When most of the buying cycle is complete before you know about it, you’re wasting budget on Account Based Marketing.
57% of a typical B2B buying decision process is complete before the customer even talks to the vendor. It’s a statistic we hear a lot. But like any statistic, it has been interpreted in lots of different ways.
This statistic doesn’t account for the different types of buying decisions B2B organisations make. The stage at which the customer will want to engage in a conversation varies dramatically according to the complexity of their requirement.
When customers have a clear sense of what they want to purchase, or when they are looking for generic products where the primary differentiation is price, then it’s not surprising that most conduct a large percentage of the buying cycle without contacting the vendor.
For transactional purchases, attempts to deliver account based marketing to position “value” will simply increase the cost of sale sale – most buyers want the experience to be as simple as possible, and account-based marketing cannot make a real contribution to the buying process.
But for complex considered purchases, you need account-based marketing.
For the sort of high-value, complex investments that large global business make, when their problem is poorly defined, and the solution isn’t clear, or if it involves multiple stakeholders, the concept of showing value has multiple dimensions.
At the early stages of the buying cycle, customers expect to be informed and react very badly if subjected to a hard sell. Exposing them to computer generated communications from marketing automation systems, blunt telemarketing calls or weak, wishy-washy collateral that just reinforce what the customer already knows simply won’t work.
It’s these early stages where account-based marketing becomes critical in improving sales success. The customer’s needs have to be understood and the need for change defined – and the need to change now, rather than later – before even beginning to market a solution.
Account-based marketing uses deep insights and strategic thinking to communicate in a provocative and differentiated way, stimulating the customer to think differently. Our edgy, tell-me-more narrative and insight-led perspective entices the customer to engage in conversation sooner.
Many of our clients have used our services to engage in the conversation at the earliest possible stage in the customers buying cycle.
Do account based marketing well, and you can crush the 57% statistic. You can understand your customers better, engage earlier and shape the customer agenda.
This guest post was first published on 4th of September by Momentum ABM, Europe’s leading account-based marketing agency.
Our account-based marketing services are built around a single account or a set of specific accounts – from insights and planning through to proposition development, communications and creative campaigns. For more information please call +44 (0)0203 008 4307 or visit us atwww.momentumabm.com.
