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根据Google趋势,对基于帐户的销售的兴趣是steadily rising。But whatis基于帐户的销售?

An account-based model treats every account like a market of one. Instead of one salesperson targeting a single contact within a company, an entire team is dedicated to targeting multiple stakeholders at the prospective customer’s company.

免费访问:战略帐户计划模板

This hyper-personalized approach is typically too high-touch for B2C products, but it can be ideal for organizations selling to enterprises. Read on for a deep dive into account-based sales.

While ABM is the most well-known term, TOPO CEO Scott Albroargues this definition is too limiting。A successful account-based approach requires cross-department coordination. Every team — Sales, Sales Development, Marketing, Customer Success, Finance, Product, Engineering, and the C-suite — must be aligned. Albro proposes we use “Account-Based Everything,” or ABE.

No matter what you call it, this approach isn’t altogether new: Enterprise salespeople have used an account-level approach for a long time. But as Engagio CEO and founder Jon Millerexplains,“基于帐户的所有内容(ABE)模型中没有'交接'。相反,从一开始和整个收入周期中,营销和销售共同工作。”

Executives are also involved in closing these accounts — giving strategic direction, meeting with customer stakeholders, helping the account team acquire any necessary resources, and so on.

ABS maintains this account-level focus after the sale. Customer success managers deliver a custom onboarding experience, then work to develop relationships with multiple stakeholders at multiple levels (rather than leaving an account’s success to a single advocate, power user, or internal champion).

Meanwhile, account managers and marketers work hand-in-hand to identify upsell and cross-sell opportunities. The product team uses insights from customer stakeholders to plan new features and develop potential use cases.

谁应该使用基于帐户的销售?

年代uccessfully implementing an ABS model requires company-wide buy-in. Before you upend your current business model, determine whether you’re the right fit with the following five questions.

Criteria for Account-Based Sales

1) Who are our customers?

If you’re selling to SMBs, ABS is likely the wrong approach. You can’t afford to dedicate the necessary manpower and resources to every account.

The answer is less black and white if your customers are mid-market. If your average deal size is greater than $50,000, sales expert and author of销售开发剧本,Trish Bertuzzi,强烈建议一种基于帐户的方法。

If you provide enterprise or complex solutions, you’re probably targeting a select number of high-value accounts already.

2) How well do we know our ideal customers?

ABS requires laser precision of target accounts. If you’re still determining product-market fit, or you don’t have enough data or existing customers to identify their common characteristics, consider holding off on ABS.

3) How many customer stakeholders are involved in our average deal?

As the number of people involved in the purchasing decision rises, so does the need for a multi-threaded, or ABS, approach. Targeting every stakeholder within the organization (as opposed to one or two) minimizes the risk the deal will stall or fall through if your contact(s) change jobs, go on leave, take a trip, get sick, and so on. It also helps you facilitate consensus: You can identify potential blockers and address their concerns before they stop the deal in its tracks.

4) How long is our average sales cycle?

Deal complexity and sales cycle are highly correlated. If your average sales cycle lasts three or more months, ABS makes sense.

5)我们产品的本质是什么?

由于ABS在销售,营销和客户支持中提供紧密整合的经验,因此非常适合基于订阅的产品。当您的消息传递清晰且一致并维护您的索赔时,客户会流失的可能性要小得多。这也为您提供了销售和/或交叉销售的机会,如果您提供各种软件包,层,附加组件或补充服务,则可以使ABE成为最佳的方法。

If, on the other hand, you offer a one-time purchase product, explore other possibilities before committing to ABS.

ABS or Nothing?

如果您出售给中型市场和企业公司的混合物,那么在ABS上全力以赴可能不是最有生产力的方法。您的努力将非常适合您的大客户,但对您的小帐户过多。

一些公司找到了解决方法:老虎队。这些独立的团队致力于工作一组潜在的巨额交易 - 换句话说,这是一个小规模的ABS。

A mixed approach is also useful if you’re hoping to move upmarket. You can pursue more lucrative customers while refining your approach. Once you’ve gotten several logos, identified the key drivers for these accounts, crafted a successful marketing strategy, and most importantly, made your solution more robust, transition your entire sales team to an account-based model.

What's an ideal customer profile?

