ABM Voices How to sell ABM to Sales

Mujesira Dudic Director of ABM - Financial Services | Capgemini

How to sell ABM to Sales

Before starting my career in Account-based Marketing I was a Salesperson for a decade. The main thing that inspired me to go into Marketing was the frustration that I felt with how Marketing was communicating with Sales.

I felt that it showed a total lack of unawareness for how we go about our day-to-day activities, how we communicate with our prospects, and how we pursue deals.

Account-based Marketing allowed me to play a pivotal role in addressing that miscommunication and creating an alignment that led to real revenue opportunities.

Through many missteps, experiments, and open conversations with Account Executives, I’ve put together five things that I think today’s ABMers need in order to sell ABM to Sales.

Paint the big picture, but leave them with small steps

The first thing I noticed when I transitioned to Marketing is the mindset of prioritizing presentations over process.

More effort was put into the idea of painting a beautiful picture of the future, than establishing understanding of the exact role that the Sales Rep is supposed to play in making that future a reality.

Although I am a believer that it is important to have the Sales teams bought into the vision, I believe that the secret to making that vision seem attainable, is breaking it up into steps that can be understood and executed by Reps.

DO NOT, give as a ‘takeaway’ the presentation that you used to introduce your ABM strategy as the main ‘thing’.

DO attach that as a reference but send the Sales team immediately after the presentation a short follow up email limited to 2-3 bullet points that details the next steps [and what you need from them] with exact deadlines.

Be specific,
but flexible

Deadlines are very important for getting people to buy into the idea that this is a process. Depending on how many accounts you are managing for ABM, these deadlines can be more or less firm.

Additionally, the deadlines are meant to create a structure, not to alienate Sales.

Therefore, when a Salesperson reaches out with a reason they can’t make that deadline, be understanding and flexible.

Ask them for when they can deliver the material and make an effort to make an exception. This builds trust, accountability, and creates more opportunities for dialogue between Sales and ABM.

Additionally, make sure they know that the entire ABM process is flexible based on feedback.

Encourage your Sales colleagues to share their opinion from the sales perspective of where they think the red flags are in the process.

The Account Executives I work with are vital to creating a successful ABM strategy but their schedule doesn’t usually allow them to get involved in the initial planning phases but they are a great asset post-launch.

Don’t assume everyone is equally familiar with technology

I can not stress this point enough.

If technology tools are a part of your ABM process, do not assume that all the Sales people are equally familiar with those tools.

If any part of your process requires Account Executives to use the tools in a specific way, make sure you build in the understanding that you or another point person are available to walk them through how to complete those steps.

Be aware that there are different learning styles and not everyone can learn through group Zoom calls where we share our screens.

A big part of my ABM success has been driven by an ‘open door’ policy I have had with Account Executives. I put a 15-minute call on my calendar to walk them through the process (one-on-one) where they share THEIR screen and I ‘hold‘ their virtual hand through it.

If technology is a part of your ABM, spend the time upfront to ensure everyone is comfortable and familiar with it. You’ll thank yourself later.

Create and celebrate champions throughout the ABM journey

Humility is a virtue, but in Sales, recognition is what tends to make all the difference.

Identify the Account Executives doing a great job and create success stories out of them.

Share their success with their Managers and highlight the stories of their success with other Sales people as an example.

Since ABM is a journey meant to be focused on long-term relationships, make sure you find reasons to celebrate success along this journey.

Increases in engagement, email open rates, digital conversion rates, event registrations, etc. are all opportunities to show the impact of ABM and the impact of their hard work.

These are all also great opportunities to give the Account Executives positive visibility with their Leadership teams which further builds positive relationships.

Align with their message

Ensure that the Account Executive sees us as a support system of their vision and strategy for the account rather than as an additional item on top of their job.

One-to-one, One-to-few, or One-to-many ABM require different strategies and levels of engagement.

Each version of ABM provides opportunities to create moments of alignment with Sales that makes them feel like they are the decision makers.

When working with One-to-few and One-to-many, I create AE Executive committees that are responsible for reviewing messaging, personas, and visuals.

While in my One-to-one experience I work directly with the Account teams to understand their account vision and strategy and ensure that our ABM plan is directly aligned to their key priorities.

ABM is really AB-GTM.

It is an Account-based Go-to-Market strategy that is built around the internal collaboration between Sales and Marketing - necessary to create a positive customer experience.

If we put more effort into working together and making things easy to understand amongst ourselves internally, we ensure that the customer has a more enjoyable, connected, and coherent experience with our brand and our products.