Have you ever imagined what it would be like for your company to start selling directly to your ideal customer? What it would look like if you didn’t have to go back and forth wasting time on the wrong leads? Or even how much your company would benefit if it could approach potential customers eliminating the in-between stages before sales? It sounds like it’s almost impossible doesn’t it? Well, what if I told you that it’s not at all impossible but it is also quite simple to kickoff. Account-Based Marketing (ABM) is a powerful tool that makes all this possible and is considered a must for companies nowadays. Essentially what ABM does is to align your marketing and sales from the early stages to the conversion stages. In other words ABM helps a company grow, keep customers satisfied and scale it’s revenues in the most efficient way.

The Definition of Account Based Marketing (ABM)?

ABM is considered to be a focused growth strategy in which Marketing and Sales collaborate in the most efficient way. The purpose of this collaboration is to create a personalised buying experience for accounts that are characterized high-value mutually.

What is Account Based Marketing in Simple Words

In simple words ABM is a process that aligns your Marketing Department and your Sales Department in order to produce results. Basically ABM is combining the perspective & the data the two departments have on an account in order to label it. This creates a profile around an account giving us the confidence to label it either as high-value or not. Therefore it is a very important tool for every business in this data driven environment where time equals money.

An Example of Account Based Marketing

It is always easier to understand something when it is given in an example so let’s see. Imagine you are looking to generate leads for new sales but you want them to be as efficient as possible. For starters your company must have a CRM (if you don’t have one, get one) where all your clients are imported. This is where Account Based Marketing starts, import your clients and create a profile for them. Then let the marketing team add the data they have collected by previously exposing them to promotional actions. After that let the sales team do the same providing the data they have harvested from contacting them previously. Finally you must combine the data from both these departments and label the accounts as high-interest or not. Simple isn’t it?

Account Based Marketing and Inbound Marketing

While Account Based Marketing is great for outbound marketing and for profiling potential clients it is even better for inbound marketing. Devotion and Loyalty are very important for a company and the goal is to keep your customers returning back to your business. Account Based Marketing can assist a business with that by creating a better personalised experience for your existing customers. This can lead them to feel far more satisfied with your products or services and eventually become advocates. It is always easier to evaluate your already existing clients and keep them warm than trying to attract new ones.

The Benefits of Account Based Marketing

So now that we have a clear understanding about ABM and how it works it is time to sum up the benefits. The first reason why ABM is great for a business of course is alignment. ABM assists companies with keeping the sales and marketing department aligned making communication easier. Additionally it helps maximize your businesses relevance among high value accounts giving you the opportunity to identify what matters more. Moreover it helps you personalise. The fact that you can deliver consistent personalised experiences to your customers is a plus on its own.

Another reason why it is considered beneficial for business is because it helps you measure your investment. Given that everything is recorded from action to result it is easier to understand what works and what not. Therefore you can easily calculate your return on investment. Also the fact that you can streamline your sales cycle and analyse every step is very important for growing companies. Finally you can expand your business through account relationships which is an amazing motive because business is all about that.

In the future ABM will be considered a business standard and it is about time you jump on that train. Keeping track of everything while also retrieving data and evaluating it for every single account is an amazing opportunity. Use this tool in the right way and the results will be more than rewarding for your business.