**Using the 'Three Rs' framework to measure success**
Marketing in recent years has seen many companies get ‘high’ on leads. But this ‘high’ has been an illusion. Companies have built entire machines around generating hundreds of leads.
They’ve equally built metrics and Marketing dashboards to justify all this activity - MQLs, SQLs, etc. Unfortunately, the numbers do not stack up. The conversion rates are abysmal and the true cost of this machine is staggering.
ABM is all about the ‘A’ of Account-based Marketing - Accounts. And that’s where the metrics should focus. Measuring the engagement of the Accounts that you are targeting as part of your ABM strategy.
Putting in place a robust ABM measurement dashboard allows you to refine your strategy, tweak your tactics and, most importantly, learn.
Here at the Agency, we have three metrics - the performance of all our ABM programs is measured against the ‘Three Rs’ framework of:
This framework, originally developed by ITSMA, is the bedrock of all our ABM programs.
It’s a dynamic tool that uncovers insights from the accounts you're targeting and aligns your ABM program with the strategic and revenue goals of your business.
So let’s take a look at each element of the ‘Three Rs’ starting with Reputation and how we break down each of these three metrics.
Your reputation is the sum total of your track record in your industry/sector. You build and protect reputation to preserve credibility and trust. A reputation is company-centric, i.e. it is about legitimacy.
1.
Carry out targeted surveys, interviews, advocacy programs, NPS questionnaires, etc. with the key stakeholders.
2.
Social media is a very tangible (and immediate) way to assess your brand performance and reputation.
3.
This is also applicable to your paid campaigns.
4.
Between landing pages, hero assets, gated/ungated content, blogs, etc., you should be attracting your Target Audience to your online environment.
It’s important to measure this engagement and feed this information back to your Sales team in real-time.
Here at the Agency, we use a number of tools to track the engagement of our named Accounts and have alerts set up to feed this information live to our Sales team to inform their outbound strategy.
When you are selling high-value products and services (that have a long and complex sales cycle), the relationships you form with the key client/prospect stakeholders will often make or break these deals.
So how do you measure the impact of your ABM program on Relationships?
How many contacts do you have inside each Target Account?
How many are the ‘right’ contacts inside the Target Account?
Can any of these contacts be identified as ‘Champions’?
Can any of these contacts be identified as ‘Blockers’?
Are you having ‘serious’ conversations with these stakeholders?
How many sales conversations are you generating?
How many are accepting invitations to events?
How many join peer groups, workshops, etc. you organize?
How many are reading and sharing the content you have created for that account?
The reputation and relationships you develop are the early indicators that your ABM strategy is heading in the right direction and will convert into Revenue.
Let’s look at some numbers to help us to hone in on the Revenue metrics we should be looking to track.
These numbers shine a light on just some of the Revenue metrics we recommend you measure in your ABM program. Ultimately, each organization is different and some numbers will be more relevant than others.
Work with your VP of Sales and build a joint ABM dashboard and report on these numbers together.
No. bookings (meetings etc.)
Win rate
Pipeline (influenced)
Sales velocity
Sales cycle length
Annual contract value
Attributable revenue
Customer acquisition cost
