How do you segment and prioritize your ABM accounts based on their fit, intent, and behavior?

Account-based marketing cannot be done randomly or by defining target accounts too broadly. We have to go much deeper and dare to name the companies we want to target. You can start by looking at the existing data: - What interesting companies do we identify in our CRM? - What existing leads or open deals do we want to accelerate? - What are the 10 most successful deals of recent times? - Do we identify companies in the market that we want to reach but that do not yet have any contact? In addition to this, it is good to start defining the profile of the ideal client (ICP), that is, for what type of clients we are a perfect fit.

First you should be thinking if you want to do 1:many, 1:few, or strategic ABM. Depending on your list size: 1:1 - 5-10 accounts 1:few - clusters of 5-25 accounts 1:many - 100s of accounts you build ICP differently

It's crucial to determine whether your chosen accounts align closely with your ICP. By analyzing demographics, you can assign fit scores to prioritize accounts most likely to engage and convert.

ICP development is based on information gathered through direct research and analysis of historic data in the CRM. Combining granular information about the niche segment that could best profit from your solution with CRM data that shows what companies were faster when it came to understanding your value proposition and signing a deal, creates a detailed profile of your best fit. One side of the story is not enough as it is often based on assumptions.

Account Selection is the critical first step in our ABM revenue pipeline process and sets the foundation for effective and efficient outreach. By focusing on how well each prospect aligns with our ICP, we ensure that our marketing, bizdev and sales efforts are directed toward accounts most likely to convert and drive revenue. This approach saves time and resources by prioritizing prospects that truly fit the profile of our best revenue customers. A disciplined account selection process helps us better evaluate prospects using a simple scoring system. By continuously refining our ICP and assessment criteria, we better focus on the right accounts, ensuring our ABM strategy is both impactful and aligned with your business goals.

You can use tools like Apollo, Bombora, and Zoominfo but keep in mind this is just an assumption and not a 100% accurate data. Works much better for products (someone reviewing certain category like CRM on g2crowd) than on services like quality management.

There are various ways to use buyer intent data. The most comprehensive and expensive way is to invest in ABM platforms such as 6sense, Terminus, Database. When they budget is limited, there is an opportunity to leverage software directories and their built-in buyer signals - G2, tristradius, capterra etc.

Intent can be categorized in different ways. Organic intent, for instance, shows that specific ICPs have searched for or accessed your website. This alone, is not very useful information as you cannot determine at what stage of the buying journey is. However, the power of intent resides in combining different pieces of information. For instance, a visitor checking product or pricing pages, connected to a CRM contact marked as "not now", with clear indication of source (e.g. referral link in a Confluence page) and location (which matches the information of a previous champion). In this case, it makes sense to act and check if something changed for the target account since the last touchpoint.

It's important to combine organic intent with third party intent. Data collected through software directories and company news might provide some information about what company might be in market for your solution. Some tools claim to intercept searches or use AI to provide a likelihood that an account is looking for your solution (zoominfo, NRich, Sales Navigator...). Direct data from directories or news is usually more accurate also combined with interception campaigns on your category and IP identification. This way, you can see what companies typed your specific category and also landed on your site without taking action.

Check and see if they've visited your website with website identification software. In my opinion, all intent-data should revolve around that website visitors. It's 1 thing to be actively looking for a solution, it's another thing to actively be looking for YOUR solution.

Engagement behavior helps to see how accounts interact with the brand and determine which ones are most likely to become customers. You can do this by monitoring website visits to important pages (like pricing, product, or demo request pages), email engagement, and interactions with your sales team (like attending meetings, requesting demos, or conversing with SDRs). By doing this, you can prioritize accounts that show the most interest. Tools like HubSpot, Marketo, and Salesforce can give you insights into how engaged specific accounts are, while platforms like Engagio and LeanData can help you manage all this data for effective ABM.

Segment into account statuses: ? Unaware: Accounts without any engagement with your brand. Don't know about you. ?Aware: Accounts with demonstrated engagement through ad interactions or website visits. ?Engaged: Accounts that have taken a step further, involving actions like form submissions, event attendance, content view, and e-mail replies. ?Activated: Accounts that scheduled a meeting and became MQA (Marketing Qualified Account) ?Pipeline: Accounts with open deals. ?Won: Accounts with closed won deals.

Monitor how actively engaged accounts are with your brand, including email interactions, content downloads, and event participation. This helps identify accounts that are more aware of and interested in your solutions.

For ABM, bottom of the funnel activities like time spent on website and webinar attendance, for example, are the most important to measure. Using email opens or clicks wouldn't be a great measure for long term, high frequency campaigns.