When you focus your time, energy, and resources on a limited number of accounts, being highly selective with those accounts is crucial. You’re putting all of your eggs in a couple of baskets — if you target the wrong company, it’ll have a noticeable impact on your revenue. Not to mention the opportunity cost: Every poor fit your team targets means you miss out on a potential great fit.

That’s why a huge component of ABS is your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP).The ICP defines您最有价值的客户和前景,他们也最有可能购买。

According to TOPO senior demand generation analyst Eric Wittlake, having an ICP lets you decide whether to target an account without bringing together your entire leadership team.

"This ensures we don’t put ourselves in position of gathering in a conference room every three months to debate which companies should be on our list," he explains.

Base your ICP on the following six factors.

一个框架,用于识别你的ICP

1) Input from your team members

ABE relies on tight cross-organizational alignment: If you exclude certain departments, you’ll end up with siloed information and conflicting strategies. With that in mind, involve representatives from Sales, Customer Success, Marketing, Finance, and Sales Operations in the planning process.

Your salespeople know from direct experience which types of accounts are easiest to sell to, while those in customer success can tell you which companies require the least support and see the most success with your product.

Marketers have insight into prospects’ pain points. For example, if your most popular content offer is an ebook on improving poor morale, your customers clearly struggle with low employee engagement.

同时,您的财务团队拥有有关产生最多收入的客户类型的宝贵信息,您需要生成多少MRR或ARR,您可以花多少钱在营销费用上等等。

Finally, ask Sales Ops for conversion rate, sales cycle, and close rate data.

2)企业数据

年代ingle out the characteristics of companies that are likeliest to close, including:

  • 行业,市场和垂直行业
  • Number of employees
  • Revenue
  • Financial performance
  • Type
  • 市场份额
  • Location and/or number of offices
  • Historical growth
  • Predicted growth

3) Internal data

您的CRM拥有有关您理想客户的大量信息。查看您的封闭式帐户,最有利可图的帐户,最不可能流失的帐户,依此类推。

4) Technographics

客户不会孤立地使用您的产品:他们将其添加到现有工具中或使用它来替换不再满意的工具。确定产品的竞争性和互补解决方案,以更准确地了解其最佳用户。

As an example, HubSpot and Eventbrite integrate. That means a business using Eventbrite for marketing purposes would likely be a good fit for HubSpot’s products, since it wouldn’t need to change or modify its current set-up.

如果潜在客户正在使用竞争性产品,他们清楚地意识到了您的解决方案所讲的问题或机会。像这样的技术监控工具Datanyzelets you keep track of the products your prospects are using. Their open job descriptions are also telling: If a company is looking for experience with a certain product, you can infer they currently use that product or are transitioning soon.

5) Behavioral data and trigger events

Pinpointing the common behaviors and events your best customers exhibit is more art than science. But doing so is incredibly beneficial.

Maybe half of your highest-performing accounts launched a new product line shortly before signing up. Your ICP should include “recent product launch.”

However, not every behavioral data point is this extreme or obvious. Perhaps the majority of your best customers sent employees to your annual conference or virtual summit. One of the easiest ways to find these trends is to ask your top accounts,“最初是什么促使您对我们产品的兴趣?”or“Why did you take action then, rather than earlier or later?”

6) Predictive analytics

Predictive analytics can take your ICP’s accuracy and sophistication to the next level. Using data science, these tools comb through your data, note trends and commonalities (some subtle enough you may have missed them), and develop a model of your best customers. Not only can you predict your likelihood of winning new prospects, you can also learn their likely value, when to reach out, and which accounts to target next.

However, it's worth noting you don't need predictive analytics to get started with ABS. Manual research, combined with the information you currently have on best-fit prospects, is enough to compile an ICP — and from there, a target account list.

Defining Your Buyer Personas

Once you've identified which accounts you'll target, establish the key players within those accounts. The average B2B purchase now involves6.8 stakeholders。要赢得该帐户,您需要与每个帐户联系。

查看过去的50笔交易,您已关闭,最能反映您的新ICP。您与谁合作?哪些利益相关者往往具有最大的影响力?谁是预算授权?

Now review the past 50 deals you lost. Did you usually fail to engage with a certain member of the buying committee? Were there any relationships that ultimately didn't impact the decision?

