Description:

An archived version of this Briefing is available for playback. ITSMA members with online access may access the archived Briefing by clicking on the "Playback" button above. Nonmembers who purchase the Briefing will receive an email with a link to the archived Briefing.

ITSMA's Jeff Sands, IBM's Naomi Wilsey, and Xerox's Liz Vega co-present this Briefing on best practices and critical success factors for account-based marketing (ABM), a hot new approach that helps companies deepen relationships and increase revenue with key accounts.

In particular, the Briefing focuses on three topics:

• How to organize for ABM. What skills and resources are required? How do you allocate marketing staff across ABM accounts? How do you ensure that marketing and sales are truly working together in a sustainable way?

• How to measure ABM. What are the right metrics? How do you report the qualitative metrics that are critical for ABM? How do you make sure marketing and sales agree upon key metrics?

• How to scale ABM. Once you’ve begun to see results with individual key accounts, how do you roll out a larger-scale program? How can you best coordinate ABM activities across multiple accounts, and where can you achieve economies of scale?

Key takeaways include:

• Obtain client executive buy-in
• Determine your objectives and emphasize strategic metrics up front
• Ensure tight collaboration between marketing and sales for creating and executing integrated plans
• Allocate and select your best resources
• Clarify the roles, responsibilities, and processes
• Don’t short change the investment
• Be flexible—plan for change