Tier 1 (Strategic Accounts): These are high-value accounts with the potential for significant revenue or strategic importance or influence in the market. They will almost always have a complex buying process and multiple stakeholders. Tier 2 (Growth Accounts): These accounts have a good fit and are showing strong signals, but they may have a lower potential deal size and/or strategic value than Tier 1. Tier 3 (Scale Accounts): This group is typically larger accounts with smaller individual deal sizes. They fit your Ideal Customer Profile, but require a more standardized, scalable approach.

Tiering the accounts is a smart and easy way to prioritise accounts. Those tiers could be based on intent signals, revenue $ and etc.

Tier based on ICP fit and engagement or the strategy of ABM you choose. Keep in mind sales should have much less Tier 1 than Tier 3 and cannot focus on too much Tier 1. Let sales choose their Tier 1 and Tier 2

It depends on your product but I would rank them like this: Tier 1: Ideal prospects that have been visiting your website frequently over the last 30-60 days and are potentially large accounts Tier 2: Ideal prospects that have been visiting your website frequently over the last 30-60 days but are small-medium accounts Tier 3: Prospects that are not exactly ideal but they can still have use for your product or service. Tier 4: Prospects that visit your blog or source information from your website, your social media, etc...

First, its "pipeline generated". Then "revenue generated". Then "meaningful conversations". Obviously campaign "ROI". Use segmentation combined with account statuses mentioned above to understand what segments perform best.

I always analyze the performance data to ensure optimal targeting and engagement. Metrics such as pipeline, revenue, and customer satisfaction provide invaluable insights into segmentation effectiveness.

Facing a limited sales team & anxieties around missed leads, a client approached us for help. Limited budget meant we had to explore creative solutions. We identified Click360, a then-nascent tool offering lead prioritization based on intent. Intrigued by its potential, we implemented it for the client. The tool analyzed existing campaign data, CRM information, and user behavior, assigning each lead an "intent score." The score dynamically generated a daily prioritized list of leads for the sales team, ensuring they focused on the most promising prospects. The streamlined lead filtering helped alleviate anxiety around missed opportunities & within the context of a smaller sales team, it demonstrably contributed to a rise in closed deals.

Create a seamless tech stack that integrates data across ABM platforms, CRM, marketing automation, and analytics tools. This integration enables a unified view of each account, facilitating more coordinated and impactful campaigns. Look for tools that offer API integrations and real-time data synchronization to keep your account data fresh and actionable.

Utilize ABM and CRM software to automate data collection, scoring, and segmentation processes. These tools can help you maintain up-to-date account insights and streamline your targeting efforts.

Augment your ABM prowess by expanding your segmentation toolkit beyond Fit, Intent, and Behavior. Factor in the Account Lifecycle Stage, tailoring your approach to new prospects, existing clients, or reactivated leads. Delve into Technographic Data to align your messaging with their tech stack. Leverage Social Listening for real-time insights into industry trends and sentiments. Implement Predictive Lead Scoring for a data-driven prioritization of high-conversion likelihood. Foster internal collaboration through Collaborative Account Mapping, gathering insights from various departments. This multidimensional strategy ensures a nuanced, adaptive, and personalized ABM approach, resonates deeply with your target accounts.

Another critical practice is aligning sales and marketing teams closely. In my opinion, this alignment not only fosters a unified approach towards target accounts but also enhances the overall customer journey, making each interaction more personalized and meaningful.

Enhance your ABM skills by broadening your segmentation toolkit beyond Fit, Intent, and Behavior. Consider the Account Lifecycle Stage while tailoring your approach to new prospects, existing clients, or reactivated leads. Explore Technographic Data to align your messaging with their tech stack and utilize Social Listening for real-time industry insights. Implement Predictive Lead Scoring for prioritizing high-conversion likelihood. Encourage internal collaboration through Collaborative Account Mapping, gathering insights from various departments. This comprehensive approach ensures a personalized ABM strategy that deeply resonates with your target accounts, fostering meaningful connections.

Embrace account-based experiences (ABX) by designing customized experiences that resonate deeply with each account's specific context and needs. This approach goes beyond traditional ABM, focusing on creating memorable, impactful interactions that drive loyalty and advocacy, furthering your reach and impact within key accounts.

If you're not tracking website visitors you are wasting ad spend. So many people are happy with clicks and sign ups that they are missing the value of visitors. Part of me doesn't even want to reveal this because of how powerful I know it is. But quite frankly, a lot of people won't sign up for your free handbook or whatever else you use to capture data. But 99.99% of people with interest in your solution will visit your website. If you're not capturing that data then you are wasting time/money IMHO. If your ads have a 5% conversion rate then you're wasting 95% of your spend.