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How to Sell an ABM Solution Internally

Here are some expert tips for navigating your org chart, persuading stakeholders and influencers, and successfully implementing and optimizing a solution post-sale.
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Chapters

Chapter 1

Introduction

Chapter 2

The Evaluation Process

Chapter 3

Considering Cost vs. ROI

Chapter 4

Selling Internally

Chapter 5

Implementation

Chapter 6

Prototyping the Solution

Chapter 7

Launch

Chapter 8

Continual Improvement

Chapter 9

Conclusion

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Introduction

Many how-to guides teach you how to effectively sell your product to other organizations or individuals.

This is a different kind of sales guide.

In this how-to, you’ll learn how to sell to your own team, showing your teammates how the right ABM solution will help them reach — or exceed — business goals.

We’ll cover every stage of the buying journey:

  • From selecting a new revenue platform …
  • To implementing and launching it …
  • And keeping it running smoothly for years to come

Your guide to this different kind of selling is Rachael Tiow, former Director of ABM and Lifecycle Marketing at Auth0 and current Go-To-Market Advisor.

You’ll discover how Tiow convinced stakeholders at Auth0 to take the plunge with a new ABM solution, how she and her team planned, and how they streamlined every implementation step for a smooth, successful launch. With Tiow’s help, you’ll be able to:

  • Evaluate your options to find the right ABM platform for your business needs
  • Identify stakeholders within your organization and make your sales pitch
  • Proactively streamline implementation processes for your operations team
  • Assemble a pioneering group of pilot users
  • Smoothly launch your new solution to your entire revenue team, and
  • Handle ongoing maintenance from a technical and business perspective

Let’s dive in.

Chapter 2

The Evaluation Process

The first step to selecting the right ABM solution for your organization is to take inventory of your organization’s goals and challenges.

Determining Your ‘Non-Negotiables’

It’s easy to identify problems you want to solve once you start looking. Tiow suggests focusing on what’s critical, and limiting your list to between three and five non-negotiable criteria an ABM tool or platform should meet.

For organizations already using a tool and looking to replace it, determine what’s most important in a new solution by answering the following questions:

  • What do you wish was different about your current solution(s)?
  • For features you wish you could change, what would that change look like?
  • How would those changes positively impact your revenue team?

Smaller organizations or those not currently using any ABM tools may lack a base of comparison when shopping for a platform, but they can determine which features to look for by considering:

  • What are your current revenue and revenue goals for the next one to five years?
  • How do you currently define and practice ABM?
  • Do you know your ideal customer profile? If so, how do you define it?
  • What are your processes like today? How would it affect you to automate those processes and scale them across the revenue team?

Once you’ve identified your organization’s needs and defined your pipeline and revenue goals, you can evaluate new solutions based on those must-have features.

Here’s what Tiow and her team determined was most important to Auth0 as they searched for the right ABM solution:

  • Attribution: A solution that they could say for certain was influencing and generating pipeline
  • Long-Term Growth: A tool that could grow with their business, and would fulfill its purpose for at least three to five years
  • Customer Service: A solution that understood their business and could offer actionable insights
  • Objective Data: Software that would tell them how valuable an intent activity was worth, removing the need for manual, arbitrary point assignment 

These non-negotiables aren’t exclusive to Auth0, of course. Companies struggling to identify their needs or narrow down their criteria can use Auth0’s priorities as a starting point.

After Auth0 determined what it needed out of an ABM solution and began evaluating potential options, the company discovered 6sense ticked off all the boxes:

Attribution

6sense’s impact on pipeline and revenue was clear. The platform showed the Auth0 team how accounts were moving through the buying stages, gave insight into how their programs were impacting their accounts, and proved Auth0’s revenue team was targeting the right personas.

Long-Term Growth

Auth0 could envision using 6sense for at least three to five years — vital for a platform integral to its pipeline, understanding its Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), and the support of the revenue team’s nurturing campaigns.

Customer Service

Auth0 could build a partnership to help with problem solving, offer new insights, and proactively share ways to improve how it uses the platform’s tools and features.

Objective Data

Instead of worrying about subjectively assigning points to accounts, Tiow’s team could now lean on historical customer behavior, data from Auth0’s CRM and marketing automation, and buyer intent data.

Of all of the solutions Auth0 considered, 6sense was the only one that met the standards defined by their non-negotiables.

Chapter 3

Considering Cost vs. ROI

No company has an infinite budget for adopting new tools, so you should be ready to talk about the potential solution’s features and benefits, and why it’s worth the cost.

“If you want quality,” Tiow says, “you pay for what you get.”

