How can you align your ABM strategy with your business goals?

Don't do ABM in isolation. ABM needs support not just from Sales but from Leadership. This support requires education - think of it as a roadshow where you travel around and garner support. Get all key people on your side. Talk to them about what they are trying to achieve. Align your ABM strategy with these outcomes. - New market entry? - New category? - Client growth? - Client advocacy? - New logo acquisition - etc. If you are aligned with what the wider business is looking to achieve you will be more successful and the support will be there to help you on your way.

ABM can never, and should never be measures in leads. It's about winning, retaining and growing your most important clients and prospects. Which should align with any sound business strategy? And this is done by aligning all departments facing customers working towards the same common goal. The way to the goal can be measured in various ways but I would say ABM's main goal is always revenue. Be that from growing, winning or retaining clients.

ABM is really account centric marketing, which is all about identifying and targeting an organisation as a market of one, and subsequently making that the centre of everything you do. It’s not complex, but you do need a process, strategy and design thinking to do it well. There are three elements to a successful ABM rollout, which cover targeting, engagement and control. By defining these three components, we can start thinking logically about what’s needed to generate more effective B2B sales.

ABM is a team sport and starts with aligning on overall business and revenue goals. Traditional B2B is about reaching the total addressable market and generating demand. The result: individual “leads”. ABM focuses time and resources on a few carefully selected high-value accounts - consistently developing and nurturing relationships with multiple stakeholders across the account - over time. ABM is about helping Enterprise Sales achieve the “Collective yes” in accounts that matter most.

In my journey through B2B marketing, one lesson stands out: the power of defining clear objectives in Account-Based Marketing (ABM). Imagine this: Before diving into any ABM campaign, you must have a crystal-clear picture of what you want to achieve and how it aligns with your broader business goals. It's not just about targeting accounts; it's about hitting the bullseye. Now, the magic words are SMART objectives. They should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely. Think of them as your compass, guiding your efforts and resources toward the most critical accounts and actions.

The approach is straightforward: • Have a precise target accounts and buyer persona. • Define the pain points of your audience. • Create personalized content and strategies. • Take along Sales and Product team on this journey.

An effective ABM program needs to be played as a team sport. You will need insights from your client success, product, sales, and leadership teams to define the accounts that you will pursue. Some of the metrics I like to play attention are: - Account engagement (which account reacted better to your messages) - Leads generated - Opportunities created - Deals closed - Revenue generated

Aligning your ABM (Account-Based Marketing) strategy with your business goals is like orchestrating a well-choreographed dance number. Imagine your goals as the catchy tune that gets everyone moving in harmony. You'll need to assemble the right performers (target accounts), choreograph your moves (personalized content and outreach), and make sure everyone's grooving to the same beat (unified messaging). The end result? A performance that not only entertains but also drives your business forward, leaving everyone wanting an encore! 🎵💃🕺🎉

One can align your ABM strategy with your business goals by following these steps: • Identify your business goals and objectives • Select your target accounts and segments • Develop your value proposition and messaging • Choose your channels and tactics • Execute and measure your ABM strategy

The most crucial task in running an ABM program is selecting the proper accounts. It must be data-driven and not just a random collection of accounts that a rep thinks will be a good fit.

Yes to everything said here - AND... Once you have all the data. You need to sit down with Sales and get them to agree with you the accounts. Do not accept their selection - but equally they should not accept yours. It should be a list co-created. With clear reasons why X, Y, Z are in the list. This will build trust and lay the foundations for what will be a long journey together.

Remember to quantify the qualitive criteria as well - give each criterion a score so that your list is evaluated as objectively as possible. This will make the list data-driven, visible and easy to communicate. Identifying target accounts requires a team approach and different perspectives. Consider the customer strategy and buying criteria, as well as your own position and strategy to win.

Your B2B marketing and sales teams collaborate on a list of target accounts. For that to be done, you need to create buyer personas by examining your existing customer base to determine the industry and size of the companies that have been most successful with your product. So how would you do this? Your best accounts by looking at revenue, retention and profitability for example. Then look at what are the key characteristics that separate these from the rest. You can use marketing and sales intelligence tools to help you do this.

We followed a rule of: The top 10 accounts with the potential to contribute more than 10% of revenue have an account-by-account strategy. Enterprise sales treatment 20 accounts with the potential of contributing 5% of the revenue targets. Break them into cohorts (industry, stage) and create targeted campaigns. These would still get individual treatment - targeted events, 1:1 communication, assets created specifically for them. 100 accounts with the potential of contributing 1% of revenue goals. Broad cohorts. Look at industry representation and create assets specific to those industries. Potential to contribute <1% of the revenue target. Middle of the funnel approach.

After you've set your SMART objectives, it's time to pinpoint the accounts that'll bring those objectives to life. It's not just about targeting; it's about laser focus. Let's say you're in the tech industry, and your ABM objective is to expand into a new market. Your ideal customer profile for this venture would involve specific criteria – perhaps industry, location, or revenue range. But that's just the beginning. To supercharge your selection process, leverage data and insights. Your CRM, website analytics, social media, or even third-party sources can be goldmines of information. Use them to identify high-value accounts that are not just a good fit but also show intent and engagement.

