You might’ve noticed the transition from the term Account-Based Marketing to the term Account-Based Experience (or Everything) recently.
Companies that have a mature ABX model credit 73% of total revenue to those ABX efforts. With ABX having such a large impact on overall revenue, we’re way past pigeonholing it as a marketing strategy — this is a new way forward for the entire organization.
The sales team isn’t exempt from the ABX revolution. In fact when they start adopting ABX tactics there’s a good chance they’ll become vanguards. The beauty of ABX is that you’re enhancing your current operations. You may need to leverage new technology and change some processes, but it’s not like you’re learning a new language.
Let’s take a look at six specific ways ABX can transform your sales process.
Proactive Prospecting
Over 40% of sellers say that prospecting is the hardest part of their job. That makes sense when a company doesn’t have a strong process in place.
If your sellers are simply targeting accounts because they’re on the Fortune 50 list, or because they have X number of employees, then they aren’t being set up for success.
Wouldn’t it be great to know which of your prospects are actually in-market? Instead of picking account names based on their revenue or another random stat, you can start targeting accounts that are ready to buy.
A good ABX platform will use AI and machine learning to leverage historical data about past deals to find your Total Addressable In-Market accounts (TAIM), as well as your In-Market Ideal Customer Profile (IICP). Whether you’re sending ads or making calls, good AI makes sure you’re talking to somebody who is interested in your solution.
Lead Prioritization
After a lead comes in, what happens next? Do you use a set number of calls, texts and emails before moving them to an “inactive lead” status? Do you dump them into an automated drip email campaign that delivers the same sequence of emails to everyone, and hope to eventually entice them into a fresh conversation?
The problem with these approaches is that the customer buyer journey isn’t linear, which means your efforts are often completely out of step with the customer’s buying stage.
It’s time to stop throwing darts to figure out how to select your next outreach. Empowering your sellers with ABX tactics and technology means there’s no guessing what their next activity should be.
The right ABX platform will enable you to build a dynamic target account list based on real-time data. Simply look at which prospects have performed the right activities and are in the right stage of the buying journey and you know exactly who to target.
A sales manager’s job gets a lot easier when they know their teams are empowered with technology that always keeps them focused on the right account.
Improve Outreach
There’s no need to crawl through LinkedIn for your prospects’ favorite hobby anymore when you start using an ABX approach.
Nearly 70% of the buyer’s journey happens outside of your purview. Prospects are researching on your website (without filling out forms), reading competitors’ blog posts, and looking at reviews on third-party websites.
Those precious form-fills that many marketing and sales teams rely on only capture 2-3% of your website visitors, and provide an incomplete picture of even that small subset of potential customers.
When you actually uncover the full picture of what your potential customers are researching, you can tailor your outreach. Instead of starting with a generic email, you can provide more information on a particular product or service that you know your prospect was researching.
Two-thirds of buyers expect companies to understand their unique needs. ABX lets you take that personalized approach even further.
Deal Acceleration
B2B sales cycles are notoriously long. One report states that nearly 75% of deals take at least four months. Shaving any amount of time off of a deal can be a huge boon, because then you’re free to focus on other deals and important areas.
One of the trickle down effects of improving your prospecting process and knowing which leads to prioritize is that suddenly deals start to move a lot faster — it’s like throwing your spaceship into hyperdrive.
When you know a prospect is actively in-market and researching solutions, your deals accelerate. Conversations are more pointed and hurdles are addressed before they even come up.
Identify All the Decision Makers
You might only have regular facetime with one or two key team members at an account, but you know there are more people involved in the buying process. You just don’t know exactly who they are, their goals, or how to reach them.
ABX helps you uncover other key roles at your target accounts, and the people who fill those chairs. Is there a VP operating behind the scenes who could be a crucial influencer?
When you use ABX to uncover everyone at your account, then you can plan for how to win over every member of the buying committee.
Get the Drop on the Competition
You’d like to think you’re the only vendor speaking to your prospect. Maybe they’ve even told you you’re the only one. Is that true? Maybe. Or maybe they’re trying to keep you in the dark to get a better deal.
The good news is ABX lets you know if they are actively researching different solutions. When you have that information easily available, you can come armed with all of the relevant data to stand out from the competition.
You can also keep the conversation focused on the extra value you deliver, which can keep the customer from pitting you against a competitor in an attempt to drive down pricing.
Improve Operational Efficiency
The best ABX technology doesn’t make you leave the system you already use to uncover all of these deep insights. ABX should help you focus, not divide your attention even more. 6sense is deeply integrated with Salesforce, HubSpot, and Microsoft Dynamics, so all of the information will be layered into your CRM — making your team much more efficient.
With a world-class ABX platform and an integration in place you can quickly understand what activities your team are doing, what prospects they should be targeting, what your ideal customer looks like, and where they are in their buying journey.
