We’re often surprised that businesses do not have a structured plan for how to sell more to existing customers. In 1957 Igor Ansoff worked out that if they already know you and love what you sell them the chances are your customers will buy other stuff from you…
And if you’re starting take a more granular and targeted approach to doing more business with your existing customers, why not apply the same rigour to winning other businesses that do the same thing. The acronym ABM describes the process of creating small highly targeted marketing campaigns into groups of customers and prospects where you can demonstrate domain expertise and a detailed understanding of how to help them
So, do you have a favourite local restaurant. A restaurant where they know your name and that of your partner and the friend you often dine with. A restaurant where a table is always available – perhaps sometimes you might have to wait while they fit you in, but they always do. This is the place where they have a good understanding of your eating preferences – they only tell you about the specials if they think you’ll like them.
The proprietors of this fabled eatery may not realise it but they are actually deploying the restaurant worlds version of best practice account based marketing (ABM). Although they offer a great service to all customers the restaurateur is aware that you are a good customer, they have noticed that you send your friends to them and they have realised that if they look after you, so your spend with the venue increases.
We are inundated offers and information – opportunities to spend our hard-earned money. But, how often are we presented with an offer that really resonates with us? how often have you received an email with offers curated for you or a marketing letter containing a brochure with only the things you might like? where the vendor is only offering the product or service to your specification. Perhaps the offer is for clothes, but only in your size and the colours you would wear, maybe they know that you can only accept a delivery after 7pm on Mondays and Tuesdays and before 10am on a Saturday.
We could be persuaded to spend more, Right? The problem is that there are so many of us out there that vendors don’t have the resources to deliver us a customised experience.
And this is true in our business lives – or is it? Our customers tell us that the 80:20 rule really does apply. Many of our clients look to a relatively small subset of their customer base to deliver a disproportionately large percentage of annual revenues. So what are the key considerations when introducing an account based marketing strategy:
Identify high-value customers
Use all the firmographic data and business intelligence you can find to help you prioritise your high-value accounts. Look at revenue potential as well as other strategic factors such as their profile in the market, propensity to purchase repeatedly from you, or potential for better than average profit margins.
Introduce account mapping & develop organograms
Identify how your target accounts are structured, how decisions are made and who the decision makers and influencers are within the organisation.
Create personalised content and deliver it with personalised messaging
A successful ABM stragey employs valuable content that addresses clear and significant business challenges the target specific roles. Think about how your messaging and content can address the target account’s specific business challenges.
Optimise marketing channels
Make sure that you communicate with your audience across all the channels where they are present, including web, mobile, and email. Keep in mind that some channels will be more effective for specific roles or industries – don’t forget about regional controls and limitations such as opt-in rules or other restrictions in a particular region.
Make sure your activity is coordinated and cohesive
It’s essential to join up your campaigns across channels and to ensure that the marketing and sales teams’ efforts are aligned for maximum impact. Consider implementing technology to assist marketers in coordinating and executing ABM campaigns to enable greater scale, focus and efficiency.
Measure, learn, and adjust
Be sure to test, calibrate, and optimise your ABM campaigns. Look at the results of individual campaigns as well as trends that emerge at account and job role level and in the aggregate (all target accounts) to get a more accurate picture and to improve your results over time.
At Reach Revenue we help our clients to implement innovative and effective plans that deliver sales growth…….
For more information about our sales process development and deployment methodology call us on 0203 858 8030 or email John.linney@reachrevenue.net