With this information, you can map out the key contacts within every account.

假设你是销售市场和销售自动售货机ion software. The typical buying committee might include the CMO, the Director of Sales, a sales manager, a marketer, a representative from Sales Ops, and someone from Finance.

For each buyer persona, map out their challenges, objectives, professional goals, and their involvement in the buying process. It's also good to know where they go for information and the best way to reach them (email, phone, at events, etc.).

Every stakeholder should receive content tailored to their challenges and communication preferences.

How to Use Content in Account-Based Selling

像入站营销一样,基于帐户的销售依赖于针对特定受众量身定制的内容。相似之处并没有结束:两种方法都使用不同的内容,并根据销售流程的阶段提供提供。

SDR和营销人员应协作,以找到不同帐户和买方角色的最有效内容。

Prospecting

少量付出:

  • Email:使用个性化电子邮件与目标帐户中的利益相关者联系。
  • Voicemail:包括一个快速提示和/或“热身”收件人以获取电子邮件,以便每次触摸都能提供价值。
  • Mail:包装和信件可以帮助您引起某人的注意,只要您是创造性的。为类似组织打印一个案例研究,并结合联系人的名称,其公司徽标和名称以及其他相关细节,因此显然对他们有意。bob全站app例如,封面可能会读取,“[Prospect name], is [prospect’s company] struggling with [challenge]? Here’s how [similar company] achieved [results].”
  • Blog posts, infographics, and short videos:Quickly engage with a contact with “snackable” content.
  • 年代ocial media:Engage with customer stakeholders on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and other social platforms.
  • Report:通过发布相关的数据和研究,将bob全站app您的公司作为思想领导者。

中等的-effort:

  • Custom report:Create a report outlining unique suggestions, vulnerabilities, and/or strategies for your target company.
  • Webinars:来自一家公司的员工。bob全站app您可能会举办一个名为“ [潜在客户]如何[利用机会]”的网络研讨会,并将注册限制给其员工。bob全站app
  • Workshop:Host a workshop on a topic some of your stakeholders are interested in. For example, if there’s typically an IT supervisor on your account’s buying committee, invite IT supervisors from your current and potential customers to attend a complimentary session on data integrity best practices.
  • 商业案例:使用您在发现期间收集的信息和独立研究来证明产品的潜在ROI。

High-effort:

  • Company workshop:Narrow your strategy even more, and offer to run an on-site workshop or series of workshops specifically for one of your accounts.
  • Trials:Letting prospects “try before they buy” can be mutually beneficial. Prospects feel safer about the purchase when they’ve experimented with the product and verified the end users will actually adopt it. In addition, they’re likelier to pull the trigger once they’ve invested time and effort into trialing it.

After the Sale

顾客满意度is a core element of ABS. If your customers aren’t happy, they won’t upgrade, buy more, or buy again — nor will they connect you with stakeholders within your other target accounts.

考虑到这一点,重要的是在签署协议后继续提供有价值的内容和指导。

  • Executive check-ins:TOPOsuggestsholding quarterly meetings between executives from the buyer and seller to discuss what’s going well, areas for improvement, and potential roadblocks. These check-ins also let the buyer explore potential upsell, cross-sell, and referral opportunities and demo upcoming product releases relevant to the seller’s needs.
  • Training sessions:Help clients maximize your product’s value by teaching them how to use certain features or capabilities, avoid common issues, prepare for specific situations, and more.
  • User events:Generate enthusiasm for your product and brand with events bringing multiple customers together.

How to Create a Target Account List

既然你已经制定的账户类型you'll target, the people within those accounts you'll connect with, and the various types of content you'll use to engage them, you're ready to build an actual account list.

ABS experts recommend creating a target account list with different tiers. Your team should allocate a different level of resources, personalization, and attention to each, with the smallest tier receiving the most and the largest tier receiving the least.

The first tier typically consists of 20 to 50 accounts. The accounts in this tier receive deep research and one-to-one customized outreach. Sales, Sales Development, Marketing, and executive leadership are involved in bringing in this business.

The second tier includes approximately 200 accounts. These receive personalization based on their industry and persona. SDRs engage with them via phone, email, and social, while the marketing team uses advertising, and events. These multi-touch campaigns span several weeks.

