The ability to adjust to the rapidly changing market conditions and consumers’ expectations is the key to survival in 2022 and beyond. 

Despite being new, AMB gained acceptance, but AMB programs are still heading towards maturity and improvements.

Fewer than half of the marketers surveyed in the Salesforce 7th State of Marketing report were completely pleased with various factors of their programs. These include a deficiency of inner collaboration due to siloed teams, digital aptitudes to leverage technology, and cross-functional alignment that impacts personalization capacities. 

So, how can one get ABM right to help marketing, sales, and services teams work together towards success? 

Here’s a 5-point approach for you to make the most of ABM quickly:

1. Specify high-value accounts: Encourage your sales teams and figure out which are the accounts (existing clients who present an opportunity to upsell your services/solutions) you need to focus on. This set of clients is now your key ABM account.

2. Pinpoint key stakeholders: After knowing the high-value accounts, your next step should be recognizing ‘influencers’ and ‘decision-makers’ within these accounts. Is there a buying committee? Is there a process? What is your relationship with this buying committee? 

While you’re at it, align your inner marketing, sales, and customer service teams. All of you should be following the same goals, and have the same harmonious view of your customers.

3. Design one-to-one campaigns: The data you get should help you comprehend where each stakeholder stands in the customer journey. Are they strong supporters of your brand? Are they satisfied with the services delivered? Once such key points are addressed, you can design your communication strategy to bind the stakeholder with a highly personalized campaign (includes messaging and content assets).

5. Identify the accurate communication channels: Not everyone is a fan of getting emails, but you can try to personalize it with some thank you note from the CEO for prior purchase. This is sure to strike a chord. Having such a personalized technique for key account stakeholders will help to build profound and long-term engagement. Not to mention that the email click rate will be a lot higher. You could choose email campaigns, virtual or live corporate events, social media, etc. to transmit your personalized message and content.
6. Track and gauge ABM success: Across sales, services, and marketing teams, the tracking of account-based marketing and metrics to determine success should be identical. The focus of ABM is never volume; rather, engagement quality and conversion rates. At all times, your account-based marketing strategy needs to consider the absolute account’s buyer journey and not personal audiences alone. For instance, tracking the number of times the client has come back to you pursuing your service or showed interest in researching other services? Have they referred you to another company? By gauging the engagement quality and conversion rates, your teams (marketing/sales/customer service) can closely unite to ensure closure, and then, retain and expand such clients.