Many point solutions call themselves ABM tools, but they only serve one specific function, such as data scrubbing or determining buyer intent.

The lower cost can make them attractive options, but cheaper tools can bring more headaches than outcomes, like time-consuming maintenance to get multiple tools to work together and the trouble that comes with juggling multiple vendors.

An ABM revenue platform like 6sense may cost more than a point solution, but it can do it all: inform you of your total addressable market, let you know the buying stage of your accounts, identify account intent, and more. By the time you’ve assembled enough tools to do the work of a single platform, you’ll likely be spending more on subscription fees — not to mention a lot of time implementing and adopting multiple solutions.

For revenue teams that think they can get by without an ABM tool, consider the cost of hiring more staff to:

  • Handle administrative tasks
  • Manually search for target accounts
  • Identify your total addressable market
  • Determine your prospects’ industry, region, buying stage, etc.
  • Find the contact info you need, when you need it

It’s also critical to consider ROI. Tiow had this to say: “If 6sense customers start with one simple use case, the revenue generated will pay it back four-fold.” Whether you’re considering 6sense or another solution, look for solid indications of the revenue is generates and/or the money it saves.

Chapter 4

Selling Internally

So you’ve narrowed your options and found the ABM solution that’ll best meet your organization’s non-negotiable needs. Now you must convince other stakeholders that you’ve found something worth investing in.

But first, you need to know how to convince those stakeholders they will benefit from this new solution. To get their buy-in, you’re going to have to sell it to them.

Here’s how.

Internal Selling 101

Let’s get the big secret out of the way: Internal selling works the same as external selling. The only difference is that you’re going into your sales pitch with the advantage of an even clearer picture of your audience, their objectives, and their personalities.

Identifying Your Internal Customers

How do you know who to talk to? And what should you say to sell them on the new solution?

Start by determining which teams or individuals stand to gain from the solution. Then, identify one or two specific benefits for each. These will be your unique selling propositions.

Technically, each member of these teams is an internal customer, but you don’t need to get buy-in from all of them. Instead, break it down like this:

  • Who are the teams’ decision makers? This could be a director, VP, or someone else with a leadership role. Select no more than two decision makers per team.
  • Who are the teams’ champions and influencers? In other words, who can be trusted to provide honest feedback and advocate for your cause?
  • Limit your targeted internal customers to three people per team, or fewer if possible. A team’s decision maker can also serve double duty as an influencer or champion.

Make Your Sales Pitch

Once you know your internal “customers,” it’s time to get selling.

As you approach each stakeholder, incorporate your understanding of their challenges and objectives. Let them know you’ve been evaluating a new tool, its purpose, and most importantly, the value it will provide to help them achieve their goals.

Draw a distinction between the current state — with all their pain points — with the future in which they can be more productive and see better results.

Customize your individual sales pitches based on each stakeholder’s personality, goals, and the unique selling proposition you identified for their department. Keep in mind, however, that the main selling point of any ABM solution all boils down to one thing: How will it impact pipeline?

Internal Selling Tips

Tiow offers these tips for successful internal selling:

  • Know the solution. What business goals or challenges does it address?
  • Be passionate about the solution. You can’t expect anyone else to champion your cause if you’re not excited about it.
  • Prepare to handle objections early, ideally one-on-one with key stakeholders and influencers. There are few things worse than someone shooting down your idea in a meeting and planting a seed of doubt.
  • Approaching stakeholders shouldn’t be a one-time thing. Invite them to be a part of the journey as you adopt a new solution, and welcome their questions and feedback.
  • Forget your title and embrace the role of “internal seller.” Regardless of the position of each stakeholder, your job is to find out how to make their jobs easier.
  • Above all else, respect and trust are paramount. Never over promise and always keep yourself accountable.

How Auth0 Did It

Once Tiow was certain 6sense was the right ABM solution for Auth0, she started the internal sales process. “Now that I’m talking about it, there was a lot of selling. I should get a part of the commission,” she joked.

She spoke with individual SDRs and BDRs to find champions and influencers.

“They came to me for advice or feedback, so I could go to them and ask, ‘If you could change one or two things about your job, what would those be?’” Then, Tiow told them she was evaluating 6sense, explained what it did, and how it could ease their pain points.

Getting feedback from the SDRs and BDRs who’d eventually use 6sense confirmed she’d selected a solution that would make a meaningful, positive change. It also generated internal anticipation for the new solution.

“You’re already building momentum before the tool has been introduced,” Tiow explains. “When it’s implemented, you need less time to introduce it if you already have internal buy-in.

