How to crawl with ABM

In every conversation I have about ABM, my first recommendation for those just starting out is to begin with a pilot program.

ABM is as much a change in mindset as it is a new strategic initiative. You’re coaching to switch from a quantity mindset to quality, and it doesn’t happen overnight.

Starting slowly allows you to effectively do the things necessary to change the mindset of GTM teams.

It also allows you to do the following:

• Identify the right meeting cadence with sales.

• Identify the best way to prioritize accounts.

• Align use cases and messaging to the selected accounts.

• Align with sales on the KPIs that matter.

• Spot gaps and identify solutions in your strategy.

The most effective pilot strategy is to start with is a 1:Few approach.

Find one account executive and one SDR to work with. Ideally these are two that you already have a great working relationship with.

Explain to them that you’d like to partner with them to identify and prioritize 10-15 of their top accounts for the quarter, with the goal to book new meetings that turn into new qualified pipeline.

Now, I am of the opinion that selecting accounts should not be marketing's job. In reality, these accounts should already be identified and prioritized by your company's go-to market strategy, i.e. "who are the accounts we need to win to hit our growth goals?" and tagged by your sales or revenue operations team.

However, if that’s not feasible, try this instead:

• Curate a report in your CRM of customers aligned to the segment or territory that the AE and SDR are in. Within that list, segment accounts by industry and sub-industry and create cohorts by contract amount, account health, product usage, contract amount or length. Based on that data it’ll reveal a large cohort of accounts that reflect your best customers within that segment or territory.

• Then you can take the firmographic and technographic data from those customers and layer them on your prospect accounts to get your target account list.

The great thing about basing your accounts off of your best customers is you’ll know which product(s) they use, actual pain points and use case(s).

With this information you can then use it to create the content, messaging and assets needed for your pilot. For example:

• Create a landing page using your marketing automation platform or content hub that contains specific messaging and content relevant to the segment of accounts; product(s), pain points, and use case(s).

• Import the accounts into your LinkedIn campaign manager and build out the audience so you're targeting the key personas. Create 3-6 ads that match the messaging on your landing page or content hub and link the ads back to the landing page or content hub you created.

• Take the same messaging from your landing page or content hub and ads, and help your AE and SDR build out outbound email templates and sequences. You can create an automated sequence for front line managers or directors using your sales engagement platform. Then coach your SDRs to take a more personal approach to any senior directors, VPs and the C-Suite.

Key metrics to track here may look like:

• LinkedIn ad metrics like reach, CTR, and engagement %

• Landing page or content hub engagement; time on page, number of page views, number of visitors, content viewed

• First meetings booked, qualified pipeline, average contract value

• Capture anecdotal feedback from the AEs and SDRs to share broadly

And what's great is that you can use this segment of accounts as a control group against all other accounts. Meaning, when we get hyper focused on the right accounts at the right time with the right messaging, are we more likely to drive better engagement, pipeline, higher ACV and revenue won vs. spraying and praying?

Going about your pilot programs in this manner should help you better prove value of an account-based strategy and allow you to expand it across your GTM teams over time.

LinkedIn Post of the Week!

Do you have an ABM success story?

To share your success story in the next newsletter, simply click the button below and fill out the form!

How can I help your ABM strategy?

1. Account selection consultation: need help figuring out which accounts to choose for your ABM strategy? How many to select?

2. Channel selection and setup consultation: Need help selecting which channels to use for your strategy? Or how to set them up for personalization and targeting?

3. Industry GTM strategy consultation: Trying to verticalize your product but don’t know where to start? Which industry to select?

Consultation sessions are 30 or 60 minutes long on Friday’s. Please fill out the form below and I will be in touch shortly!