Selecting accounts for the ABM program
I share how to select the right accounts that are likely to become sales opportunities, how to prioritize and approach them.
I just came back from a fantastic Sales Tech Day conference in Vilnius with 400 attendees, where I presented a framework for developing a cluster-based ABM program.
The most popular question though was:
How can we select the right accounts? Accounts that are likely to become sales opportunities?
Let’s dive in.
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How to select the right accounts
Most Marketing and sales teams build a list the old way: based on territory and company size. They end up with hundreds of accounts and bet on luck.
I always ask them:
If you were going to bet my compensation on accounts that are likely to become sales opportunities, what are the criteria I need to apply to identify them?
You don't need thousands of accounts to target - Marketing and sales are not a bingo.
Instead, select accounts that are likely to become sales opportunities and focus on them.
Here are four pillars we prioritize when building a list of target accounts.
1. Revenue potential.
Are we hunting a field mouse or antelope?
Prioritize tier 1 and tier 2 accounts.
2. Vendor awareness.
If the account is already aware of our product, they are more likely to engage with us.
Analyze your demand gen programs, check marketing automation and intent data to identify these accounts.
3. Relationship.
Do we know anybody who works for the target accounts, or who is closely connected to the buying committee? Somebody who can make an intro or share insider information about the account's needs and challenges.
If we already have a good connection inside target accounts, we can accelerate account research and identify if our product is a right fit.
Pay attention to:
Ex-clients who joined new companies
People you met at conferences and industry events
People with whom you have strong common connections (they can make an intro)
People with whom you had content/marketing collaborations
4. Product need or challenge evidence + buying signals.
The three pillars from above are useless if the accounts that you are going to target are not in market or don't have a challenge your product solves.
Are there any facts that might tell us that the account might have a challenge our product solves?
Define buying signals and product-need evidence criteria that you can collect through progressive profiling and account research.
Examples:
Actively hiring for a specific role
Announced losses, key initiatives, or roadmap
Legacy technology, etc.
This simple exercise will help you to drastically narrow down your sales list, but it doesn't mean you should approach all of these accounts the same way.
Accounts with vendor awareness, but unclear challenges should be targeted completely differently from accounts that know you and demonstrate strong product need signals.
Below I'll explain how to segment and approach them.
Drive pipeline THIS quarter with a full-funnel ABM programs.
If any of these challenges sound familiar:
You are aligned in theory with sales but don’t do anything in practice aside from receiving wish lists from sales and sharing with them your marketing plan. In reality, you work in silos and miss the revenue targets and are being pressured by your executives.
You understand that your marketing and sales playbook is broken (mqls, gated content) but despite many attempts you don’t know how to fix it
Your outbound, paid ads and organic pipeline drastically decreased while CAC increased mostly because most of your market is problem unaware and not buying.
You lack brand awareness among target accounts and sales can’t get even a reply.
You clearly see that you're already behind your revenue targets
We can help.
We'll develop a custom full-funnel ABM strategy aligned with your resources, budget and stack and execute it together to drive results THIS quarter.
How to segment and approach ABM accounts
Here is how you should segment your accounts into 3 lists, and how to approach them.
1. CLUSTER ICP.
Cluster - groups of companies with a similar challenge/use case despite their tier or vertical.
These accounts fit your ICP but are not vendor aware, and there is no clear evidence they have a challenge your product solves.
Instead of pitching to them and targeting with ads, your goal is to make them vendor aware first.
Opportunity likelihood: <5%.
This list should be put into a cluster demand generation and brand awareness program.
Your program should include:
Ongoing customer research to understand better buyers challenges, jobs to be done, and the necessary change management
Messaging and content aligned with the insights from the customer research
Partnerships and collaborations with the industry thought leaders and vendors your buyers trust
Mix of events: business breakfasts, webinars, peers discussions.
KPIs:
Inbound sales opportunities
Engaged accounts (sourced to ABM team)
2. FUTURE PIPELINE.
These accounts are vendor aware (there was some engagement, but no buying intent), but you have no idea if they have a challenge your product solves.
Nurture these accounts with segmented content while connecting, engaging and profiling the buying committee.
Your goal is to validate if an account has an actual challenge, and if they prioritized it.
Current opportunity likelihood is <30%.
Goals:
Run account research and map out the buying committee
Connect and engage with multiple buying committee members
Validate / figure out challenge (progressive profiling)
KPIs:
Profiled accounts
Account penetration (with how many buyers you connected)
3. ACTIVE FOCUS.
These accounts demonstrate a strong engagement, there is a relationship with the buying committee members and a strong product need evidence.
These are the accounts your marketing and sales team should focus on opportunity development.
Goals:
Match value proposition with account and buyer challenges
Create an engaged Champion - a person who'll introduce you to their team
Create a business case for your Champion - what exact challenges your product will help to solve.
Create a buyer enablement content to address all potential questions from the buying committee and add a social proof
KPIs:
Sales opportunities
Account-to-pipeline ratio
If you apply this approach to selecting and segmenting all accounts for your ABM programs, and adjust sales and marketing playbooks, not only will you be able to generate sales opportunities this quarter, but you also:
Increase ROI of the GTM team
Increase marketing-sourced revenue
Create a future pipeline
Cluster vs territory-based list building
In the new episode of Fullfunnel Live we cover the same topic and answer the most challenging questions about selecting the right accounts for the ABM program.
Territory/market based account selection vs clusters
4 criteria you must pay attention to define accounts that are likely to become sales opportunities
3 ABM lists, and how to work with them to generate sales opportunities
We also answer community questions:
Tune in below