ABM Tactics

Here’s What to Do About Selecting Accounts

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TLDR:

While many marketers are eager to hit the ground running with an ABM strategy, one area not to take shortcuts in is account selection. Choosing the right accounts— and the right kind of ABM for each of those accounts— is paramount to a successful ABM campaign.

With the rapid rise of ABM, marketers are eager to get started and cash in on ABM’s promise. But this overexcitement with the unlimited possibilities and configurations ABM offers may lead to hastily thought-out marketing strategies. Chief among them is account selection. 

It can be relatively easy (and very tempting) to arrange a dream team—a list of companies you’ve always wanted to do business with. Overall, though, it’s a poor way to go about choosing accounts to comprise an ABM strategy. 

Instead, you should focus on creating several lists of companies all with different standards by which to measure their worth relative to your company. 

Determining how many lists of companies you should create, depends entirely upon which type of ABM your business practices. 

Typically, your highest value accounts should be reserved for a 1:1 management basis. In other words, each account should have its own individual marketing program.

Groups of accounts with similar characteristics can be managed through a 1:few management style. This type is often used to break into accounts—they’re still high value, but aren’t ready for 1:1.

An account management style that oversees many accounts within a program is the 1:many approach. It allows you to handle numerous accounts at scale thanks to automation. 

The yardstick measuring which type of ABM services a target company should receive is often determined by their lifetime value as it relates to your business.

If this number is not calculated correctly, it can be costly to get wrong, which is especially true for 1:1 and 1:few account management styles. It is of great importance to add accounts at precisely the right time with the correct management style.

Although certainly not applicable to all companies, positioning contract renewal periods with data obtained from a target’s pattern of behavior online may assist you in picking just the right time to begin an ABM program at a particular account.

Determining the intent of a company you want to do business with can also help you figure out the level of importance you should place on an account. Being equipped with the knowledge that many companies will do their homework before speaking with a vendor speeds this process up.

A 1:many account management approach isn’t for everybody. But it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take advantage of it. By placing companies in the 1:many management style bracket, it allows you to be top of mind while keeping the possibility of an account upgrade or downgrade intact.

Swift action to upgrade an account will determine if you can get revenue faster from a specific account. Downgrading it to a different management style will free up marketing dollars in your budget.

As ABM, as a whole, is notorious for being cost-intensive, optimizing your budget to save resources is one way to make it less burdensome.

Original article from eConsultancy on 8 January 2019. 

The ABM Journal

The ABM Journal was created because we got tired of sifting through all the noise about ABM and wanted to gather only the very best and useful Account-Based Marketing information in one place. In addition to our own research and insight, we aggregate executive level summaries, insights and takeaways—along with some of the top ebooks and other resources available.

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