intelligent business decisions recently attended the B2B ABM conference in London, along with some 400 marketeers.
To open B2B Marketing’s Mary Anne Baldwin presented the findings of their survey.
Of the group surveyed. 86% say that the biggest challenge is the acquisition of data and insight. As yet we haven’t found a way to automate this element!
The day mainly focused not on why do ABM, which I believe the case has already been proven, but how to get the best out of it.
There were keynote presentations from Accenture, Conduent, BT and DXC Technology.
Recurring themes were:
100% alignment with sales
• Develop relationship with sales early
• BT – understand the sales personality versus the marketing personality – extrovert versus intuitive, facts versus feelings and logical versus perception
Decisive account definition
• 1:1/1:Few/1:Many:- 7% are still only doing 1:Many
• Almost 50/50 use ABM to win new accounts or grow existing accounts
• 1:1 can cost £10K per account but delivers a good ROI
It is recommended to spend 15% of marketing budget on ABM, Digital River made a big investment but pipeline is now £16m.
Good data and insight
• Accenture – do not pre-empt the outcome – use Linked In well
• Create bespoke blog content
• Do not use powerpoint but be more creative
• Send your prospects and customers business books – “leaders are readers”
• Send a handwritten note
• Making friends via individual conversations
• Connect with market analysts and advisers
Memorable quotes from Adrian Hardy at BT were: “Data rules and insight rocks” & “Not colouring in but the lighting up department”
Appropriate technology
• Don’t invest in tech until you have understood your business requirement fully but a basic CRM is a good idea
Measured execution
• Accenture – 15-18% improvement in pipeline by doing ABM
• Also continue collaboration, share the goals and share success
• Create a personalised client newsletter
• Run a paid social campaign with social listening
• Put videos on Linked In
Managed resources
• Only 10% have an internal team with all the skills
• Make sure you have 100% alignment with sales
• Develop relationship with sales early – only 1% have an internal marketing team with ABL skills
Penny Cox, director of intelligent business decisions (www.ibizd.co.uk) has over 20 years of experience in account based marketing for companies large and small. Contact Penny on penny.cox@ibizd.co.uk or LinkedIn.
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