Give New Accounts the Attention They Deserve

New customers get a bad rap: They’re expensive to find and win.

It’s much easier to focus on cross-selling and up-selling existing customers. Indeed, in ITSMA’s recent survey on penetrating new accounts, we found that just one-third of the marketing budget is devoted to acquiring new accounts.

There’s certainly a lot of value to focusing on existing customers, but we think that the balance is out of whack—and we say that with full knowledge that economic conditions are bound to get worse. In fact, we would argue that devoting more resources to acquiring new accounts is even more important during down times.

ITSMA research shows that companies are consistently trying to pare down the number of solution providers with whom they do business, to reduce costs and management complexity. As companies pare back their list of providers, they create opportunities for new providers to step in and sell their capabilities. We think marketers need a unique strategy, a unique process—and perhaps even unique staff—for new account development.

New account development is a necessary process to keep the balance as existing customers leave the fold. For example, if your core markets are North America and Europe, both of which are slowing, you need to look at markets that have more growth potential, such as Asia. If Asia is traditionally an underserved market for you, you need to make a disproportionate investment in new customer acquisition to have any hope of seeing healthy growth overall.

Don’t Use the Same Approach with New Accounts

Of course, you can’t market to new customers in the same way that you approach existing accounts. The overall tactics may be the same, but the campaigns and value propositions are different, according to 88% of the marketers in our survey.

Building awareness is the primary goal with new customers because they may be completely unfamiliar with your company and your position versus competitors. So we’re seeing a majority of marketing dollars for penetrating new accounts going to programs that can make potential new customers aware of who you are, what you represent in the market, and how you can help them address some of the problems that they are facing.

For example, case studies prove that you know what the customer’s situation is, you have worked this problem for others before, and that you have an approach that is the most viable for them to consider as they think about how they are going to address their problems. Executive briefings help position you as a thought leader in certain areas. Inviting key executives from target new customers to these events gives them the ability to network among themselves but also positions you as the expert in this area.

Consider Separate New Account Teams

Perhaps the biggest decision you face is whether to create separate account teams for pursuing new accounts. We are seeing more companies forming new account development teams that are focused on working with marketing on greenfield programs that can help identify new areas or markets and then finding new accounts. In some cases, these take the form of a telesales operation; in others, they are territory salespeople that focus exclusively on developing new accounts.

Another option is to use your channel partners to help build new relationships. Very frequently, a partner company may have a relationship with a potential customer, whereas you might find it difficult to establish the new relationship yourself. But if you have a trusting relationship with the channel partner, who in turn has a trusted relationship with the target customer, you can leverage that relationship to build your own relationship. We see this as especially effective for smaller companies that don’t have the sales and marketing resources to create a dedicated new accounts team.

Pay Attention to Personalities

If you do decide to create a separate new accounts team, you need to choose staff carefully. We have all heard of the hunter/farmer mentality within sales. Well, the same categorizations also apply across the sales and marketing continuum. Some people naturally have that instinct to go after greenfield and newer opportunities, whereas other people are more comfortable servicing existing needs. You need to match people’s own goals and personalities to the job at hand.

Build Awareness

Remember that no matter what path you choose for new accounts, marketing can and should play a leadership role to make prospects more familiar with you. Through a unique set of processes designed specifically for new customers, you can move them to the point where they want to know even more. That provides the opportunity for sales to then go in and present your story directly to these new accounts.

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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.