Cooking up a potion for success for your ABM programme

Step 1: Pre-workshop prep – getting the right ingredients

Elise stressed the importance of starting with an onboarding call once you’ve selected your account. Use this to set expectations, extract information from the sales team and introduce the concept of ABM value exchange. Elise recommended drafting an email for your sales VP to send to each account team to kick off the ABM journey. This gets everyone excited about the investment they’re making and showcases sales and senior stakeholder alignment and expectations for the account’s success.

Elise suggested trying to invite any relevant people to the call that have a stake in the account’s success, and be sure to include examples of what you can do to help bring the programme to life. It’s a good idea to demonstrate what you’ve done with other accounts, or to bring up anything else that you might be working on. The aim is to get the sales team excited about what they’re undertaking and illustrate the power of ABM.

Once you and the account team have “signed the ABM contract”, it’s time to move on to the account research. Understanding what makes an organisation tick is vital, and it’s important to do your own research before entering a call with their sales team. 

The key is to adopt an ‘outside looking in’ approach by considering questions such as:

  • What is the macro environment your account works in?
  • What kind of pressures are they facing?
  • How are they responding to these?
  • Who is responsible for the actions they’re taking?

All research is good research. Googling news articles can be a good starting point. You should aim to “bring something to the workshop that your team doesn’t already know” in order to show your personal commitment to the account’s success and gain sales trust.

Step 2: The account workshop – combining your ingredients

The first thing to consider for a successful ABM workshop is inviting the right people and setting the expectation for the workshop’s outcome, Jenny advises. Not everyone has to be there for the whole thing. When deciding who needs to be there and when, it’s good to think about it in two key elements—what expertise the person brings, and what role they’ll play during the workshop.

An ABM workshop is also a brilliant opportunity for new hires to take part; Jenny suggested giving them the role of the customer, allowing them to validate or challenge assumptions based on the research you’ve done.

Jenny then asserted the importance of having a clear agenda with established objectives in order to ensure that everyone is prepped and ready. It’s important to know what you need to get out of the session, but also to remain flexible, as sales teams have a habit of jumping ahead.

Sometimes following an agenda too closely can stifle conversation and make people feel less confident voicing their opinions. The trick is to balance your own objectives with those of your customer. If they don’t line up, talk it through and find a way forward that satisfies everyone involved. 

Lastly, Jenny reminded us that it’s important that everyone enjoys themselves. You’re asking people to commit a chunk of their time, so you need to give back to them and make sure that they are both engaged and entertained. You might offer sales teams vouchers for coffee or lunch in order to make them feel welcomed, for example.

Particularly in digital workshops, consider adding in a fun element for additional engagement. This can help people remain engaged and take part. For example, you might ask everyone to develop value propositions, with prizes on offer for the best one. The aim is to make the workshop feel like a collaborative effort, whilst keeping it light-hearted and exciting for those involved.

Step 3: The GTM strategy—sprinkling on the finishing touch

It’s then off to the races with devising a GTM strategy, Elise recommends the following:

This is an opportunity to validate what you’ve heard in your workshop, and a chance to challenge some of the assumptions made by the sales team. Elise advised comparing your research to the sales deck: is there anything in your research that isn’t in the sales deck? If so, why isn’t it there, and do you need to address it? You shouldn’t feel scared to raise concerns and bring ideas to the sales team—they will often appreciate your input.

Elise cautioned against leaving too long a gap between the first and second session: —this way you ensure that you maintain momentum. She suggested holding the second session one to two weeks after the first. You should allow yourself some time to sense check things internally, coordinate with various people and start to think about your plans.

When it comes to tracking and reporting for ABM, Elise advised focusing on things that will matter the most and are aligned to your strategic and sales plans. It’s important that your marketing objectives are agreed upon, and that you keep them small and manageable. For example, you could pick out one-three things that you’re going to deliver. 

Think about:

  • Is there an opportunity for you to accelerate an existing transformational opportunity through ABM?
  • Are you sourcing or developing new opportunities within an account?
  • Are you developing a deeper decision-making relationship with a specific contact or advocate along the way?
  • How can you reflect that as part of your long-term plan and show alignment to your strategic goals?

Elise also stressed that ABM is not just a marketing initiative—it’s a business-wide one. You’ll need to set joint KPIs and objectives with sales that meet your business imperatives. Think about what you need to track for reporting before you start, as it’s harder to reverse engineer it later. You’ll need to be able to justify your success further along in the process.

Finally, Jenny advised that it’s important to prioritise areas of focus. There are opportunities in front of sales which don’t need marketing don’t need to get involved.

Ask yourself and your sales team these questions:

  • Where is the right area of focus?
  • Where do you want to focus your attention?
  • Where will you add the most value?

This will not only bring value but will also show that you’re thinking strategically about your ABM programme. You’ll increase your chances of getting in front of a more senior audience, and your marketing will be more likely to get in front of customers.

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