Account-Based Marketing: A Strategy for Tough Times

One of the few benefits of a bad economy is that it is an opportunity for a stark assessment of what is working and what isn’t.

Account-Based Marketing is working.

ITSMA’s 2009 Services Marketing Budgets and Benchmarks Survey found that among companies with ABM programs in place, spending devoted to ABM increased from 14% of the marketing budget in 2007 to 16% in 2008. And these companies expect that spending on ABM will increase even further, to 21% in 2009.

Frankly, this trend seems counterintuitive in a bad economy. After all, treating customers as markets of one requires a more intensive investment of time and money from marketing and sales. But we’re hearing from our research that the investment in ABM is more efficient and effective than sending sales out to bang down doors. Furthermore, the principles behind ABM have applicability in a growing number of ways. The overarching principle of ABM is collaboration between marketing and sales. Together, marketing and sales need to:

• Uncover the key business issues facing the target account
• Map those issues to individuals inside the target
• Tailor specific campaigns to address the issues

The ways that ITSMA clients are using ABM are changing, too. When we first started working on ABM with our program clients five years ago, we saw three major applications of ABM:

• Bid support. Very tactical, opportunistic account support based on a major bid coming up. Link with sales teams is temporary and mostly consists of marketing communications support.
• Cross-selling/account penetration. Using market intelligence, vertical marketing expertise, and sales account insight, marketing and sales work together to help sales increase share of wallet through better and deeper relationships.
• Change perceptions or positioning. Used when the provider wants to rebrand itself with target accounts or defend its position against encroaching competitors.

Today, however, marketers are finding additional ways to apply ABM, its principles, and its processes. These include:

• New account development. Creating an integrated approach with sales to penetrate new accounts.
• Industry and segment marketing. The marketing assets generated by ABM in one account are useful raw materials for developing campaigns to reach other companies in that vertical or segment.
• One-to-few, one-to-many. ABM veterans are finding that the processes and organizational structures that they use for one-to-one marketing can be tweaked to build capabilities for one-to-few and one-to-many marketing. Here, too, the research and other marketing assets generated by ABM can be the foundation for building new campaigns.

We’ve also been asked by many ITSMA clients how ABM can embrace shorter-term goals and objectives. We’re seeing that by focusing on the higher-level ABM principles, companies can apply ABM thinking to support a quick sale.

For example, sales may have already identified target executives and key business issues inside the client and potential solutions that might work for them to address these issues. In this case, marketing can skip the broader business and vertical research and go right to doing some very targeted research related to the issue identified by sales. Marketing also works with sales and internal subject matter experts to modify existing value propositions and messages so that they are more specifically tailored to the particular client—rather than starting from scratch. From there, marketing can develop marketing content, collateral, and programs that give salespeople the chance to engage in more relevant (and potentially lucrative) conversations with client executives.

We’ll be going into the new uses of ABM in much more depth in our series of workshops coming up soon in California. For more information and to register, go here.

2 Responses to “Account-Based Marketing: A Strategy for Tough Times”

1. Doel Says:
   May 9th, 2009 at 2:49 AM

   Hey Jeff,
   Landed on this blog from LinkedIn. Great article. Thanks for sharing.

2. Silvia Quintanilla Says:
   August 31st, 2009 at 11:33 PM

   Yes, could not agree more with this article. ABM works. My clients have proved it. Since our sales intelligence services are closely aligned with the priciples of ABM, I am fortunate enough to have first hand knowledge of this.

   What I’m seeing from clients is their desire to understand a “green” account – where there has not been any prior relationship (yet), and for some reason, it’s been difficult for the salesperson to attain intelligence.

   Another common situation I’m seeing is where the sales team only has a very small piece of business (in a large account) and it’s proving difficult to get introduced to larger divisions or projects (example, getting “stuck” with the IT contacts and not being referred out).

ITSMA specializes in helping companies market and sell services and solutions more effectively. We work with the world's leading technology, communications, and professional services providers to generate increased demand, strengthen customer relationships, and improve brand differentiation. ITSMA annual program clients include business leaders such as AT&T, Cisco, Deloitte, EMC, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Microsoft, SAP, and Tata Consultancy Services, among others. Our comprehensive research, consulting, and training on topics including ITSMA Account-Based Marketing℠, Brand Positioning, and Solutions Development provide the insight and experience companies need to improve business results. ITSMA is based near Boston, and has offices in London and Tokyo. Learn more at www.itsma.com.