The 3 Step Matrix We Use To Create Ideal Account Profile That Buys (And Why Firmographics Are Not Enough)

To start with, in a perfect world, which companies would you like to turn into customers. It takes time, money, energy and a skilful team of people to attract, convert, and maintain new clients. As a business professional, you want to do anything to ensure that your resources will be allocated to those prospects who are likely to deliver the best return. However, you can’t market to everyone.

The power of Account-based marketing (ABM)

Here comes into the spotlight the power of Account-based marketing (ABM), a structured way to develop long-term relations with a curated list of accounts you target and a proven way to drive revenue.

Using the account-based marketing approach will make your company proactive and intentional by targeting only the best-fit accounts that are most likely to buy your offer.

So, the more specific you develop your Ideal Account Profile, the better are the chances that the deal will be closed.

What’s next?

On the other flip of the coin, if lacking a clearly defined IAP, it is expected to have the perfect storm for low conversion, high turnover, sales reps burn-out, poor customer retention and obviously – stagnant growth.

“Sales is not about selling anymore, it’s about building trust and educating,” summarizes Siva Devaki, the co-founder of MassMailer.Devaki is right.

There is plenty of evidence confirming that an account-centric sales process is the way forward when it comes to targeting the right companies and eliminating those who will slow down your sales process.

So, how do you create the Ideal Account Profile?

Your Ideal Account Profile is defined by company firmographics. That is the set of qualitative and quantitative characteristics of your best-fit accounts. Oftentimes, the company-level IAP is confused with the Buyer Persona, which is focused on the qualities of the individual customer.

You can start by defining the firmographics such as:

• Industry
• Location
• Company Size (number of employees)
• Company Revenue

But, Modern marketers don’t just rely on this firmographics data for obvious reasons – it is just too basic.

For example, not all companies with $20 million in revenue are in the same phase. A company with the same revenue might be in the cost-cutting mode and have completely different priorities and the moment, while a company that is in hyper-growth mode may be in the mood for investing enormous amounts. Neither is a company’s industry code a solid indicator of their needs or actual pain points.

In other words – you should not rely on creating your Ideal Account Profile solely on firmographic data. We are talking about data that is too broad and it always depends on how the businesses have labeled themselves.

So, what else if not firmographics?

What should you focus on when creating the perfect IAP?

Don’t get me wrong. I didn’t mean that you need to stop focusing your efforts on collecting firmographic data altogether. My point is – you should not focus ONLY on firmographic data when creating your Ideal Account Profile.

Why firmographic data is not enough?

In today’s crowded B2B world, basic firmographics don’t usually reflect clear differences in needs, benefits and product use. This is the reason why modern salespeople are increasingly relying on other data points too.

Our team at BizzBee Solutions goes beyond just using firmographic data when defining your Ideal Account Profile.

Our experience showed us that good IAP can:

• Increase team effectiveness because you reach and nurture the right prospects with the right message;
• Shorten the sales cycle (it reduces the time in the awareness stage of the buyer’s journey);
• Increase the number of closed (won) deals;
• It turns better fit prospects to better-fit clients with a lower churn rate.

3 step matrix

Our experience in B2B sales inspired us to create a 3 step matrix to create the Ideal Account Profile that is more likely to buy from you.

Step 1: Collecting Firmographics data

Step 2: Discovering the decision-makers of targeted companies

Step 3: Revealing the psychological factors that are driving consumers’ buying behaviour.

The deeper explanation of the 3 steps matrix

Collecting firmographics data is just the first step in creating the perfect IAP.

Next, when we have a list of relevant B2B companies, we go to the next level – gather as much as possible company info and revealing who their decision-maker is.

Further on, instead of being blindsided by the prospect’s emotions during the selling process, we use emotional triggers to our advantage.

Moreover, according to a recent study by Hubspot, 69% of buyers state that the quickest way to their hearts is to listen to their needs.

Hence by truly understanding a prospect’s feelings, hopes and fears at each stage, we are able to offer the right motivation at the right time and the right content for the right part of the sales funnel, As a result, this will fasten the last and sweetest step – closing the deal.

After our team ensures that our prospects are a long-term fit, the IAP findings also reveal what resources are needed to keep them feeling valued, supported, and part of the community.

This means that if you understand your IAP well enough, you will be keenly aware of how you can solve their pain points now and in the future by placing them the most relevant content.

In BizzBee, we believe that quality sales prospecting made with detailed Ideal Account Profile will lead to more meaningful discussions with prospects because part of the discovery (including needs analysis) has already been done before the first initial engagement with the customer starts.

Even the numbers in a white paper created by Propeller CRM, confirm that 95% of buyers decide to go with companies that provide them relevant, informative content at each stage of the buyer’s journey.

As Jessica Williams from Red Pill Media says: “To get the right message to the right person at the right time, you first need to get the right data to the right database at the right time.”

To Wrap Up

To conclude, creating your Ideal Account Profile is one of the most important things to do if you want to maximize the relevance of your marketing and the results of your sales efforts.

We developed 3 months Outbound Growth Strategy to help you!

Check it out: https://www.bizzbeesolutions.com/outbound-growth-strategy

This article was originally published on BizzBee Blog.