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We as marketers need to lead the way when it comes to mindset. We live in a digital era and customer interactions and expectations have evolved.
The role of the salesperson has changed, and successful sales- people should not consider themselves as hunters but more like gardeners, because it’s all about nurturing, being patient and thinking about the long term. Big sales and high value orders take time, especially in the B2B world, in which it could take 12 to 18 months. It’s about growing relationships and having a number of opportunities built over time.
In order to service the digital savvy customer, we as marketers must lead the way to break down the barriers and established beliefs when it comes to sales and marketing teams. Both teams need to work as one, and truly align.
Why? Because consumers take in a lot of content in various formats before sales get involved, which is where marketing steps in. Consumers want to have content that is informative, offers value and in a range of formats they prefer, and they want to see it on their chosen channel. Sales and marketing teams need to align, so together they can go to market with the same end goal.
Conversion rates improve when sales and marketing align and share ownership of leads when it comes to nurturing. Marketo reported that businesses with aligned sales and marketing teams experience 36% higher customer retention rates, and 38% higher win rates. Plus, leads are 67% more likely to become clients when teams are aligned.
This is where ABM comes in.
Instead of targeting everyone in a segment, ABM allows you to market to specific accounts, so you could say you are treating an individual account as a market in itself. You are tailoring your content, outreach and touchpoints to the needs of
that particular business and the key decision makers within it. This is one-to-one marketing, which is simply marketing on a human level, and is what I love about the whole ABM approach.
Unlike mass messaging tactics, you are actually investing the time to get to know your customer. You are treating them as a human, not a number, not an MQL or SQL, but a human. Building this type of relationship takes time, and on your part, a lot of effort - after all, you want to get inside their heads, you want to know about their likes and dislikes. I know it sounds cliché, but it’s kind of like dating, so you need to show them some love!
For this to work, you need the right mindset and to be obsessed by the details – because it’s this approach that will get you results. For me, there is nothing better than this approach. You are learning as you progress through your ABM campaign, you are truly tailoring your touch points for them, with no copy and paste or anything generic.
ABM Webinar: How to implement a proven ABM strategy and methodology
A few weeks ago I ran an exclusive webinar for a few of clients in the USA. The purpose of this webinar was to manage expectations when it comes to ABM. By this I mean the culture, mindset and approach you need to adopt, as well as a learning how to implement a proven ABM strategy and methodology.
Watch this on demand ABM webinar in full here.
