Account-based marketing, account-based sales, really it’s the same thing.
It’s all about getting laser-focused on the accounts that will actually buy from your company. Account-based marketing aligns the whole organization on engaging best-fit accounts. Working together, marketing and sales can turn your dream accounts into customers. However, this means marketing and sales must be in sync.
We all have a tough job to do. Whether you’re in marketing or sales, it’s called work for a reason, right? We’re here to grow revenue through acquiring new customers, the best-fit companies we want to do business with. This is why taking an ABM (or ABS) approach to your outbound, inbound, and account-based activities have become so important.
In order for your account-based strategy to be successful, it’s crucial that both your sales and marketing teams are involved in setting expectations, defining your goals and KPIs, and determining the role ABM will play at your organization.
So where do you get started with account-based marketing and account-based selling?
Terminus partnered with HubSpot to create the Account-Based Selling Worksheet combining ABM and inbound marketing strategies for pipeline acceleration.
The ABS Worksheet is designed to help marketing and sales run pipeline acceleration campaigns to turn opportunities into closed-won revenue. The goal of pipeline acceleration in account-based sales is to move your accounts through the sales cycle more quickly using technology and personalized sales outreach.
Think about it: your sales account executives know which accounts are on their hot list to close. They are doing everything they can to manage the buyer’s journey, sending emails, making phone calls, and they care deeply care about accounts that are opportunities in their pipeline. For marketers, here’s how you can show you care, too!
How do account-based marketing and sales work together?
The first step is to get together with your sales team. Before you begin planning your first campaign, you’ll need to assemble a core ABM team. The members of this team will vary depending on your organizational needs, but at a minimum, it should be made up of team leads from sales, sales development, and marketing.
We recommend scheduling a 1-hour meeting (at minimum) and sending out this worksheet before, then collaborating together to formalize the campaign strategy.
Now that you’ve assembled your core AB team, it’s time to sit down and define your goals. Ask your sales team:
- What do you want to accomplish?
- Which accounts is sales trying to close this quarter?
- What are your company’s revenue goals?
- Are there any pain points or common objects that prevent deals from coming in?
- Which stage of the funnel are you trying to progress your target accounts?
Asking your sales people these questions will help provide valuable insight into how marketing can help. Understanding these goals will equip you and your marketing team to build your account-based strategy, so it’s important that everyone on your core team is on the same page.
It’s amazing the type of information you can gather and what marketing can learn from taking the time to sit down with sales.
Using this target account selling worksheet, you can plan, execute and measure the results of your account-based marketing campaigns to truly support sales. Your sales team is out there on the battlefield, and it’s up for marketing to provide “air cover” to go win new business from your target accounts.
Here’s more information about how ABM & ABS can work together for your first campaign
Sales tells marketing which accounts they want to close, providing a list of 1 to 100 accounts, keeping the list small as a baby step helps with the scope of your campaign.
Together sales and marketing make sure the data on these accounts, and the contacts who are stakeholders or influencers in the buyer’s journey, is accurate in your CRM.
Marketing leverages a number of tactics, combining account-based advertising, content, events, and much more to engage those accounts.
Think about it as the number of “touches” marketing has on the accounts your sales team is trying to close.
Ultimately, the goal of combining account-based marketing and sales activities is to create pipeline velocity. This velocity helps to move accounts faster through the buyer’s journey. By pairing different tactics on multiple channels, such as in-person events coupled with advertising, you’re taking an omnichannel approach to engaging accounts. It’s much more effective than just sending one email blast.
Furthermore, by thinking through all these “touches” you’re creating an awesome experience for your potential customer and demonstrating the value of working with your brand. Alignment is a beautiful thing.
Ready to get started? Download the Account-Based Selling worksheet now.
