ABM is About the Buying Team
Many startups and growing businesses dream of “going upmarket” one day with what they hope are long term contracts and stable income.
Yet nearly every single business makes the same mistakes on this journey. Mistakes that hold back their growth. These mistakes are common and logical in the face of pressure to grow revenue.
Account-Based Marketing (ABM) has become the go-to strategy for firms looking to expand from their SMB roots into the enterprise market. However, many companies fall short of their growth potential due to common mistakes in their ABM approach. That mistake? Failing to build the Buying Team. ABM consistently fails enterprise sales teams because marketers do not build the Buying Team with Sales. Learn how to effectively integrate Buying Teams into your ABM strategy for maximum impact.
There are three big mistakes Enterprise ABM teams make, all related to the Buying Team:
No one builds the buying team.
ABM is lead generation for Enterprises.
ABM is a series of one-off campaigns.
Marketing and Sales teams must remember the essential truth of ABM:
ABM is about building the buying team with and for salespeople to develop relationships with the buying team to deliver a solution to a challenge.
So how do you avoid these common mistakes and hit your goals for ABM?
Let’s dive into the core errors most GTM teams make with ABM.
ABM is run as enterprise lead generation
ABM is treated as enterprise lead generation by marketing instead of assisting Sales in building the Buying Team. Providing high volume call lists from your Target Accounts and some MQLs from your Ideal Customer Profile works because a percentage – 5% or so – are In Market. What happens when the few in market leads run dry?
Sales doesn’t focus on Buying Teams
Sales doesn’t build the buying team because they are focused on low converting leads Marketing sends them. Now that is also on Sales because BDRs are incentivized to convert Leads to Meetings or Opps, not entire Accounts. BDRs aren’t trained to ask the Lead to bring in Buying Team members to the AE’s meeting. The AE isn’t always trained to work the organization to facilitate that Buying Team committee toward a decision.
Sales then complains the leads aren’t good.
ABM becomes one off campaigns
Marketers react to Sales’s feedback by running “Target Account” ads on LinkedIn or bribing people to take demo meetings. That will also work for a little while…in a very expensive way. These one offs create sporadic engagement, failing to build sustained educational and sales relationships.
One time meeting and content ad efforts drive few meetings and few opportunities. What don’t they do? They don’t build Buying Teams that would actually drive pipeline.
Sales and Marketing Must Build Buying Teams Together
To succeed with ABM, it's crucial to recognize that building the Buying Team is a collective responsibility across sales, marketing, and operations. Here’s how to get it right:
Create a Unified Buying Team Plan
Ensure all departments understand the importance of the Buying Team and contribute to its formation and nurturing.
Target Accounts prioritized by likelihood to buy
Buying Team Profiles – each of the 5 to 15 people in a Buying Team are profiled
Align Marketing and Sales Goals
Shift the focus from high volume lead generation to nurturing relationships with key stakeholders within target accounts.
All GTM teams must understand their goal is to add new logos through building strong Buying Teams. Each team has a different part to play in supporting sales’s efforts to build relationships.
Run ABM Surround Sound Campaigns
Implement an omnichannel strategy that continuously engages the right people with personalized messaging at the right time.
That’s easy advice, right?
Let’s go a step further into using Surround Sound to build and engage the Buying Team. What should that campaign look like? Here’s an example:
Who: Missing member of Buying Team from In Market, Active Account prospect
When: Any time an Account appears In Market based on first and third party signals
Goal: get a Buying Team member to reveal themselves to Sales.
Expected Sales Action: add this person to the Buying Committee and call them.
Bad Exit: member not found, member unsubscribes
Channels: Linkedin Ads; retargeting of Account; cold calls; email
Content: Develop a content matrix that aligns messaging with each role in the Buying Team to ensure consistency and relevance.
Marketing should understand how a great rep builds a Buying Team
Consider the case of an inside sales representative who successfully built a Buying Team that helped the AE close a major deal. What did that rep do and how could Marketing have accelerated this deal?
Research the Account from open source (public) information
Met with one inbound lead who is the Champion
Rep coaches the Champion to build a strategic communication plan
Rep coaches the Champion helped identify key internal stakeholders
Rep engaged with users and technical approvers to build consensus
Rep brought in AE for big demo with the entire team
AE negotiated with Champion and Executive Sponsor
Rep and AE worked out the deal to obtain a signature
Sales and Marketing Collaboration is Key to Success
Sales and marketing must work in tandem to build and leverage Buying Teams:
Marketing should design the Target Account prioritization, ICPs, messaging, and journeys for In Market and Out of Market Accounts.
Sales teams should prioritize relationship-building and organizational navigation to uncover and engage the Buying Team.
Marketing Operations should provide in-market accounts and detailed insights to help sales build effective relationships.
The Path to ABM Success
ABM is not just about targeting accounts; it's about building and nurturing Buying Teams to drive long-term enterprise growth. By avoiding common pitfalls, fostering collaboration, and leveraging dynamic, always-on strategies, you can achieve ABM greatness and realize your full growth potential.
