In my experience

During recessionary times it’s important to focus your marketing investments. A scatter-gun approach to managing the sales funnel may deliver some results, but Account-Based Marketing (ABM) delivers a higher return on investment (ROI). It is also more efficient and effective, targeting the top must win accounts.

Many marketers think their campaigns are focused and targeted, but quite often they’re broad brush and customers only hear a small part of the message. So it’s a very expensive way to run a campaign, particularly when times are tough. With a more bespoke, account-aligned and integrated approach, you can not only win new business but also develop stronger customer relationships. Moreover, it begins a more meaningful two-way dialogue.

If you don’t know what your key account customers’ expectations and requirements are, you’ll miss an opportunity to communicate why they should buy from you versus one of your competitors. It’s a prerequisite to demonstrate that you are looking after their interests, but without making blind guesses. So you should encourage them to give you feedback whenever you can – and capture it!

Remember that personalisation is more than just a name on a website welcoming someone back, or for the first time. Real insight provides an accurate picture of each client or prospect; by using your knowledge intelligently you can offer more relevant and timely offerings, gain more stickiness, create more loyal customers, attract new ones, and get to know them better.

Leads tend be of a higher quality too. It becomes easier to educate the customer, to build the relationship, and differentiate your offerings for specifically targeted clients. You will need to begin by analysing what works best for each one and acknowledge their needs in a bespoke plan.

With an iterative approach your prospects will become customers. If you’re not yet a convert, leave the scatter-gun behind and focus your efforts on ABM.

Amazing results

The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) and the Information Technology Services Marketing Association (ITSMA) both support this approach. Judging from case studies involving some top brands, it’s clear why they do.

ITSMA’s Beverley Burgess wrote about ABM in February 2006 for What’s New In Marketing. Her article revealed some impressive figures: Hewlett Packard gained a 200% increase in sales funnel during a US pilot programme, conversion rates tripled and revenue went up by 16%. The results were even more impressive in Asia, with revenues growing by more than 1000%, and there was a 500% augmentation in the EMEA region too.

Prioritise; focus and focus

ABM works at three levels: the campaign level within each account, then at an account level, and then it focuses on the ABM initiative itself in comparison with other sales and marketing projects. By thinking more smartly than firing a marketing shotgun, we move people through an agreed set of steps over a given period. The focus is on a predetermined number of key accounts; whether that is the top 250, top 50 or just your top 2.

“It requires new approaches to account prioritisation and analysis, targeted value proposition development, and integrated campaigns”, explains Burgess. Companies are now creating sales and marketing plans for individual customers. Prioritisation is imperative; it’s too expensive to employ ABM for each and every customer, so you need to decide which ones are worth the investment in your time and money.

Investment guru Warren Buffett advises that the focus remains within your ‘circle of competence’ – what you know best and what you can deliver. Concentrate on what will deliver results, become more strategic and tactical. Work on prospects more than suspects; they are more likely to give you a better return.

Where should we focus?

In order to focus more, particularly during an economic downturn, you will need to conduct more research. You’ll be better educated about the market, where to invest your marketing spend, and you’ll be able to build effective and efficient campaign strategies around each account. Yet remember that what a customer wants today, a customer might not want tomorrow. Always keep this in mind.

ABM takes the guess work out of marketing. A useful and adaptable prioritisation tool is the GE/McKinsey matrix. Similar to the Boston Consulting Group Growth Share matrix, it can be used to plot the potential in each target account, providing a more objective view of the attractiveness of each account. It therefore allows you to find out where you should really focus your efforts.

For maximum effect sales and marketing need to work collaboratively, providing each other with bid support; assisting with the research element, customising collateral to each account, proposal development, and perhaps organising a bespoke marketing communications initiative.

In terms of account penetration, marketing helps the sales team develop a more structured approach to business generation. The focus is on the development of bespoke sales and marketing campaigns, which demonstrate industry expertise in such a way that they complement direct sales activities.

Think strategically

It’s also important to look ahead. Look towards the long-term future. You need to look beyond just analysing revenue and share of wallet. Relationship development necessitates gaining a higher level of market intelligence to support long-term marketing programmes, created for specific accounts.

Focus on the long-term strategic positioning objectives within each account. Customers want to know that you have the integrity to give the right advice. There also needs to be some understanding of where the firm stands next to its strategic partners and its competitors. It’s an approach that requires a lot of commitment, but it promises to deliver better results over a long period of time.

The benefits are not just financial; you can position yourself as an account-targeted thought-leader. This adds value to the dialogue with your customers and allows you to concentrate resources where they will have the greatest impact.

Use ABM to seek out new opportunities, deepen your knowledge of your markets and customers, and subsequently your relationships with them. It will help you to deliver the best long-term results, perhaps the best you’ve ever had.

To talk more about how you can thrive with ABM, even when times are economically tough, please call Think Smart Marketing on 01525 288828 or email owen.ashby@thinksmartmarketing.co.uk

Further reading:

1. What’s New in Marketing, February 2006, by Bev Burgess – ‘Account-Based Marketing: A B2B Phenomenon’:
http://www.wnim.com/archive/issue0206/burgess.htm

2. ‘ITSMA Account-Based Marketing’:
http://www.itsma.com/ABM/ITSMAIntroducingABM.pdf

3. 'The Demand for Account-Based Marketing’ by Rob Leavitt:
http://www.b2bmarketingtrends.com/abstract.asp?groupid=4&id=138