“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.” This is the statement I made to my wife while we were dating, when she had concerns about my history of commitment issues. Sounds self-evident, doesn’t it? But, seven years and two kids later, it’s clear that this time, I wanted something different.
But when it comes to the collaboration between sales and marketing — which often is effectively nonexistent — it’s amazing how many organizations persist in tired practices, tallying wins, without realizing their peril. They are running in place, at best, and they are stuck, while the world is constantly changing. This results in missed revenue opportunities.
Applying this logic to B2B marketing, it’s too easy to stay in the comfort zone and keep doing what you’ve always been doing, until you’re out of a job. Even if the team has done a great job of collectively identifying its prospect and client universe and established an ABM (account-based marketing) strategy, what most organizations are doing is not a comprehensive ABM approach.
For example, running media programs against targeted account lists, while a great place to start, is just one tactic, not a strategic initiative.
If the company is not using the most strategic approaches and technology available, to maximize the joint work between sales and marketing, well, it’s not really doing ABM to the best of its potential. After all, a single ABM tactic won’t create a magic bullet for you.
Here’s the truth: It’s time to shake it up and release the stagnation of outdated “business as usual.” It’s time to transform your business to adopt a more holistic account-based strategy. So, what’s first?
Engage your accounts
Look, making organizational changes is difficult, and the larger the organization, the more difficult it is to institute change. At the end of the day, you have revenue to generate.
You shouldn’t stop your media programs while you figure out how to change the organization. Get your account-based media programs running — FAST.
Next, update those tired KPIs
Though they may previously have been your means for measuring success, volume-based KPIs like impressions, leads, clicks or individual-based KPIs around lead conversions carry little meaning. After all, a B2B lead is not an indicator of an individual’s propensity to convert. In B2B, a lead is — at best — an indicator of a prospective account’s potential engagement.
Think about this: Your goal is not to convert an individual; your goal is to convert the entire account, which comprises multiple individuals at different places in the decision-making process. This requires a consensus sale. Therefore, get your organization away from individual KPIs and measure success with account-based metrics.
Play the long game
You don’t measure revenue at the individual level; you measure which accounts are generating the most revenue over time. Thus, your marketing KPIs should also align with your sales KPIs.
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