Laura Matthews | Director of Global ABM, EMEA | UiPath
Magic, as defined by the Cambridge Dictionary, is “the use of special powers to make things happen that would usually be impossible.”
Stir up a spellbinding concoction of account intelligence, a splash of empathy and a dash of compelling engagement – and you’re left with long-lasting, meaningful relationships with your highest value accounts.
Sounds pretty magical if you ask us!
And if anyone knows anything about true ABM Magic, it’s Laura Matthews, Director of Global ABM, EMEA at UiPath.
So, why not take a peek behind the magic curtain?
Speaking with Laura in our Let’s talk ABM podcast, we discussed:
No two potions have the same recipes – and the same can be said for your Account-based experiences!
Everything about ABM screams unique, targeted and bespoke. It goes beyond wide-net demand generation tactics. And it is precisely this personalized experience that helps your target accounts feel valued and understood.
That’s why you need to be prepared to think outside the box. You can’t simply follow what’s trending, or copy and paste your approaches across accounts. Everything has to be highly customized.
And that’s where an ABM value proposition (or ‘core messaging’) comes in and works wonders.
It acts as your North Star, helping you hone in on exactly what your target accounts are interested in: their pain points, their goals, their hopes, their fears, and everything in between.
A bespoke ABM value proposition will help keep you on track and stop your messaging from veering off its intended path.
We're making sure that our messaging is really specific to the account that we want to engage with. Then we're using this value proposition to create our messaging and our content, creating a bespoke kind of plan and making sure that everything is highly custom.
Naturally, as your program evolves, you will be looking to adapt and refresh your strategy as you go.
For many, this will mean scaling your efforts so you can touch more accounts at any one time.
Of course, for a highly customized, bespoke program, this is significantly easier said than done. How can you scale the program, without losing the magic that makes ABM so unique?
By splitting your accounts into clusters, you can allow for at-scale personalization and relevance by targeting specific demographics, job titles, industries or sub-industries
– shaping your messaging and strategy around the pain points faced by those groups.
The beauty of ABM is that you hold all the cards.
You are in complete control of how much time and dedication you invest into your program. And if ‘ABM Magic’ is your goal, then you need to put the time, money and effort into bringing that to life – and so does your team!
We are thinking at the moment, how can we do ABM at scale? How can we potentially be taking all the different activities that we're doing – whether that's a roadshow, roundtable, a webinar for our growth products – and how can we make sure we help scale it, and it's repurposable across the different accounts?
True magic happens when you understand your target accounts – inside and out.
You know them better than they know themselves: what keeps them up at night, what they want to achieve, their passions, their fears, and so on.
It’s that level of understanding and empathy that takes an ABM program from zero to hero. And it all lies in your account intelligence.
From third-party data platforms to your own internal account insights – account data should shape every aspect of how you speak to your audience.
You’d be surprised how much insight you can squeeze out of your existing teams: your Salespeople are like your very own encyclopedia of account intelligence.
Don’t waste that valuable insight!
Your ABM Core Message should form a messaging playbook that you can use as your guide throughout the program. It keeps messaging consistent, interconnects every stage of the buyer’s journey, and helps to keep you aligned with your target account’s key concerns.
Ultimately, your messaging should be able to answer one simple question: “So what?”
As in: Why should your target account care? What’s in it for them? How will your product or service make their lives easier? And it’s your account intelligence that will help you answer in a way that directly resonates with their challenges.
We have a unique value proposition for every single account, and that playbook is like our North Star, for every single thing that we do. And I think it's so important, because it helps the Center of Excellence and the business users take the conversation to a more strategic element, to tie it to business goals, to make them and their activities more relevant.
If you’re familiar with fairytales, you know that the real magic never takes place at the beginning of the story.
In fact, it usually saves its special appearance for the second half, as the characters gear up towards that happy ending we all love to see!
Genuine magical account experiences can’t be whipped up overnight. They take time – they take dedication, investment, hard work, and even a few mistakes along the way.
