Account Based Marketing Is Advanced Outbound Sales

Account-based Marketing looks very similar to outbound sales. When our founder, Sampath Mallidi explained the concept of Account-Based Marketing to me I keep thinking "it's exactly like outbound sales. How is it any different?" After asking him a bunch of questions and researching online, I now have a clearer picture of Account-based marketing.

Here's a Quick Difference

Outbound sales is a series of touchpoints salespeople execute in order to win a customer. This is usually a phone call, social media direct message, emails or any other form of contact. Here, the marketing team usually is not in the picture. And the touchpoints are usually one-off with a couple of follow-ups. In essence, after a few phone calls or emails, if the lead goes cold the sales rep moves on to the next name on the list. Account-based marketing has the same touchpoint system, but it has a lot more going. Although the sales rep handling the account is the front runner, marketing and other executive staff play a very crucial role here. For instance, the marketing team is assigned to create campaigns to win decision-makers in select accounts. The executive staff is tasked to set up meetings with purchase managers from accounts. The task and executive assignment are done based on the need of the account. These vast number of touchpoints and the involvement of multiple professionals require a huge amount of data and insights. In the 2010s this was very expensive, as a result, huge corporations were the only benefactor of ABM. But with the advancement of technologies and smart implementation of economies of scale, even SMEs and new startups can implement ABM.

Simplified Explanation

Processes involved in Outbound sales and Account-based marketing. Please note there is an oversimplification and in reality, things are much more complex.

Outbound Sales	Account-Based Marketing
Create a list of Prospects	Create a list of Accounts
Sales reps perform one-off touchpoint	Sales reps have an always-on relationship-building campaign for all the key accounts
Win a meeting	Executives send out personalized messages to account's key important stakeholders
The end	Analyze the strategy of accounts in the interest of your corporation
	Send out Account-personalised Marketing messages. These are aligned with the account's goals and strategies
	Run an online campaign. Create reports, webinars, and invite to prospects to meetings
	Invite Stakeholders for offline campaigns (dinners, sporting events, executive events)
	Work different angles, help the Account with their strategies
	Close deal. Celebrate the long-term relationship

Conclusion

Account-based marketing is a lot of work and very time-consuming. but when done right organizations have bagged deals in 7 to 8 figures. You can set up a meeting to discuss how your organization can implement Account-based marketing. Our highly qualified sales team is available for demos. Click here to book a demo