We’ve been getting ramped up for Rainmaker 2016 — hammering out the agenda details and closing out ticket sales — and of course, prepping with the speakers on their breakout sessions. These sessions are shaping up to be real power-packed discussions, and with each topic rolling in, we’re getting more and more excited to nab a front row seat.
But when we got the presentation from TOPO’s Craig Rosenberg (a.k.a. The Funnelholic) on Account Based Everything we couldn’t wait until Rainmaker to hear more. That’s why our VP of Demand Gen Kevin O’Malley sat down with Craig on a Blab chat last week to dive deeper into his session on Account Based Everything.
According to the TOPO expert, 80% of inbound inquiries to the sales development knowledge hub have been around the account based selling movement. With marketeers diving into Account Based Marketing (ABM), and SDRs cleaning the slate with Account Based Sales Development (ABSD), everyone is desperate to know the best practices for account based everything.
As advocates for all things sales development, we were most interested in his thoughts on ABSD and best practices. Craig favorite piece of advice for the popular selling model?
Define your ideal customer profile.
Typically, depending on how you define your ideal customer profile (size, type, etc. of customer), casting a big net is not the most efficient way to find them. That’s original outbound strategy. And while that method never died — it’s just inefficient. Every customer is NOT your ideal customer profile.
But this begs the question: how do you define that ideal customer profile? This is a job for the customer owner — in this case, your VP of Sales and VP of Marketing. They need to come together to define the size, industry, and makeup of their ideal customer, and then extend and quantify that with data. Once this is accomplished, your team will be one step closer to a true account based model.
Mid-way through the conversation, Salesloft SDR (and ABSD aficionado) Brad Ansley jumped on the Blab to ask the expert to answer his most burning question:
How many accounts should a real-life Account Based SDR be able to handle at one time?
We thought we had Craig stumped, but, of course, the Account Based Everything thought-leader had a solution… and it’s all in the SDR to AE ratio.
In an ABE model, there needs to be a set amount of accounts, and that depends on your market. Once you’ve hammered out the number of total accounts needed, then you have an opportunity to find a better refinement to the number that stems from how you assign the AEs.
Moral of the story? It all depends on how customized of a sales development process you want. There are three levels of customization approaches an SDR team can take:
- Templated (phone, email, and social)
- Semi-Custom
- Full-Customized
As we move deeper into the Account Based Sales Development model, we’re finding that the shift moves further down that line to a fully-customized outreach process. That’s because of the simple fact that the less accounts you’re working with, the more personalized they should be.
“We’re trying to understand the buyer relevance. When you have less accounts, hope is not a strategy. That’s how people have been selling for the last three years. But if we’re going to pull back on who we’re going after, then true old-school methods are back in style.
A fully-tailored personalized sales experience for your accounts is what works in ABE. Stop playing Russian Roulette with your outbound sales process.”
When it comes to account based everything, it’s about a deeper relationship and understanding your buyer.
Of course, we couldn’t let Craig leave the conversation without asking this number one question:
What can someone who wants to move forward with an account based strategy do TODAY to get started?
“It comes down to people. You’ve got to go from the top down, then train on process (from an organizational level) and accelerate with technology. You’ve got to get data around it and measure it. Don’t just sit there and wait.“
So you heard it straight from the horse’s mouth — there’s no time to waste. Get on the account based train before you get left behind in the over-automated sales world.
And be sure to catch The Funnelholic himself on the main stage next week during his keynote session at Rainmaker 2016. Trust us, you won’t want to miss it!
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Join us in Atlanta from March 11-13, 2019 for Rainmaker 2019!