But, all those twists in the story only make the fairytale ending ever more sweet!
Realistically, your program will likely need a couple of years from launching to be at a point where you will see some consistent, reliable results coming through.
Of course, you will certainly have some quick wins long before then – but the happy-ever-after won’t be attainable from the outset.
You need to give it time to mature – like a real magic potion.
That’s not to say you can’t lay the right foundations to help support those outcomes for the long haul, however!
Align your objectives with your wider business goals and your go-to-market strategy, and ensure that your Leadership team is fully bought into the process.
This is not a hurdle you want to be faced with further down the road, so if you can resolve it in the launching phase, you’ll be doing the ‘future you’ a big favor!
If you do want to have an ABM program and you're thinking long-term and it's not short-term and reactive, you've got to invest from a funds perspective, people perspective, and program perspective.
No amount of magic can make up for a poor tech stack!
However, the trick isn’t to just invest in every tool that becomes the latest hot topic.
You need to invest wisely – only put your dollars towards something that will really enhance your program, and its delivery.
Our recommendation would be to invest in a few timeless, comprehensive tools that will become foundational within your stack.
This means a reliable CRM platform, intent data, automation software, etc.
Of course, it’s easy to get distracted by whatever’s new and shiny! And by all means, if you have the budget to spare, experiment!
We’ve certainly done our fair share of trialing new and trending tools – from the Metaverse to Generative AI – but what’s important is that you keep sight of the tools that you can’t live without.
Account intelligence tools are a great addition to your stack. For example, software such as Crystal Knows – which uses predictive data to help determine the personality types of your audience – and 6sense help to build a clearer picture of your target accounts, and their decision-making units.
As a result, you’ll be better placed to build account experiences that really engage and resonate with key decision-makers.
Sometimes, not even the flashiest of tools can offer the same level of insight and expertise as having a conflab with your target account.
And that’s precisely what makes your Salespeople so well-informed – they’re in the trenches every day, face-to-face with your accounts, and understand the battles they’re confronted with.
It’s no secret that Account-based Marketing is not like other Marketing strategies. It’s more targeted, more data-driven, more efficient...
But that’s not all. It’s also unique because it’s not Marketing at all!
It’s so, so much more.
It’s an amalgamation of Marketing, Sales, Customer Success, Demand Gen, Creative and Content, and everything in between.
And as a result, the best ABMers aren’t just Marketers.
They’re a hybrid between Marketing and Sales – keen to experiment with creativity, but equally eager to be on the frontlines with your Salespeople.
Anyone can add a first name placeholder to an email. That doesn’t make you stand out. And it certainly doesn’t count as personalization.
Proper ABM Magic comes from going above and beyond – with extreme attention to detail and a level of personalization that shows you not only understand the account, but that you care about them.
You want your target accounts to think: “Wow! Only XYZ company could have put this together!”
That’s what ABM Magic is all about.
Say your target account is big on sustainability. You’d want to make sure that any events you are running, any gifts or direct mail pieces you send etc. all tie into that.
You need to show them not only that you’ve done your research, but also that you share their values.
Inclusivity is another major factor in creating ABM Magic. You want each and every person within the buying committee to feel included and understood.
Empathy is the most powerful tool in your ABM arsenal – use it!
It's extreme attention to detail and personalization. I would say it's really going above and beyond the level of personalization.
ABM will take a village, as they say – and as such, the full weight of the strategy certainly can’t be shouldered by one ABM veteran!
Of course, there are organizations with a one-person-band when it comes to running their ABM function. But this person is by no means alone in their efforts.
As an ABMer, you’ll be doing so much more than Marketing.
From events to PR, Sales to roundtables, to content creation, to workshops and even some Customer Advocacy – many people underestimate the full depth and breadth of an ABM program, and what it entails.
Stretch yourself too thin, though, and you could risk losing the sparkle that makes your ABM program truly magical!
Don’t be afraid to lean on other teams to support you throughout the journey – every department should be bought in, and working towards the same ABM goals.