Make sure your Sales Development and Sales teams help you select target accounts. They'll play an instrumental role in converting these prospects to customers — if they don't believe an account is a good fit, they're unlikely to truly pursue it.

How to Structure Your Sales Team for Account-Based Sales

True to form, the standard ABS team includes members from departments that are typically separate: Sales, Marketing, Customer Support, and Solutions/Implementation.

Here are the primary roles:

  • Account executive:Runs internal meetings, shapes the account strategy, acts as the primary liaison with the prospect and works to become their trusted advisor
  • 年代ales development representatives:Research the account and update the CRM, create personalized messaging and content designed to build relationships with multiple customer stakeholders
  • 营销人员:Develops the overall playbook and messaging strategy, coordinates marketing campaigns, tracks success of program
  • 年代upport representative:Keeps the team up-to-date on the account and surfaces issues when they arise
  • Industry marketer (optional):If a company sells to multiple industries, a subject matter expert educates the overall team and makes sure its messaging and strategy are relevant, accurate, and technically sound
  • Product manager (optional):Keeps the team and customer informed on future product updates and changes

年代ome sales executives recommend a 1:1 ratio for SDRs, AEs, and CSMs. However, the average ratio is one SDR to 2.5 AEs. Larger companies tend to have more AEs for every one SDR,according to a recent TOPO report

Which ratio should you choose? It depends on your organization’s maturity, size, and objectives. If you want to maximize average account value, have several AEs share one SDR. If you want to acquire customers, assign several SDRs to one AE.

Key Metrics for Account-Based Selling

At the top of the funnel, track how effectively SDRS are engaging prospects. Are they reducing the ratio of outreach attempts to meaningful conversation and from meaningful conversation to meeting?

为了衡量您的整体ABS成功,Wittlake建议跟踪平均合同价值(ACV)或交易规模和终身价值(LTV)。TOPO报告一些组织看到75% increase in ACVand 150% in LTV.

Because you're dedicating greater resources to individual amounts, your customer acquisition cost (CAC) will rise. Compare your previous LTV:CAC ratio to the current one. If your former ratio was 2:1 and now it's 4:1, you're on the right track. The rise in time, energy, and resources to acquire a new account is more than justified by the growth in profits.

Moving upmarket usually leads to an extended sales process, since there's a greater number of decision-makers, internal hoops to jump through, and other factors complicating the deal. But although you might expect your sales cycle to get longer with ABS, Wittlake says this isn't necessarily the case.

"Yes, bigger deals with more complicated buying environments take longer," he says, "but since an account-based approach lets you prioritize on fewer accounts and bring your resources to bear on them, deal times usually shrink (all things held equal)."

How to Implement ABS

One of the biggest obstacles facing ABS practitioners is a lack of understanding around the transition, Wittlake says.

He explains, "People know the value of the change — but they struggle to do it."

If you're currently using a high-volume, high-velocity approach, switching to ABS out of the blue is risky. Your lead flow might dry up before you've begun seeing success with the new approach.

To avoid this scenario, Wittlake recommends shifting in stages. After you've defined your ICP and identified the accounts that fit that profile, put 30% of your organization into tiger teams.

Wittlake说:“一旦他们开始看到一些牵引力,就可以使用ABS到50%的团队。”“然后升至75%,最后100%。”

How long should the transition take? TOPO says it varies widely, but most companies find themselves vastly outperforming their sales plan, forecast, and objectives in 12 to 24 months.

Organizations that see earlier success typically have watertight alignment between Marketing and Sales.

这是您实施ABS所采取的步骤的高级视图:

基于帐户的销售计划

  • Review best customers
  • Define ICP
  • Define buyer personas
  • Develop a content strategy
  • Create target account list
  • 年代egment these accounts into tiers
  • Allocate one-third of current sales development team to pursuing target accounts
  • Decide which metrics to track
  • 年代hift the next 20% of team to ABS
  • Analyze content strategy to decide where to double down and where to course-correct
  • 年代hift the next 25% of team to ABS
  • 查看关键指标
  • 年代hift last 15% of team to ABS

Editor's note: This post was originally published in July 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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Originally published Oct 16, 2019 4:37:00 PM, updated February 04 2021

Topics:

Account Based Sales