I believe list building is 50% of the job for a good ABM program. If you're starting a list from scratch my advice is to keep it as simple as possible and pay attention to aspects like the size of the account, industry, locations, stage in the buying process, and challenges of the accounts. Once you have that done, you can start being a bit more detailed, building your decision-maker list for every account.

When identifying and selecting your target accounts you need to have a robust and data-driven process. Simply creating a list of 'nice-to-win' logos and chasing after them will only lead to wasted resource and disappointment. In my experience, I have found the best approach to be to audit your existing CRM to identify all of your best-fit customers. Understand what makes them great customers in terms of their firmographic and technographic attributes and then look for additional contextual insights (i.e. new funding, new hires etc.) Then use this information to build a scoring matrix which you can apply to any account list to look for overlap and fit to tier your potential target accounts so you can begin to prioritise your list.

The process of developing your value proposition is one that requires the most time and effort in this process. Setting up as many meetings with potential customers, especially the decision makers at those customers and soliciting their feedback, and really listening to what they have to say is a critical piece of this process. The more time you and effort you put into developing your value proposition, the better your results will be in the long run.

A VP is not why you. It's why you for X account. Remember, you need to stand out from the crowd. A well-crafted VP will do that. The Value Proposition is your ABM program's North Star. - It's the why you... - It's the why you to the target account. - It's the why you and not somebody else. - It's the why you are relevant. A Value Proposition is what makes you different to a discrete set of accounts. It's not what you tell the WHOLE market. It's what you tell a SPECIFIC set of accounts.

In ABM, value proposition is your secret weapon. Imagine this: You've carefully selected your target accounts, and now it's time to show them what makes you the perfect fit by presenting a tailored solution. Consider this scenario: You're in the healthcare tech sector, and one of your target accounts is a major hospital network. Your value proposition is a clear, concise, and compelling offer that addresses their specific challenges and needs. Now, here's the magic: Tailor your value proposition for each account based on in-depth research. Dive into their goals, pain points, key decision-makers, and preferences. But the story doesn't end there. Your value proposition should also set you apart from your competitors.

Write a value proposition for each role of your buying committee. It should be clear, personalized, and compelling. The idea is to highlight the benefits of your product and how it will help each buying committee's role in achieving their goals.

Building a strong value proposition relies on having a single-minded view of the clearest benefit your product or solution can offer to a target account. This should be founded and embedded within relevant market and account insights to understand what is keeping them up at night and how you can articulate a solution to that problem. To personalise and tailor the value proposition I have found that building a messaging house that aligns individual messaging pillars to the key challenges that different stakeholders in the DMU face can really help to make the message specific. Without specificity, you are talking to everyone and this will leave your value proposition with a lack of cut-through.

Creating a robust Go To Market strategy for your ABM campaign is essential to the long term success of the program. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to channels and tactics. I find it differs based on the audience and market a great deal. If you're armed with a clear target audience, the first step I take is to understand their behaviours and where they spend their time. There are tools that can support this (like GWI, Netbase, Sales Navigator, AI etc) but nothing beats quality desk research. Also use the tried and tested B2B channels by all means, but save some budget for channels & tactics that may be less competitive and present an opportunity for fewer but higher quality stakeholder engagements.

I have found that the "see what sticks" methodology works best here. Try it all and see where you get traction and run with it. Some tactics will surprise you in their effectiveness.

After defining objectives and honing your value proposition, you need to choose the channels and tactics that'll bring your message to life. Picture this: You're targeting a high-value healthcare client. Your ABM objective is to showcase your cutting-edge solution. Your channel mix involves a personalized email, a compelling social media campaign, and a thought-provoking webinar. Now, the magic lies in your tactics. Each channel can host different strategies – personalized content, targeted ads, account-specific landing pages, or immersive interactive experiences. It's about crafting an experience. Here's the catch: Select the channels and tactics that sync with your objectives, budget, and audience.

Unpopular opinion: there's no unique formula for the marketing mix. Your channels and tactics should be personalized for each account and include a mix of marketing activities that will reach your target and resonate with them.

The answer here is your Account Experience. What you design here will dictate then have you ensure that your target audience sees, consumes, engages, reacts, etc. to your Account Experience. You'll think of offline and online experiences. You'll think of owned and non-owned media. You'll think of bespoke and open events. etc. Build a coherent plan to engage.

My advice when it comes to choosing channels and tactics is to avoid "magpie syndrome" and becoming obsessed with the latest new tech and tactics. Every ABM programme is different and how you go to market should be decided based on the DMU within the accounts you are trying to reach and engage. In the research process, you should build an understanding of where your target stakeholders are actively consuming content and conversing and build your strategy around that to make sure you're reaching them where they already are. It's easier to push content to them where they are than to pull them to content where you are. That being said there are a number of channels and tactics that are fairly 'standard' and shouldn't be dismissed.

