How can you use ABM to strengthen your customer relationships?

You're not going to like these statistics. 80% plus of marketing investment is spent on new logo acquisition rather than on existing customers. Something is clearly wrong here. The perpetual chasing of new logos when all the data shows it is cheaper and higher ROI to invest in growing your existing customers. So why ABM? Because ABM was founded to grow + keep your existing customers. Yes, it's evolved. But at its heart - that is what ABM is all about - getting close to your customers, delighting them and keeping them.

In the B2B world, where relationships matter, ABM becomes a strategic guide for nurturing and growing those connections. Picture this: if you're using Salesforce CRM for sales, you become part of the Salesforce team's accounts. The marketing team now through different channels such as Retargeting, Social, Webinars, Offline events etc. will educate and increase your awareness of their other products such as Einstein, Marketing Cloud, or Customer 360 etc. and it's use cases so that not only they retain you to use the CRM for next cycle but also upsell their other products as add on to their existing service.

Why does ABM matter for customer retention? It matters because it facilitates unified efforts. One significant benefit I've discovered through ABM is the unity and momentum it fosters within the company. For instance, as part of our ABM strategy, a company I worked for displayed flyers around the office featuring our top 15 accounts. Previously, if you asked a random employee to name a few of our biggest accounts, getting even ONE would be lucky. However, after implementing this strategy, it became second nature. Suddenly, everyone in the company understood our Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and actively worked toward helping. The outcome? We all moved in the same direction, breaking all-time revenue records.

ABMs are more effective when executed on a 1:1 or 1:Few approach. From my experience, segmenting customers per vertical, use cases and adoption level have been the type of segmentations that work better.

For your segmentation to be accurate, you need to be clear on why you're targeting certain accounts. What are your goals and have they been sense-checked and aligned with sales? One factor that is not paid enough attention is the 'health' of the account - are they happy customers right now? If there is an ongoing support issue, or adoption levels are low, perhaps now is not the right time to be placing them into a cross sell/upsell campaign. Relationship building and reinforcing your value and commitment to the customer should be the focus of a 1:1 program before anything else.

CReating Buyer Personas is NOT enough for ABM. We need to depict the Buying Committee and each buyer personas that takes part in this Committee. Contrarily to short and transactionals buying decision processes, in ABM the decision processes are particularly long and complex.Several profiles participate in the buying decision process,not just 1 or 2. That's why we need to understand each Buyer Persona or profile that participate and how they interact with each other: their pain points, priorities, their roles (decider, user, blocker...) in the decision process and in what moment or point they get into the buying decision process. Knowing how they engage and get along with each other is paramount.

WARNING - there are no buyer personas in ABM... Caveat at the end... ABM is when you shift from PERSONA to PERSON. ABM is all about building deep relationships with your most important customers - or target accounts that you wish to win. Your job therefore is to gain insights into the right PEOPLE not PERSONAS to engage with via Marketing and Sales. First name, surname, etc. Not IT Decision Maker. Caveat - you may need to start with Personas to agree who the right people profiles are but you quickly shift from this.

Tudo come?a com o ICP, depois a ideia é mapear o comitê de compra daquele ICP. Para facilitar, eu separo em dois grandes grupos, os influnciadores e os decisores. O ideal é tentar entender qual é a for principal de cada, e a partir disso construir uma narrativa para cada grupo. Uma boa lógica é: Problema a persona > melhor angulo da solu??o > funcionalidades da solu??o > capacidades que ela gera para a persona > benefício percebido Esse frame acima ajuda muito na constru??o da mensagem, come?ando, sempre, pela dor do influenciador ou do decisor.

Your sales team is likely your most under utilized personalization engine. Instead of providing templates and tools for scheduling cadences (marketing automation can do that), retrain your sales team to create and send truly personal communications based on the organization, role of contact and stage of the buying process (ie. near renewal time, newly adopting product etc).

As mensagem s?o desdobramentos do posicionamento, que por sua vez é criado *por ICP*. Logo você terá uma mensagem por ICP também, se indo em nível granular para os i) influenciadores e ii) decisores, como coloquei acima. Entender as funcionalidades > capacidades > benefícios percebidos da sua solu??o sob a ótica as persona do ICP é fundamental.

No contexto ABM as vendas s?o complexas, sem impulsos e envolvem muitas pessoas. Logo, você n?o conseguirá metrificar tudo, a melhor forma é explorar a jornada invisível (dark social) e acompanhar métricas de alcance, engajamento e frequência. Com isso, poderá fazer um motion tático com o time de vendas para abordar essas personas de forma diferentes para come?ar a capturar essa demanda. Convites para podcasts, webinars e eventos podem ser ótimas maneiras no cenário 1:Few e 1:1, além da cria??o de páginas e anúncios personalizados.

Customized trials and pilots! Instead of generic trials, you need to create tailored experiences for your prospects that offer greater value. A one-size-fits-all approach doesn't cut it in ABM anymore. Offering customized trials or pilots in your prospects' brand, allows prospects to experience firsthand how their solution addresses their specific pain points, resulting in higher conversion rates.

ABM by itself is totally fine, the power lies in ABM with “Re-Platforming”. This isn't just about showing off your shiny product; it's a deep dive into 'Why us and not them?' Get into the “why switching from Competitor X to You” is like upgrading from a flip phone to a smartphone. Show them the seamless transition, the unparalleled support, and the u matched array of features that make your offering not just a choice, but THE choice. This approach isn't just powerful; it's game changing. In the high-stakes game of high-ticket B2B marketing, ABM with replatforming is your secret weapon.

Strong relationships are crucial in retaining customers. When clients feel heard, valued, and supported, they're less inclined to switch to a competitor. This stability significantly impacts revenue generation and reduces the expenses involved in acquiring new customers. Listening to your customers' feedback and leveraging it to enhance your products, services, and processes is pivotal. Events and workshops, in particular, have shown great effectiveness based on past experiences.

The best way to nurture long-term relationships in ABM is to prioritise, incentivise and celebrate longevity. Prioritising the needs of your most important existing accounts and backing it with investment will lead to longer term relationships. Don't be tempted to spend all your time and resource on chasing net new logos.

Empathy-driven ABM customer support! To strengthen your customer relationships you need to recognize that exceptional customer support is a key driver of strong ABM relationships. They prioritize empathy in their support interactions, actively listening to their customers' concerns and offering tailored solutions. This human-centric approach leaves a lasting impression and fosters loyalty.

Place your customer at the heart of everything you do. Your job is to help your customer win. Devise how you can do that and you won't go wrong.