THE FUTURE OF ACCOUNT BASED MARKETING

Cóbhan Phillipson
20 Oct, 2016

In the third episode of the Docurated Podcast, we speak with Terminus CMO and co-founder, Sangram Vajre

In addition to his role at Terminus, Sangram has written extensively on account-based-marketing (ABM) and also founded #FlipMyFunnel – a vendor-agnostic industry community for ABM, Sales and Customer Success.

In this episode, Sangram sits down with our VP of Marketing, Fergal Glynn to discuss a range of ABM-related topics including:-

1. Sales-Marketing Alignment
2. ABM campaign examples
3. The future of ABM

ABM TODAY
Fergal asked Sangram what he felt was working well in the world of account-based marketing?

Sangram explained that: ABM is a strategy, not a tool, not a product. ABM is really a mindset, really a change in strategy. The number one thing for people starting to do account based marketing is don’t look at tools as a way to do account based marketing – the most important thing is to figure out which accounts you want to go after. Identify the right accounts to go after, then expand your reach within those accounts so you are getting your messaging in front of all those influencers – and on their terms. This is really the crux of account based marketing.

ABM AND DEMAND-GEN
Sangram identified marketing focus on demand-gen as something of a blindspot when it comes to ABM. What is missing is the mindset of marketers moving beyond the demand-gen function. Most marketers are too focused on trying to get marketing qualified leads into the funnel. Time and time, less than 1% of the leads turn into customers. As a result, marketers really need to focus on performing activities beyond the early stage of the funnel. They need to focus on pipeline velocity and helping reps close deals. That is where ABM shines beacuase once you know an opportunity is created – you already know that account wants to buy.


ABM AND SALES MARKETING ALIGNMENT
Sangram also shared his take on how ABM can positively impact sales and marketing alignment.
At Terminus, sales and marketing all report to the CMO to ensure everyone is aligned. Also, marketing does not have any goals around lead gen, instead it is their job to enable sales to go after the target accounts. Marketers create content to help crack target accounts.

Sangram defines ABM as “focused B2B smarketing”. ABM can not work if marketing are performing their campaigns in a vacuum. They must be working in conjunction with the sales team.

WINNING ABM CAMPAIGNS
Sangram also covered provided a real life example of a successful ABM campaign in action.
WPEngine had a list of accounts they wanted to go after. They used Terminus to advertise and get their message in front of decision-makers at their target accounts. They warmed up their target accounts for the first 2 weeks with marketing activities like advertising across a range of digital channels. No sales people were allowed to call during the warming up phase. Once the account was warm and key decision-makers at each target account were familiar with the WPEngine brand, sales entered the campaign and began calling up target accounts. The result was sales increased their ability to set up meeting and demos by 20-50%.