Your marketing and sales teams should be like a well-choreographed dance, moving in perfect harmony. Consider this scenario: You're targeting a big manufacturing client. Your ABM objective is to close a high-value deal. Your marketing and sales teams need to be on the same page, sharing objectives, expectations, and a common vision. Now, here's the magic: Use the right tools, like CRM, marketing automation, or dedicated ABM software to foster seamless communication, coordination, and feedback. It's not just about technology; it's about collaboration. But there's more to it. Establish shared metrics and KPIs that reflect your ABM campaign's performance and impact. It's not just about data; it's about a unified mission.

It's easy to talk about ABM in a theoretical manner. Marketing and Sales should be aligned, bla bla. But how do you perform an ABM play in practice? I would do something like this: 1. Create account lists together between Sales & Marketing 2. Have AEs assigned to each account and a timeline of when they should preferably be closed. 3. Have these AEs connect and introduce themselves to relevant stakeholders on LinkedIn, NO PITCHING at this point. 4. Have marketing run targeted LinkedIn campaigns towards these accounts. 5. Have marketing run targeted email campaigns towards these accounts. 6. Have sales start running outbound through social selling and outbound. Doesn't have to be harder than this.

The cornerstone of a successful Account-Based Marketing (ABM) strategy is alignment between your marketing and sales teams. One transformative approach is to 𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘇𝗲 𝗮 𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗲𝗱 𝗖𝗥𝗠 𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺. This isn't just about data; it's about creating a shared language and vision. When both teams operate from the same platform, they don't just exchange information—they collaborate in real-time, breaking down silos. Another game-changer is regular inter-team meetings. These aren't mere updates; they're strategy sessions where both teams align their goals and co-create targeted campaigns. By focusing on these key elements, you're not just aligning teams; you're building a unified force aimed at driving long-term revenue growth.

In my view, the topic of alignment is perhaps the most important factor to ensuring a successful ABM programme. And instead of "alignment" it's more useful to see it as "integration" - as a marketer you need to be embedded into the broader account/category sales team to break down those silos. This requires building up trust with your counterparts on the sales/account management side by showing that you can help create value for their account(s) rather than creating distractions.

Secret alignment weapon: Build together. Walk together. Succeed together. No technology or communication platform will do this. It's human. It's us.

ABM is quite a simple theory but hard to execute because it usually involves two different kinds of people, sales... and marketing. I've found that sales teams need talked off of the edge from the old way of working and towards demand generation. Becoming primary sources of insight and content, collecting data and knowledge, so that this collective knowledge could be used to better ensure that when a targeted account moves into a position to engage. We're more than ready. Moving away from old pushy sales that's about which account 'WE' want and more about how we can help 'THEM' when they're ready. At the end of the day, selling should be about the relationship built not pushing people down an imaginary funnel!

This is one of the hardest things to get right in ABM but it is also the most powerful driver for a successful programme. In my experience there are some key approaches that should lead to better alignment. 1/ An ABM programme should never be set up in a silo - It has to be a joint effort from the outset with all teams having skin in the game and joined up objectives. 2/ It's not just about more meetings, information sharing and touchpoints. It's about creating real connections between teams, create an environment where each team is encouraged to spend time together discussing ideas and plans. 3/ Always overcommunicate - Even when you think everyone knows the plan, say it again and create simple documents that are easy references.

Aligning your Account-Based Marketing (ABM) strategy with business goals involves continuous testing and optimization. Regularly assess campaign performance, analyzing key metrics like engagement, conversions, and ROI. Identify successful tactics and refine the strategy accordingly. This iterative process ensures your ABM efforts are in sync with broader business objectives, maximizing impact and effectiveness.

Your dashboard will show you whether your ABM strategy is working or not. The 3Rs methodology of Reputation, Relationships, and Revenue is a great place to start. Under each 'R' you can track a whole host of metrics to track the effectiveness of your ABM campaign.

I think all marketing these days should have ABM aspects to it. Especially in higher ACV segments. As an example. Are you running LinkedIn Ads without targeting a specific list of companies you're doing something wrong.

A true ABM approach is not off the shelf, and there is no cookie-cutter template available. Every ABM campaign should be tailored because each client, market and customer base are different.

Give time to your ABM programs. ABM is about building strong relationships with the people behind your list of accounts. Organic, strong relationships take time and effort, plan for at least a 6-month program.

ABM is a change of mindset. It's much more than a Marketing strategy. That is why it is so important to make sure you bring people along with you. Educate, promote, share, do everything in your power to make all key parties aware of what you are doing and how it aligns with your company's overall goals. This 'education' will pay dividends.

Vendors often control the narrative around ABM. Hence, one of the biggest mistakes marketers make in ABM is to focus too much on the technology and tools, rather than the strategy itself. While technology can certainly help streamline the process and make it more effective, it is not a substitute for a well-planned ABM strategy.