We all know that ABM (Account based Marketing) is a concept that has been into existence ever since the times of traditional marketing but why is it so hot now?

I have always believed in simplicity – so, what is ABM really?  It is wanting to have a few chosen logos in your customer base and finding ways to make it happen. If you look closely, sales teams have always had an account-based mindset, they chased specific accounts. But we as marketers, took some time to align to this game.

It is a hot topic now because – there are tools available to execute ABM on scale.

How can you pursue ABM on scale?

To scale up your ABM approach, you need to bring together optimized data, CRM and Marketing Automation. Why optimize data you might ask? Your customer data tends to decay at least by 30% every year. This may be due to various reasons. (Sam explains data decay brilliantly in his post).

Next comes your customer buying signals. CRMs in most cases are not really used well and because of this – you as a sales or marketing professional, don’t get enough insights from it.

Now what if your ABM champions could focus get real-time insights on your target accounts? When an ABM partner tool such as Fiind Smart Signals is integrated with CRM and Marketing Automation tools – you can ensure that your sales and marketing are in sync. Not just that, the power of AI can help you turn insights into action – for instance, it can give you the right pitch to the right customer at the right time.

So, the tools are available – but the key factor is getting together the three points mentioned below:

1. Getting marketing and sales in sync
2. Ensuring the quality of your data across your martech ecosystem
3. Knowing which accounts to target and why.

The segmentation section on the ABM page, will give you an insight into how to segment and choose the accounts to target.

It’s not just ABM tools, but adoption cycle of ABM

A few major points to consider when choosing an AI tool for account based marketing are, whether it helps you in:

• Understanding customer needs/intent dynamically
• Identifying ABM opportunity at the targeted customer
• Improving the user experience (CX)

In fact, in our recent #fiindchat on twitter with Janet Schijns of OfficeDepot – we discussed ABM and as part of the chat. Janet asked a brilliant question and Vijay addressed that exactly as we are seeing it with our customers:

Measuring the success of your ABM operations

In fact, this is something that we often discuss in our marketing and sales meetings. The marketing team is fixated on generating leads because we think our prime objective is to add to top-of-the-funnel. While the CEO and sales folks are looking at “which are the ones that will go to mid-funnel and which are the ones we can close deals in the near future”

So in a nice American way, Vijay would say “Yaag, we need to align sales and marketing. Get marketing and sales in sync, as you talk in your books” – the message though subtle, is loud and clear 😊

What it also means is your ABM and Demand Generation need to complement each other. Shared below is a brilliant representation from Forrester.

So, what are the metrics to look at, in a successful ABM campaign?

• Progression rate: What percentage of target accounts from top of the funnel, moved to mid-funnel? What number of accounts from mid-funnel moved to bottom-funnel?
• Pipeline velocity: Was Fiind Smart Signals helpful in accelerating the progression with sensible and dynamic insights? Did it accelerate your sales cycle? Did you close more deals this quarter?
• Conversions and Revenue: Did Fiind Smart Signals have a direct impact in increasing your revenue?

If you enjoyed this post, let us know if you would like to learn more or schedule a demo with us. If you have any thoughts or experiences to share – we would love to hear and learn.