The pandemic has sped the need for fleet service providers to find more effective means of winning and keeping business in a digital business world. Account-based marketing moves beyond disparate lead generation, sales, customer service, and account management programs to deliver a winning strategy for the entire customer relationship journey. Part II looks more deeply into the key ABM accelerants.
By Ed Pierce, ITA Communications. Fleet.
March, 2021
Last month, we looked at the timeliness of an account-based management program, defining the term and pointing to its inherent value. Now let’s list some of the key accelerants to help a company close more deals faster and boost return on investment (ROI), all while supporting departmental tactical goals as well as an organization’s strategic plan.
1. Marketing- Sales Bridge
Because of the plethora of automation solutions and lower-cost data availability and analyses, companies can segment accounts with greater ease and detail even down to a specific account level. A marketing strategy today can be much more closely tied to region and territory-level sales activities. Collaboration makes more sense than ever, and marketing and sales should come together to find the best ways to win a deal, expand a relationship, and generate more revenue opportunities.
2. Segment Definitions
For the sake of efficiency and the possible return, marketing and sales need to target the right audience with the right tactics. Start by defining a data segmentation framework that supports the-market strategy. This ensures that sales and marketing activities and messaging target specific segments’ buyer needs.
Segmentation dimensions may include:
• Company classification (Fortune 500, Fortune 1000, etc.)
• Organization size
• Annual revenue
• Current spend
• Projected spend
• Products purchased
• Targeted products
• Opportunities
• Geography
ABM strategies should define inclusion/exclusion rules for contacts in order to clarify individual and aggregate interactions. Fortunately, today’s platforms automate this work to make it easier to execute a more impactful ABM strategy.
3. Align Sales-Marketing Timing
Collaboration of marketing and sales involves incorporating both targeted messaging and sales tactics. The better the coordination between sales activities and marketing touchpoints, the more likely the ABM strategy will meet or exceed expectations. An automated solution’s built-in flow-based alerts, tasks, pre-programmed follow-up, and other steps foster align marketing and sales alignment to improve focus and close ratios.
Next month, we will review how to deliver metrics and insights at the program level, campaign level, and even at the territory level.
If you’d like to comment or share your own experiences with account-based marketing, I invite you to reach out to me at 215-839-1306. Or, you can reach me at results@ITAcommunications.com .
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