5 steps to building a recession-proof ABM program
Looking for a way to get out of the seemingly endless wheel of content production and feed the ABM machine in the hopes that you’ll hit the ground running? Tired of data being anonymized and/or purposefully yielding little results?
In today’s tough economy, your program needs to work better than ever. Placing a large net in a sea with few fish will be less effective. It’s time to build a proactive and focused program, and it will work. Here are five steps to help you create a market-ready ATM program.
1. Target specific people and accounts
Because it’s called account-based marketing, you need to identify actual accounts. In addition, you will need to have a list of the main goals in the account. Forget trying to figure out anonymous visits to your website or content. Invest in list building.
2. Knowing who – and what – is important
Not all views matter. The people you are most likely to engage with are not the most important. One will be active and the other will be passive. Not every answer or every commit matters.
To know the difference between the two, you will need to profile your target’s personality type. This will allow you to gain valuable insights into the type of people you deal with and the corporate culture.
3. Use “friendly matches” to reach real buyers
We’re in an economic climate where “if it ain’t broken, it won’t be fixed” unless you find the pain. Forget targeting the C-suite and targeting the user.
Reach the people who need it, not the decision makers. For this group, no decision has been made yet. You have to build the case and come up with a demand.
4. Build a business case
Once you have this idea in mind, talk less about your solution and more about the pain relief that is specific to that account. It should also be as close as possible to the company’s core business.
Can you help reduce costs, improve revenue, make employees more productive, and more? ? We are in an “indispensable” buying environment, not a “yes is good” buying environment. This is where sales and marketing have to come together.
5. Communicate back
When you have a business case, you need to communicate with key account targets in a language that is important to them personally. To drive the buying process, you need the right people to act.
You’re looking for ways to motivate them and it’s time to know their personality type. You can create highly personalized marketing offers and resources and generate action. Think of this two-part approach – the beginning and the end. You will need to “order” not “take order” as they say. (Can I use more photos?!)
The focus is on discovering or creating pain, which requires a strong mix of sales and marketing.
The back side communicates and sells pain. You will need to find ways to leverage the organization at three levels – corporate, business and individual levels – to achieve consensus through the organization. This will be true for acquisitions and existing accounts.
Gathering information on the front end will give you the information you need to create your message and business case on the back end. And again, this requires a coordinated approach between sales and marketing.
Building anti-recession ABM program
It’s a tough market, so you have to work smarter and harder. It’s not about more tools or scaling. It is about identifying the right opportunities and exploiting them effectively. Now if it were that simple.
