The state of Account-Based Marketing
According to SiriusDecisions’ 2019 State of Account-Based Marketing Study, the average ABM (Account-Based Marketing) campaign costs $350,000.
Companies who are thinking of “trying” their hand at ABM, generally invest $200,000 and for larger organizations, this number can stretch into the millions. Yet, while some top-performing ABM teams are seeing incredible ROI of 200%+ on their campaigns, 93% of sellers still believe that the ABM sourced MQL quality remains poor (Hubspot). So why are some organizations outperforming others by such a wide margin? The answer comes down to one word, “Alignment”.
Bridging the Gap Between Marketing and Sales
The highest performing ABM organizations are the ones who have most effectively bridged the gap between Marketing and Sales with systems and processes designed to continue the experience of targeted content and personalization into the sales funnel itself. As such, many leading marketing experts today are talking about a shift away from the traditional tools marketers previously considered central to ABM stacks like:
- Marketing Automation
- Social Media
- Paid Advertising
In favor of platforms that help deliver more personalized experiences to prospects and customers throughout the sales funnel, such as:
- Virtual Events
- Webinars
- Content Hubs and Pillar Pages
Savvy ABM leaders will not stop there. The next step will be to invest in systems that deliver measurable engagement as a key component of their success. But this raises the question, “where does ABM end and where does sales begin?” Only by answering this question can organizations ensure that the sizable investments they are making in ABM, translates beyond pipeline creation, and actually drives revenue.
Personalized Outreach
In a recent DemandGen Report recapping the 2021 B2B Marketing Exchange event #B2BMX, personalized outreach was identified as THE key factor necessary to drive ABM success. Kelly Lindenau and Michael Rodriguez effectively demonstrated that success in any ABM strategy must involve engaging at a 1:1 level within targeted accounts. ABSTRAKT believes this targeted 1:1 engagement between human beings is The Last Mile of ABM.
Organizations are spending many hundreds of thousands of dollars on the research, content, surveys, engagement tools (outlined above) needed to drive a single ABM campaign, yet are failing to ensure that when a Sales Development Representative finally has the opportunity to connect 1:1 with a prospect, that the SDR messaging is aligned with the digital journey the prospect has been on.
Limitations of Legacy Systems
Traditional Conversational intelligence software such as Gong and Chorus only provides sales and marketing organizations with after-the-fact analysis related to unique pain points, or keywords mentioned on a call. These solutions are great at identifying macro-level trends, but completely fail to fill in the white space between ABM campaigns and SDR outreach. Until now, Marketers have lacked the tools needed to align the digital journey with the SDRs talk track during their initial 1:1 live engagement.
With Abstrakt’s real-time, in-call coaching software, the content, messaging, and relevant pain points around which effective Account-Based Marketing campaigns are built can be extended into the initial 1:1 SDR conversation with the prospect, ensuring better alignment between sales and marketing.
Now, Marketing can be sure that the Sales Development Representatives in charge of accounts are able to effectively speak to a prospect’s personal pain points, topics related to competition, and industry trends in an additive fashion that is fully aligned with previous ABM driven digital engagements.
Marketers no longer need to worry about hundreds of thousands of dollars being thrown away because a 2-minute phone call with an SDR on week 3 of their ramp didn’t go as planned.
According to this QuotaFactory Infographic the three main KPIs that typical organizations have historically used to determine the success of an SDR phone call are:
- Connect Rate
- Pass Rate
- Pipeline Rate
The Blind Spot of Performance
Abstrakt was created because we believe that traditional Conversational Intelligence tools fail to address the blind spot of performance hidden between stages 1 and 2.
With Abstrakt, the buyer’s journey involves a Sales Development Representative who is armed with a Heads Up Display (HUD) on every call ensuring that they know, in real-time, exactly which industry reports to reference for each unique prospect, or which customer use case to highlight, hint: the same one discussed on the webinar the prospect attended last month. With Abstrakt, when a prospect asks about a certain industry trend or competitor, that same HUD instantly suggests a case study related to a similar customer who took advantage of that trend or left that competitor and found amazing success as a result.
The Last Mile of Account-Based Marketing
Organizations who focus on connecting their prospect’s ABM digital journey with their first 1:1 human contact will be taking a critical step in solving for the last mile of Account-Based Marketing.
The organizations who invest in building this bridge are the ones who will be able to deliver compelling, actionable, relevant 1:1 engagement experiences their prospects will enjoy, immediately leading to much greater ABM performance and ROI.
Just like companies who experienced tremendous ROI when they deployed tools like Terminus and Engagio, pulling Abstrakt into the ABM picture will help marketers take the next step in Account-Based Marketing success.