" Your champions and influencers are usually the rockstars of the team, and everyone looks to them for guidance and support, because everyone wants to be a rockstar.”
Rachael Tiow,
Former Director of ABM and Lifecycle Marketing, Auth0

When Tiow approached selling 6sense within Auth0, she broke it down into two categories with unique value propositions: selling up and selling broad.

Selling up is selling to directors, VPs, the C-suite, and other leadership roles. In addition to an approach best suited to their individual personalities and objectives, include these points in your talk track:

  • Generation and growth of pipeline and revenue
  • The potential impact on organization-wide and department-wide initiatives
  • How the new solution can save resources such as time, money, and effort
  • Projected ROI

Selling broad is selling to roles that’ll be the solutions’ users. An ABM solution will heavily impact BDRs/SDRs, so include them among your internal customers.

When you talk to them, be sure to mention:

  • How it’s going to help them reach their goals and look like a rockstar
  • Capabilities that automate or streamline time-consuming tasks
  • Ease of use, including initial and ongoing training and support
  • Ways it’s similar to or better than current solutions

Don’t Forget About Operations

It’s also crucial to include sales ops and/or marketing ops during the internal selling phase. Loop them in as early as possible since they’ll be the departments handling the integration and implementation of the solution — a technical and time-consuming process.

Here are some tips for working with sales and marketing ops:

  • Ask what the team specifically needs to prepare for implementing new solutions, and then establish deadlines for delivery. By simplifying their job, you’re making it easy for them to say yes.
  • Provide regular updates on where you stand with promised deliverables, the sales process, etc. This accountability will help keep your project a top-of-mind priority, which fast-tracks implementation.
  • Discover what questions they have about the solution. Invite them to join a call with the vendor, or prepare a list of questions to ask on their behalf and deliver the answers.
  • For sales and marketing ops and RevOps, be realistic about the timeline, build in time for delays, and don’t make false promises. (Concerned with keeping operations running smoothly, ops teams can be understandably cautious about anything that potentially throws a wrench into the works.)

Chapter 5

Implementation

Your internal selling efforts were a success, and your organization has purchased the solution you championed. Congratulations! Now what?

Here’s what you and your revenue team can expect during the implementation process and how to prepare for it.

Auth0’s Implementation Timeline of 6sense

Implementation timelines vary, but thanks to extensive preparation and thorough communication, Auth0’s implementation of 6sense was extremely smooth. Examining Auth0’s timeline and what Tiow and her team did to streamline their process can help implementation go as smoothly as possible for your own organization.

Preparation

Before signing the contract, Auth0 scheduled time with its ops team and 6sense’s team to sync on implementation needs.

Immediately after purchasing 6sense, Auth0:

  • Established taxonomy, defining programs and campaigns in Salesforce and Marketo
  • Tagged activities such as website visits, webinar attendance, and trade show interactions
  • Tested 6sense in a sandbox environment to turn on the data flow and conduct trial runs of the platform
  • Unplugged the other tools Auth0 was previously using
  • Put together a training guide
  • Built out use cases
  • Met regularly with stakeholders to give updates and estimate a launch date

Implementation

Thanks to Tiow’s preparation and other factors, the 6sense implementation began two months ahead of schedule. Access was set up for a pilot team, as well as reporting in Salesforce. These first users were trained.

Testing

The pilot team used 6sense in a sandbox environment, testing the tool using pre-built segments. Trial runs ensured the data was flowing into Salesforce without overloading the API.

After two weeks of testing, the iframe was activated. About 70 users kicked off the prototyping stage.

Setting up a new martech tool isn’t like setting up a new toaster — plugging it in and flipping a switch. It requires lots of work from operations, which is why, as mentioned in the previous chapter, ongoing communication is a must.

In addition to providing the ops team with documentation, access, and other resources it needs to complete implementation as early as possible, Tiow helped streamline the process by persuading operations to dedicate 30 minutes a week to 6sense prior to launch. This helped implementation remain a priority — and avoided an inefficient, rushed setup.

Tiow was also very pragmatic on the implementation timeline. “Optimism is not always welcomed by the ops team,” she says.

Chapter 6

Prototyping the Solution

With implementation complete, next comes the prototyping phase. This stage is important to make sure among the tool works smoothly and to fix any bugs. But it’s also important for building excitement for the tool and anticipation for its full launch.

Auth0’s Prototyping Experience

Auth0 kicked off its prototyping phase with what Tiow affectionately nicknamed the “Gerber Baby” team, which consisted of about a dozen SDRs. The participants were selected not only for their performance, but for their leadership skills, ability to give useful feedback, and influence amongst their peers.

