Blog

“Succeeding in business is all about making connections.” — Richard Branson

When you bake a chocolate cake, missing one ingredient can lead to disaster. Without baking powder, it goes flat. Without the sugar, it’s bitter. The same applies to the outreach tactics for account-based marketing. When you mix them together, they all work harder. I’ve previously written about two ingredients for successful account-based marketing — phone calls and personal emails. Today, let’s dig into the third — social media. How do you leverage social platforms the right way?

You have to approach social media outreach carefully because, contrary to some beliefs, it is not advertising. It’s more like an ongoing business networking event that you can attend at your convenience.

It’s helpful to think about business functions where you meet in person. Have you ever been to one where someone has approached you to sell you their product or service? How did you react? If you’re like most people, you probably excused yourself to make an emergency trip to the hors d’oeuvres table, ending the conversation as quickly as possible. 

The Need for B2B Prospect Research

The more you can personalize your communications with B2B prospects, the greater your competitive advantage. Because of this, marketers and salespeople are scrambling to learn more about their prospects than ever before, including everything from firmographics to insights on individual personalities.

To communicate in a way that’s relevant, you need to dig deep to understand:

• The market in which target accounts operate
• Company growth, profitability and strategies
• Buying team structure and key players
• Your business’s connections to the account. Has anyone in your organization interacted with the account in the past? Do you have any links to them based on education, employment history, interests or group memberships?
• Which accounts are sending signals online or offline that they intend to buy?
• How can I best communicate with prospects based on their personalities?

But how can you do the research efficiently and effectively?

As the account-based marketing (ABM) phenomenon gathers steam, sales and marketing professionals need to add the human touch to their communications. After all, ABM is all about communicating with individual prospects or accounts as a market. Last time, I wrote about how to craft outbound calls for ABM. Now, let’s move on to emails.

Because executives are deluged with emails that clamor for their attention, communicating via email marketing to large groups is no longer as effective as it was in the past. To cut through the clutter and get attention, emails must be personal and relevant. These emails must feel like they are written by one person to another. There’s no need for fancy designs and images that involve HTML code because plain text is as personal as it gets. 

Are you ready to increase sales close rates? If so, you may not need to invest in the latest technology, hone your sales techniques or take a new marketing strategy for a spin. Instead, boosting close rates could be as simple as helping your salespeople to rediscover the basics: Putting customer interests first, listening actively and empathizing with their concerns.

1. Put Customer Interests First
   
   The Go-Giverby Bob Burg and John David Mann tells the story of Joe, an ambitious go-getter who works at a breakneck pace trying to make his quota. But despite his efforts, things aren’t working out.
   
   In his frustration, he seeks the advice of a successful mentor, Pindar, who immediately agrees to meet with him. Joe, of course, is somewhat surprised that such an important man would make time for him. It turns out, that’s part of the lesson: Help others, and you’ll end up better off yourself. 
   
   

The bane of every sales person’s existence is running into an impasse with a potential customer when they throw an objection in the way. To overcome these hurdles, reps must understand the common framework for diffusing objections and be prepared with well thought out answers to those that your company commonly receives.

The Framework for Diffusing Objections

Let’s suppose your rep has finally connected with a sought after prospect. They’re just seconds into the call when the prospect says, “I already do business with ABC Solutions and love their service, I don’t see a need to look for anyone else.”

That seems like a rather large stumbling block. Nevertheless, it’s not the time to hang up the phone. Here are the steps to take:

Account-based marketing is becoming a go-to strategy for B2B marketers who want to take control of their outreach (rather than waiting to see who finds them) and shorten their sales cycles. What may be receiving less acclaim, however, is the starring role outbound calls play in executing account-based marketing strategies.

If you’ve done your research correctly and know who to contact, when you make an outbound call, there are two possible results. One, you connect with a decision maker. Two, you end up in voicemail. You need a plan to make the most out of either situation.

Here’s how to craft your message for live calls and voicemails. 

“If you want to go upmarket, which you absolutely must to grow, you have to go outbound. Winning large customers is much more about causing sale, not just catching one.”— Ken Krogue, President and Founder, InsideSales.com

Account-based marketing is quickly gaining popularity. It’s a strategy that aligns sales, business development and marketing around the potential deals that can have the most impact on a company’s future revenues. To execute account-based marketing tactics, you will likely need to transform the approach of your business developers.

The Role of the Business Developer in Account-Based Marketing

How do the account-based business developer’s activities differ from those of typical telesales representatives?

The job of the account-based business developer is to open doors at the big accounts that matter most. So, rather than simply qualifying inbound leads, they use outbound tactics — phone, email and social selling — to stir up sales opportunities with high-value prospects. Based on in-depth research, reps contact prospects in a personalized way that provides value. The emphasis is on long-term gains, not quick hits. 

Do you simply tally up your wins and losses, then look to see whether the trends are going in the right direction? If so, you’re like many other companies. Some will go a little further and ask the sales reps why the sale was lost. Most likely they’ll tell you it was the price or some other failing of your offering.  

Those companies, however, that take a systematic approach to win/loss analyses gain a wealth of information. Ultimately, it enables them to improve their relationship with prospects and customers as well as the products, services or solutions that they sell.

Win/loss analysis is the systematic process of interviewing new clients and prospects who fell by the wayside to find out why they chose one path or the other. And that’s precisely the information you need to make steps toward ensuring the right prospects choose the path to becoming one of your customers.

So here’s what you can learn.

B2B companies are increasingly selling from remote locations over the phone. Perhaps a decade ago, most people would not have predicted this turn of events. After all, that’s when marketing leaders eagerly sought out the new promise of inbound marketing to produce leads and revenues.

For many years, we’ve seen arguments favoring inbound over outbound marketing. Marketers are now starting to realize, however, that they may have swung the balance too far in one direction. There’s no reason to choose between inbound and outbound tactics. Today’s effective marketing is “all-bound.” That’s because there’s synergy between inbound marketing and outreach in the form of emails, social selling and phone calls.

Challenges that are part and parcel of new market expansion and product introductions include executing in-depth market research, filling distribution gaps, honing marketing tactics and building internal resources to support the initiative.

Given that leaders are juggling multiple priorities, it’s not surprising that they sometimes fall flat when attempting to scale inside sales to meet expansion goals. After all, there’s a lot involved — creating a sales process, hiring and training sales people, and ensuring they have the tools they need to do their jobs efficiently and successfully.

Let’s take a quick look at each of these challenges and how to tackle them.