I’ve been helping B2B Sales and Marketing teams target large enterprise size accounts for more than a decade now, and with so much of automation focus, the need for the ‘human touch’ appears to be needed more now, than before.
Each one of your target account are at a different stage: their priorities are different, they face different challenges and that you need to present facts about your services and/or product to match that! That’s the primary reason why touch of ‘human intelligence’ is so important to ABM programs.
Here are a few examples that I have come up with to answer why human intelligence is so important now than ever before: (especially when chasing large, enterprise deals).
Understanding the account
Why is account insight crucial for ABM?
One of the reasons any company would adopt an Account Based Marketing program is surely to market to each individual account in a unique way than marketing to many accounts in a volume driven manner. A primary reason behind adopting ABM = each account is different, hence they need to be marketed in a unique way and contradictory to that is when we start expecting all the automation and software to solve all our problems. To treat each account individually, you will need to understand the account beforehand.
Connecting the dots
How viewing 50 LinkedIn profiles of the people of your target account adds value to your ABM?
For one of the list building exercises, my team was required to visit hundreds of LinkedIn profiles of their target account’s IT team. Because we ‘humans’ can understand the end goal (the WHY) are we doing what we are doing, not only were we able to give my client the IT Team’s organisational chart they wanted, but we were also able to give them a few other technology vendors that existed at that account, and a broader IT team size, and the budget which we found at one of the member’s LinkedIn profile. Huge value add, isn’t it? Just plain simple human touch!
Establishing connections the right way
Does one of the key decision makers play golf?
For a software company, CIO at the target account was a key influencer. And, my client had not had much success in penetrating into the account. Connecting the dots from his social media profiles, we were able to uncover that he loved playing golf, and he used to religiously practice every Sundays at a particular golf club. From a quick 10 minutes Google Search we were also able to let my client know that he was giving a keynote speech at one of the events. This was a great start for him to establish a relationship with the CIO, which they did. After all, businesses are an outcome of relationships. People do business with people! And, business happens when trust emerges, right?
Targeting the right company in the wrong situation
You want to target the company. But, even if they wished, can they buy your services right away?
One of the target companies appeared to be in a situation they could reap great benefits from one of my clients’ services. My client’s service too would’ve been apt to help them tackle some key challenges they were facing. After we had a quick look at their financials, things changed! The target account was in a serious financial crisis, and investing significant amount of $ towards a new technology solution was possibly out of questions. With this, we were able to save significant marketing dollars which they would’ve spent to hear a standard, ‘we love it but we don’t have the budget’ answer.
In conclusion
Human Intelligence will always be a part of ABM as it adds an element of preciseness and specificity. The collection of granular level insight is an integral part of the process to increase your personalisation to your target accounts. Companies engaging in enterprise sales with longer sales cycles can benefit from having a structured process to collect all relevant insight. Customised research that is powered by human intelligence can be of great support to answer ‘Who’ and ‘What’ in ABM.
About Me
I am Founder & Managing Partner at Business Brainz, an ABM Insight company that specialises in development of Account Insight through customised, in-depth research reports. Our high-value, customized research reports powered by human intelligence are used by B2B Sales and Marketing professionals for Account-Based Sales Intelligence and Enablement purposes.