    1. The pilot team started using 6sense to build pipeline with just two use cases:
    2. Closed-lost accounts that came back with an activity, and
      Non-customers that viewed the pricing page three times within a 90-day period and had looked at competitor pages

During the first 45 days of use, the Gerber Baby team generated an extra $2.8 million in pipeline.

The team also gathered important feedback for improving how 6sense was configured and used, and generated hype for the organization-wide launch.

Tiow’s advice for selecting pilot users is to keep the team small and enable managers to choose team members for you. (When managers select their team members, it ensures accountability from them and the SDRs.)

Ask ‌managers to identify reps who are:

  • Top to moderate performers
  • Trusted and well-liked by their peers
  • Methodical and process-oriented
  • Likely to share knowledge with their teammates
  • Willing to serve as subject matter experts

Getting Feedback

Getting feedback from your pilot team should be about more than troubleshooting.

Lessons learned during the early stages can be used to create training materials. Documenting and sharing successes also generates trust in the tool.

Here are a few ways your organization can gather feedback during the prototyping stage:

Office Hours

Dedicate one hour per team each week to sharing feedback. Stress the importance of not just saying what does and doesn’t work, but also providing best practices for using the tool.

Spreadsheets

Stock up on empirical data and use cases by creating a spreadsheet for reps to add to when they book a meeting. Have reps include step-by-step details that can be included in playbooks for future users to replicate for repeatable success.

Chat Channels

In your organization’s chat program, create channels dedicated to your new tool. Encourage pilot users to ask questions and share case studies, and invite sales leadership to interact and leave feedback.

Incentives

Incentives drive behavior. Auth0 gamified the process of sharing wins and learnings from using 6sense for an entire year.

This built a culture of learning (without the fear of failing) by sharing insights among peers, and encouraging people to try new things.

Building Momentum

Influential pilot users’ positivity and enthusiasm about the tool can spread quickly throughout the organization, making others look forward to using it themselves. In the case of Auth0, managers of teams that weren’t scheduled to be onboarded with 6sense for months were “practically begging” for access, Tiow says. This could also happen at your organization, so be prepared to launch full access to the tool earlier than you might have anticipated!

Chapter 7

Launch

After the technical bugs are squashed and you’ve gathered enough case studies to know how best to use your new tool, it’s time to release it to the entire revenue team.

You can give everyone access to the full platform all at once, or as Tiow advises, ramp it up gradually with a “crawl, walk, run” approach.

Here’s how.

Step 1: Crawl

At Auth0, the first month post-launch was all about learning. The revenue team received official training from Tiow and Auth0’s 6sense customer success representative, during which they learned the logic behind the tool, where 6sense gets its data, and how to create filters to use that data for building pipeline.

The new users also learned from the “Gerber Baby” pilot team. These experienced SDRs walked their peers through using 6sense, explaining how they reached their goals and booked meetings.

After initial training was complete, new users weren’t set loose on the full tool. Instead, they were limited to the same two use cases as the pilot team: closed-lost accounts with an activity, and non-customers that viewed the pricing page and competitors.

According to Tiow, keeping ‌use cases limited helps:

  • Reduce the overwhelming psychological impact of trying something new
  • Build empirical data that the tools and processes work
  • Reinforce a psychology of winning that keeps people eager to use it
  • Refine data collection and accuracy

Step 2: Walk

It took about a month for the revenue team to get comfortable and confident using 6sense. When the team was ready, Auth0 added two more use cases and trained users on how to use keywords.

They also expanded their use of 6sense to, among other things:

  • Research competitive plays
  • Identify criteria for other ideal accounts
  • Find opportunities for customer expansion via customer marketing
  • Refine ICPs
  • Build strategic account lists

There were also monetary incentives available for SDRs/BDRs who booked meetings with help from 6sense, documented their case studies, and shared successes in the dedicated chat channel. This served a lot of purposes beyond monetarily rewarding SDRs.

It reinforced a culture of learning and sharing, created excitement over what 6sense could do, and helped sales and marketing align their understanding of using it to generate pipeline.

Step 3: Run

About three months after launch, the revenue team had access to the entirety of 6sense.

They were knowledgeable and experienced enough to make their own filters, understand keywords, and rely on Salesforce for dashboards and reporting.

Office hours were still regularly held, channels in the company chat application remained open, and quarterly business reviews became an opportunity to share success stories.

But that’s not where the story ends.

