Asking your organization to adopt an ABM strategy is requiring teams to work differently and collaborate in new and unfamiliar ways. Here are some best practices to ensure success.

Garnering Support

Effective change management is indispensable for ABM adoption. That means obtaining organization buy-in among key stakeholders such as the Head of Marketing, the Head of Sales, Chief Executive, Sales Operations and possibly Product. Communication is the key to ensuring all involved parties at all levels of the organization understand the initiative and can provide input to avoid unseen pitfalls and feel included. Ultimately, you’ll want to create a small cross-functional team to actively implement ABM.

Developing Your Target List

The first step in ABM is to create a target list of accounts and contacts where you’ll focus your marketing and sales. Developing your list is one of the most important steps. You can start by working with the task force you convened to profile your Ideal Customer (ICP) to identify a set of factors that distinguish your ideal target accounts. Examples could include, but aren’t limited to the following:

• Market Segment or Subsegment
• Company Size by Employees or Revenue
• Geographical Location or Region
• Urgency of Need for Your Product or Service
• Competitive Presence
• Sophistication or Predisposition to Implement Your Solution
• Willingness of Your Sales Team to Partner on Selected Targets

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Involve Marketing and Sales to review your list with key stakeholders for feedback and buy-in. The size of the list is up to you. Some organizations choose a small, targeted group of accounts and others a much broader list. Your criteria and list will likely change over time. Finally, decide who will own the list so there is a single version for reference.

Start Small and Adapt

Rather than trying to boil the ocean, start with a small project. Develop a set of accounts and relevant messaging where you can test ABM and learn from your experience. Your current approach to marketing likely has successful facets. Keep it going while you test ABM before making a wholesale change. Establish KPI’s so you’ll have a point of comparison and a way to share the impact with stakeholders. Account based marketing & sales dashboards and reporting on the target list are a great way to share progress and ROI.

It’s Personal

You’ve selected a target list with the goal of encouraging customer engagement and surfacing prospects who will most readily buy. Creating relevant messaging for them requires research to understand their company goals and vision and your associated value proposition. Similar messaging may resonate across sub-categories for greater efficiency. Allocate ample resources for research. Track and share your research and customized messaging to be used along the marketing and sales continuum. Your Inside and Outside Sales teams need personalized messages they can use to respond to an inbound inquiry or when following-up with a target to maintain communication continuity to your prospect base.

 Cost Advantages

 Because ABM is more targeted, you’ll likely save on your annual marketing spend. Content syndication, digital advertising, webinars, and regional field marketing will aim at your target market for lower volume and costs with greater impact.

Bring your Sales Teams Along

 Thoughtful sales enablement is crucial as your sales team will need to follow through and close the sales leads marketing produces. Regular communication about planned campaigns, messages, timing and goals will create sales and marketing alignment. Provide Sales with tools such as email templates, call scripts, special CRM instructions along with reporting and feedback on success. Incorporate team suggestions and learnings to benefit future campaigns.

In summary, Account Based Marketing is nascent. You will start as a pioneer and become an expert in the process. There are nuances in your market and your team that will impact your particular initiative. Start thoughtfully, measure and adjust as needed. A good beginning will support a positive experience, improved alignment and efficiency. Your success will lead to accelerated sales cycles, larger deals and customer retention.