Guest post from Matt Heinz as part of the #FlipMyFunnel #ABM Innovators Series.
Launching an account-based marketing program can be a tall order. Measuring the results often presents an even greater challenge. This week, we’re excited to feature Saad Hameed, Director of Marketing Operations, Analytics, & Technology at Sumo Logic on the #FlipMyFunnel ABM Innovator Series. He took a moment to share some of his wisdom gained over the course of his 10 years of marketing technology and account-based marketing experience with LinkedIn, InsideView, Cisco and VMWare. Check out the highlights of his interview below:
Why would an organization leverage ABM?
B2B marketing and selling have become increasingly more complex due to the following factors:
- Strong buyer networks that are enabled through social networks (including Meetup, LinkedIn, Twitter, G2Crowd, etc.)
- Organizational buying hierarchy changes where influencers/individual contributors have more power in organization (especially for technology purchases)
- Empowered buying teams (customer teams) that collaborate more effectively to make purchases
Due to these shifts, the traditional B2B marketing/sales efforts that ignore the peer network/Account based context are becoming less effective. As a result of these shifts, the onus is on sales and marketing to effectively target prospect bases with the account context in mind.
How and when should an organization begin leveraging ABM practices?
Organizations of almost all sizes need to embrace and leverage ABM practices. Then “when” depends on the evolution of the marketing efforts. There are three key dependencies for ABM to be an effective practice:
- Core understanding of buyer pains, personas, and segments along with necessary data/system setups to contain these attributes
- Content that aligns to different levels of the buying journey
- Alignment with sales team to effectively pass activated accounts
What are some of the primary tools that have helped you or your customer implement and execute ABM?
The key tools to implement ABM are:
- Tracking and attribution (we are leveraging Bizible for this purpose)
- Scoring at the account level
- Process and systems that ensure that account hierarchies are built and maintained on an ongoing basis
What is your primary metrics for ABM progress and success?
- Strategic
- Can ABM feed demand faster? This means we look at how to improve pipeline velocity.
- Can ABM achieve better conversion? We focus on how we can improve the lead to opportunity conversion percentage rate.
- Tactical
- To measure success here, we compare the response rate from other channels ads/emails/mailers using ABM vs non-ABM targeting. If ABM shows better response rate, you can then optimize for that.
What influencers, bloggers or peers have been influential in your own ABM development?
I have had valuable discussions with analysts at SiriusDecisions and Mark Townsend from @Perkuto (Marketing Consulting Firm)
What excites you about the #flipmyfunnel movement?
I am in the process of learning about it. From my review of it, it raises legitimate questions about the shortcomings of the current funnel-based plans and execution.
Saad will be presenting a great session at the #FlipMyFunnel B2B Sales and Marketing Roadshow with Dave Rigotti, Director of Marketing at Bizible called “Building The Foundation to Account-Based Marketing” that will help B2B marketers to better understand how to measure their ABM campaigns.
For more great insights, check out the other #ABM innovator interviews with Julia Stead, Adam New-Waterson, and Christoper Engman now!
Don’t miss Saad Hameed’s session on 2/25 at #FlipMyFunnel San Francisco. Sign up today and save 50% off your ticket with promo code HEINZ50.
Learn more about ABM and the T.E.A.M. account based marketing framework:
- Target – Create a target account list for ABM
- Engage – Account based advertising
- Activate – Account based sales enablement tools
- Measure – Account based analytics
See the full Terminus account based marketing platform.
Check out some account based marketing examples.
Learn more about account based marketing services.
Terminus: an account based marketing software company.
