Why Sales Should Care About Account-Based Marketing

There’s a common misconception that account-based marketing will only help a company’s marketing department. However, this simply isn’t true. In fact, account-based marketing can have a wide range of benefits, especially where the sales department is concerned. Taking an account-based or “rifle” approach and aligning sales and marketing strategies is one of the best ways to generate quality sales leads. In fact, some of the biggest benefits companies can see, especially in the industrial and manufacturing sectors, include:

• Improvement in the overall relationship between your sales and marketing teams.
• An increase in sales revenue through improved marketing of target accounts.
• By selecting in-market companies, you’ll substantially increase your win-rate.

Additionally, aligning sales and marketing enables you to focus on accounts that consist of your ideal customer profile, i.e. the ones most likely to generate the most profit for your company. At the end of the day, this type of approach allows you to focus your time and resources in the places most likely to elicit results, rather than taking a more general approach and wasting your valuable time quoting prospects that are unlikely to convert to quality customers

Below, our team of sales-based marketing experts has collected some important insight that will enable your sales team and company leaders to create new business, drive leads and conversions, and get more customers through the pipeline.

Align Your Accounts with Marketing

At the outset of implementing an account-based marketing approach, it’s essential that your sales and marketing teams sit down together and come up with a working game plan. Every person on both the sales and marketing side should have a clear idea of three key things: the ideal customer profile, key buyer personas, and your total addressable market.

Defining these components is the first step toward any successful account-based marketing strategy.

• Ideal Customer Profile (ICP): These are the clients that make the perfect fit for your company. It’s the people with who you think your current marketing and sales strategy will have the most success.
• Key Buyer Personas: This is a fictional persona created through extensive research and market insight about current customers that forms the ideal buyer for you. Some of the best data for creating key buyer personas include things like their goals, motivations, demographics, and behavior patterns.
• Total Addressable Market (TAM): This is a list of all the current companies you can sell your goods or services to—a real list—that defines your total sellable marketplace.

Begin Creating Account Lists

After taking care of everything mentioned above, it’s time for sales and marketing to work together and start building lists of accounts that match your ICP and then coordinating efforts to connect with them. It’s important that your sales and marketing departments are reaching out to the same companies. This can be easily done through coordinated marketing efforts like display and LinkedIn marketing campaigns, PPC and email campaigns, and other solutions.

Here’s how to build account lists in three easy steps:

• First: Develop a primary list consisting of companies that make the best fit, that are also in-market.
• Second: Have your data research and development team assess the lists and add further insight (such as recently declined conversations and conversions, etc.).
• Third: Get the sales and marketing teams together to review the list, then get to work!

Take Action by Focusing on the Right Accounts

One of the best ways to generate solid leads and ensure your account-based marketing approach is working properly is by focusing on those accounts with the most engagement. Your sales representatives can use insight generated by data and reports to better connect with clients to deliver the best results.

Other Advantages of Account-Based Marketing

In addition to the benefits mentioned above, some of the other key advantages of account-based marketing include:

• Promoting Your Unique Selling Points: Account-based marketing is one of the best ways to highlight what you do best and why clients should choose your company over competitors. It gives you the best chance possible to communicate your brand’s unique selling points to customers.
• Growing Relationships through Networking: Another added benefit of aligning your sales and marketing approach is that it helps you expand your reach by cultivating relationships through networking. This is because by aligning your sales and marketing team, you’re drastically increasing the number of staff members responsible for cultivating relationships with clients and help to generate interest in your business.
• Greater Returns than Inbound Marketing: Although inbound marketing certainly has its benefits, for some companies, taking an account-based marketing approach will often prove more beneficial. This is because it offers a targeted approach and enables companies to focus resources where they’ll have the greatest return. Account-based marketing saves money in the long run because you’ve already identified your ideal target; you don’t need to spend all your time attracting them.

Contact us today to learn more about creating an account-based marketing plan!

If you’ve decided you’d like to learn more about how aligning sales and marketing can work for your company, the team from Marketing Metrics Corp. would love to discuss it with you. Our experience in sales, marketing, and technology make us uniquely positioned to help companies created targeted marketing plans that truly generate results.

In addition to our digital marketing solutions, we also offer a wide range of marketing services designed to suit your needs, such as website development and design, SEO services, advertising solutions, e-commerce services, and more. We’re particularly positioned to help those in the industrial and manufacturing sectors, using our extensive marketing expertise to help companies target key groups, such as industrial buyers and specifiers, engineers, and plant managers.

Marketing Metrics Corp. is committed to tailoring your online content and marketing approach to target buyers and getting them to make that final leap through the funnel. To learn more about what we have to offer, contact our team and speak to a representative today by visiting us online or calling (262) 691-9229.