Intandemly have helped clients see these benefits. By implementing ABM strategies, we’ve seen improvements in sales cycles and overall efficiency. Curious about how ABM can speed up your sales cycle?  Let’s chat and see how Intandemly can help you hit your targets faster. 🚀 #ABM #AccountBasedMarketing #SalesCycle #SalesTips

Stop trying to SELL them; instead, BUILD relationships with target accounts. You want to build trust and credibility with your audience at scale. You do this by: ✅ Helping them understand how you solve their problem ✅ Showing them contextual use case examples on how they can use your product ✅ Building something in your product that’s specific to them —- And you do this for free, in public —- You need to find ways to derisk the investment and connect your product with buying triggers to create associates in their minds. So when they do have a need, they think of you. 🫵 Over the last month, I’ve been taking this approach at Omni Lab and thought I’d use Cognism as an example. Here’s one way they could build relationships with target accounts in a non-salesy way. Step 1: Build a target account list that meets ICP criteria Step 2: Show them how to build out their ICP contact list in Cognism Step 3: Share the video on social showing them and @ the champion to get their attention Step 4: Promote the post directly to other target accounts to guarantee distribution and drive more engagement/social proof. Step 5: Repeat steps 1 - 4 for more accounts The benefit? ✅ You'll show off the power of Cognism ✅ You'll get their attention in a non-salesy way ✅ You'll also be showing 1,000s of others how Cognism works You can even involve your target accounts by getting them to volunteer to be sponsored in the next video. Peep Laja over at Wynter does a good job of this with his homepage breakdowns. Just one idea; I'm sure there are others. Liam Bartholomew & Fran Langham P.S. Btw, this is NOT just a product demo…it’s about taking time to think about their specific situation and craft a narrative around that and your product. P.P.S I forgot to zoom on my screen, it’s tiny so get your 🤓 on. These will get better ;) #demandgeneration #b2bmarketing #saas

🌟 Refining Your Client Acquisition Strategy 🌟 Pursuing new clients without a strategic approach can lead to inefficiencies. For instance, manual efforts might yield 200 unqualified leads, of which only 20 show potential. From there, you may secure 8 meetings, sign 3 agreements, and end up with just 1 client—who could still be at risk. To improve lead quality and boost conversion rates,consider these key strategies: 1. Data-Driven Targeting: Use analytics to focus on industries and demographics that align with your services for a sharper, more effective outreach. 2. Personalized Outreach: Craft tailored messages for each segment, emphasizing how your solutions address their unique challenges. 3. Relationship Building: Employ nurturing strategies like consistent follow-ups and sharing valuable content to establish trust and credibility. 4. Smart Technology Use: Leverage CRM systems and automation tools to efficiently manage leads and optimize communication. 5. Continuous Improvement: Collect and analyze feedback from prospects and clients to refine your approach and offerings. A strategic, tech-enabled, and client-centric method can transform your lead generation and help secure enduring partnerships. #BusinessGrowth #LeadNurturing #SalesOptimization #CRMTools #ClientEngagement

#ABM is not really about accounts – it’s about the human buyers in the accounts we want to win, protect and expand. This is why we have to understand the personalities of the people we’re engaging with. For example: Influencers are great at consuming information, but they struggle with owning a problem. They’re learners. They may start a buying process, but they will not drive it.   Those with the dominant personality will be your champions as they are driving a strategic initiative, which you can play a strong role in if you show them the impact you can have – and it connects to them. If you’re selling to a dominant, you must be within their window – and show them the role you can play in what they are already working on.   The steady is the person who likes to be liked. They’ll talk to salespeople and consume time and content, but they are using it for their own purposes. They’ll never catch a pass, they’ll never make a call, they’ll never throw the ball. They only move when the team moves.   Then you have skeptics who are very conscientious. They are subject matter experts. Salespeople shoot their foot with the skeptic as they do not have the research and data that’s needed to build credibility. It’s not only important to understand the different personalities that make up the buying group but also how they interact with each other within your target organization as titles and roles don’t predict behavior. Different people can drive decisions and it often has little to do with the title and role. By applying personality-based signals, you can eliminate prospects and accounts that most likely will not respond based on the personality makeup of the organization. You will gain insights into which accounts have the best probability to convert. You can build the right content resources that meet the unique needs of different audiences and personality types – and predictably put the right content in front of the right audiences consistently. And, you’ll be able to predict the buying journey that will shorten the sales cycle. Personality-based signals are only 1 type of signal that needs to be added on top of #intent data. You also need #ICP signals, business problem profile signals and account insights to make your ABM program more predictable. We talk about this in the article below: https://lnkd.in/ewtpg2xS David Keene also talked about the role personality-based marketing should play in an ABM program when he was on the ABM Done Right Podcast, In the article (linked above and below), we have included David's podcast episode.