The account-based model for modern organizations continues to deliver success across the board. From the OG, Account Based Marketing, to the new front man Account Based Sales Development, the lift in annual contract values alone is proof that the targeted approach to customer acquisition is working.As the model evolves into an Account-Based Everything approach, Craig Rosenberg is guiding us all through the process, step by step.
On a webinar earlier this week, Rosenberg, Chief Analyst at TOPO, and sales development expert, shared that of all client outbound teams, 72% currently have account-based programs in place. The acceleration time of those teams’ ROI is rapidly rising, and of those teams executing account-based strategies, half are already meeting/exceeding key revenue metrics. And that’s just the half that’s fully implemented.
So what’s the hold up? Why are more teams not talking about this phenomenon?
Because change is scary.
No, it’s not American Horror Story “scary,” but when an already evolving sales organization is, yet again, faced with a change of process, the fear of syncing alignment and orchestration can be downright terrifying. But, ironically enough, the biggest benefit documented from these teams who have successfully made the shift is just that: better overall team alignment.
At it’s core, Rosenberg defines account-based everything as the coordination of personalized marketing, sales development, sales, and customer success efforts to drive engagement and conversion at a target set of accounts. Coordinating this alignment calls for these five key attributes:
- A targeted ICP. High value accounts that meet a CLTV target based on number of employees.
- Intelligence-driven programs + campaigns. Account insights inform custom campaigns with high conversion rates.
- Cross-functional orchestration. Alignment across Marketing, Sales, Sales Development, etc — outbound sales development is today’s most effective account-based tactic.
- Valuable and personalized buyer experiences. Customize customer workshops by leveraging their data.
- Coordinated high effort high frequency correspondence. Executive correspondence is best coordinated with a key marketing event.
And by aligning the entire organization on the ICP, which ultimately defines the accounts that are most likely to buy from you at a viable economic threshold (e.g. CAC and LTV) you’ll have to orchestrate these three processes:
- Data collection and analysis: surface insights from key stakeholders, then inform with data (qualitative, quantitative, and predictive)
- ICP creation: categorize and share the ICP to drive buy-in (firmographic, environmental, and behavioral)
- Go-to-Market alignment: segment the ICP by value and align to the GTM (organization, target list, and offers + plays)
“Remember, the ICP is about cheating. Who are we most likely to win with? You have to take that point of view, otherwise the account-based method will fail.” – Craig Rosenberg
The problem? Right now, most Marketing teams have a “marketing database.” Right next door, Sales Development is downloading their own contacts, and then there’s Sales who knows who to go to through their own referrals and contacts. But here’s the thing about that process: those three things are not communicating. This is where you have to accept a change of process and truly commit to the orchestration.
It takes a village, and it starts at the first touch, going all the way to upsell/cross-sell. “When we’re doing our data for a lot of these organizations beginning with account-based,” says Rosenberg, “60% of them are running their first programs across their current customer base with the upsell/cross-sell tactic, and it’s working.”
Account-based everything should starts with the alignment of Marketing and SDRs. If both teams are coordinated on what insights to latch onto, and coordinated on what personalized messages to act on, they can ultimately create a custom campaign for their targeted accounts that’s unmatchable by an old school outreach process. When it comes to account based everything, it’s about a deeper relationship and understanding your buyer, so listen to the expert and get started today. What are you afraid of?