The 4 Ps Of B2b Sales And Marketing
Advit Sahdev ardently offers an inspirational process to generate more ROI from the online channelAccount based marketing is a B2B sales approach that is completely transforming the way sales is conducted. It doesn't believe in the traditional method of sales and flips the funnel by identifying accounts and then working on them on a personalised manner.
While traditional B2B sales depends on creating a large pipeline of prospects and then passing each of them via various sales processes like sales pitches, drip marketing, lead qualifications like MQLs and SQLs, and others, ABM doesn't follow this approach of inbound marketing and believes in "less is more".
The objective of this article is to highlight the top 5 processes of ABM so as to set a framework for your organisation to create its own sales structure.
Here are the top processes. First key process of ABM: Propensity Modelling. Understand the opportunity of your offerings and fitment with Account's existing setup - Add-on opportunity. Replacement opportunity. Upgrade opportunity. Timing. Specific pain points
Capture Purchase Intent - Names and contact details of Account's team who are performing research? What topics are they most engaged with? What competitive vendors are they considering? What is the recency, the velocity and how widespread is their activity?
Rate these points for your Account every week or the most apt frequency and focus on the account that has the highest propensity.
Next key process: Opportunity Sizing. Another key concept, determine the size of the opportunity (or the account in this case). Propensity of purchase may be high, but the opportunity size also needs to be high. Determine the industry: Look at account type - Is it a hotel? venue? corporation? production company? Retail store? E-commerce? Logistics company? etc. Determine the variables that impact Revenue Opportunity.
Examples (choose the applicable ones)
Team size, Square foot area of the store, Sales budget, Online Traffic, Number of buyers, subscribers etc. Once the variables per account are clear, it is easy to calculate Opportunity size.
Third key process: Deep Re-search on the Account. If you are into ABM, you have to do this research! Market - Size, growth, maturity, disruption, competitors.
Company - Revenue, profitability, growth, market share, stock performance, acquisitions, history. People - Leadership, buying teams, stability, culture, tenures in key roles, attitudes, preferences. Relationships - Org structure, reporting, power centres. Strategy - Business model, priorities, strategic initiatives, successes, failures. Connections - Any links from your company into theirs. History- Prior interactions. Door openers - University ties, home towns, interests, conference.
Process Four: Define your Ideal Customer Profile. ABM and In-bound Marketing are completely different approaches to Sales. ABM focuses on understanding your core strengths and then identifying who is the Ideal customer for your product. Look at your offerings, look at your existing customers, look at the leads that converted and the ones that didn't convert. One of the key ABM strategies is “Land and Expand”
For ICP, define - Industry/vertical, Employee headcount - company wide and within key departments, Annual revenue, Budget, Geography, Technology they use, Size of their customer base, Level of organisational or technological maturity, & more
Finally: Key Metrics for Success - Marketing qualified accounts. Engagement score. Campaign reach in the account. Pipeline velocity. In-funnel conversion rates. Sales because of Marketing influence.
In order to measure each of these, you will need to define internal metrics that are important for you, for example number of email replies for engagement score. Measuring ABM is not a simple task as it involves lot of qualitative factors. If you want to measure if the account is ready for a sale, then it is not just the relation with the account that needs to be measured in objective terms, but also the readiness of the account to make a purchase decision. This helps to create internal micro metrics that will set clear goals for the sales team.
Conclusion: Account based marketing requires an overhaul of the entire sales team in terms of their thought process and attention to detail. Less number of accounts and very attention to detail is required.
A simple and personalised Whatsapp message on the ac-count's marriage anniversary may be more valuable than all the unique product features. That's the philosophy on which ABM is built. B2B marketing has always been about processes, patience and perseverance and while these are important tools, personalisation has been the missing element that is highlighted in the Account Based Marketing Methodology.
1 Personalisation
2 Processes
3 Patience
4 Perseverance are the 4 Ps of B2B sales and marketing.
Team size, Square foot area of the store, Sales budget, Online Traffic, Number of buyers, subscribers etc. Once the variables per account are clear, it is easy to calculate Opportunity size.
Third key process: Deep Re-search on the Account. If you are into ABM, you have to do this research! Market - Size, growth, maturity, disruption, competitors.
Company - Revenue, profitability, growth, market share, stock performance, acquisitions, history. People - Leadership, buying teams, stability, culture, tenures in key roles, attitudes, preferences. Relationships - Org structure, reporting, power centres. Strategy - Business model, priorities, strategic initiatives, successes, failures. Connections - Any links from your company into theirs. History- Prior interactions. Door openers - University ties, home towns, interests, conference.
Process Four: Define your Ideal Customer Profile. ABM and In-bound Marketing are completely different approaches to Sales. ABM focuses on understanding your core strengths and then identifying who is the Ideal customer for your product. Look at your offerings, look at your existing customers, look at the leads that converted and the ones that didn't convert. One of the key ABM strategies is “Land and Expand”
B2B marketing has always been about processes, patience and perseverance
For ICP, define - Industry/vertical, Employee headcount - company wide and within key departments, Annual revenue, Budget, Geography, Technology they use, Size of their customer base, Level of organisational or technological maturity, & more
Finally: Key Metrics for Success - Marketing qualified accounts. Engagement score. Campaign reach in the account. Pipeline velocity. In-funnel conversion rates. Sales because of Marketing influence.
In order to measure each of these, you will need to define internal metrics that are important for you, for example number of email replies for engagement score. Measuring ABM is not a simple task as it involves lot of qualitative factors. If you want to measure if the account is ready for a sale, then it is not just the relation with the account that needs to be measured in objective terms, but also the readiness of the account to make a purchase decision. This helps to create internal micro metrics that will set clear goals for the sales team.
Conclusion: Account based marketing requires an overhaul of the entire sales team in terms of their thought process and attention to detail. Less number of accounts and very attention to detail is required.
A simple and personalised Whatsapp message on the ac-count's marriage anniversary may be more valuable than all the unique product features. That's the philosophy on which ABM is built. B2B marketing has always been about processes, patience and perseverance and while these are important tools, personalisation has been the missing element that is highlighted in the Account Based Marketing Methodology.
1 Personalisation
2 Processes
3 Patience
4 Perseverance are the 4 Ps of B2B sales and marketing.
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