What's the big deal about ABM?
I have been in B2B sales for more years than I want to admit here. I have managed teams of 200 plus, dealt with high value and low value customers. One of my most successful strategies was to create a premium brand within a company and then target prospective and existing known high value accounts with the offer of a premium service. The strategy worked wonders, growing the business from around 85m to over 100m in one year. Our activity around this initiative would now be called ABM [account based marketing], we called it plain old sales. Is ABM then just repackaging what we in sales have always done or is there something new? What’s the big deal?
ABM: Same but different
The reality is that B2B sales engagement has changed dramatically, and will continue to change as our use of technology changes. I will freely admit I was slow off the mark. Being a salesperson of old I thought my old techniques would work forever, people haven’t changed after all. I was wrong, not about people changing, because they haven’t, but I failed to absorb the impact of their changing working environment. Sales engagement has changed, there is a new sales and marketing reality which is empowering the buyer. There is a buzz around ABM, not because it is a big change in strategy as much as it is a big change in how you deliver on that strategy.
ABM in a nutshell
In addition to your inbound marketing, sales and marketing work together to identify and target your ideal prospects as well as existing customers with the highest growth potential, and then plan and implement a very personalised digital sales and marketing campaign leveraging every channel available.
ABM Success
The point you have to remember is that the power is in the buyers hands. They can switch off or disengage at any time. To build that sense of trust, and of massive value in sales, a sense of obligation in the buyer to not only engage but also purchase from you takes time and it takes skill. You need the right tools and assets in place and fully understood. Get those right and you will start seeing your revenue grow.