Even after a successful internal selling campaign, there may be members of your revenue team that react to a new tool with cynicism and resistance. Tiow calls this “residual hesitancy.” For these folks, Tiow advises:

  • Demonstrate what the tool can do, but never oversell. “If someone tells you a tool will solve all your problems,” Tiow says, “leave the room, because they’re selling you snake oil.”
  • Say to naysayers: “The cake won’t eat itself, and you won’t know how it tastes until you take a bite.” In other words, you won’t know how useful a new tool is until you use it for yourself.
  • Acknowledge that some aspects of the tool may not benefit every team or individual. But be willing to find ways around roadblocks.
  • Follow the sales tactic of stacking up objections in advance and handling them before they come up.
  • Encourage constant feedback and address any issues or questions when they arise.
  • Build allies who are raving fans of the tool and can influence naysayers when you aren’t there.

Chapter 8

Continual Improvement

The truth is, the story never really ends. Any new solution eventually becomes a continuous, evolving relationship that looks something like this.

Ongoing Maintenance

Operations should be expected to handle ongoing maintenance on the technical side, which includes platform updates, capabilities upgrades, and integration with other tools. But it’s important to also consider who is the business owner of the tool.

That’s because ongoing maintenance also includes non-technical aspects directly related to using the tool for achieving business objectives, such as onboarding new users and continual education. For that reason, sales and marketing must also oversee and manage the new ABM tool.

Onboarding New Users

Just like your pilot users, it’s best to not overwhelm new hires by letting them loose on the platform immediately. Use an abbreviated “crawl, walk, run” approach.

Tiow recommends letting beginning users spend the first week getting comfortable with the tool. Training should include educating them on how it’ll help with their job, explaining where the data comes from, and why they can trust it.

From the second week of training onward, introduce features and use cases a handful at a time, letting them build confidence and their understanding of the platform. Welcome new hires to ask their managers and peers for help, and encourage experienced reps to continue to be influencers and subject matter experts for newer teammates.

Encourage and empower them to learn and share from teamwide communication channels, such as a Slack channel dedicated to discussing the tool and use cases.

Making Sure it Sticks

Eventually, the novelty and excitement of a new tool fades away. How can you make sure your internal selling effort wasn’t wasted, and the tool you sold your organization on remains in use?

Make the tool a central part of your company culture. Talk about it often, including new use cases, success stories, and creative ways to leverage its capabilities.

Monitor usage and identify a threshold that’s reasonably sustainable. Tiow offers this helpful advice: “We’re looking for progress, not perfection.”

Understand that usage will ebb and flow, especially at the end of each quarter, or before a major event like a sales kick-off.

If the tool is getting less than average use for more than two weeks in a row and there’s no explanation for it, inform management and empower them to get SDRs back on track.

Keeping the Feedback Loop Open

The importance of constant, open communication can’t be overstressed. From the evaluation stage through the internal selling stage, implementation, and launch, it’s critical to listen to feedback. In fact, soliciting feedback should be an ongoing effort, Tiow says.

Communication channels such as chat rooms and regular office hours should remain accessible, and there should be opportunities at regular intervals — such as quarterly business reviews and sales kick-offs — to talk about the tool, use cases, and success stories.

Chapter 9

Conclusion

Selling your organization on a new platform can be a daunting undertaking. There are many stakeholders to convince across every part of the revenue team, and processes such as implementation, training, and ongoing maintenance that must be considered in advance.

Taking a proactive approach and anticipating the needs of your organization and stakeholders can remove some of the barriers to selling a new ABM solution.

Follow Auth0’s examples of building genuine relationships within your organization, cultivating an internal culture of communication and integrity, and making accountability a top priority.

Auth0’s success in implementing 6sense wasn’t an accident. It was the result of Tiow and her team’s careful strategy of:

  • Examining the company’s needs and finding a solution that fulfilled them
  • Selling that solution internally
  • Setting operations and initial users up for success
  • Designing a program to support the organization through the full launch and beyond

Just as “account-based everything” takes a personalized approach to sales and marketing, the same tactics can be applied to being an internal champion for a new solution.

Communicating the right message to the right person at the right time can help convince them that the solution you’ve discovered is the best one for each stakeholder and the organization‌.

Rachael Tiow helps companies rapidly improve their outbound strategy and pipeline engine by staying laser-focused on revenue goals, challenging the status quo, and getting the fundamentals right.

Rachael is known for her expertise in all things outbound, from prospecting and closing deals to leading a global Account-Based Marketing (ABM) team. She’s built SDR (Sales Development) and ABM teams from scratch, successfully led them, influenced hundreds of millions of dollars in pipeline, and closed business at companies where she worked, advised, and consulted.

By the time she left Auth0, the outbound motion grew to 60+ percent of both pipeline and closed business.

Rachael is passionate and tenacious about both execution and excellence in day-to-day work. She also takes great joy in mentoring SaaS sales and marketing professionals.

Ready to see 6sense in action?

Picture of The 6sense Team

The 6sense Team