Get Strategic with Account-Based Marketing
In this month's interview:
1. How account-based marketing differs from traditional approaches to lead generation.
2. Three of the most effective tools in the account-based marketing toolkit.
3. How account-based marketing effects Marketing's relationship with Sales.
4. Basic steps that marketers can take when conducting account-based marketing.
5. How to decide which clients are a good fit for account-based marketing.

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Get Strategic with Account-Based Marketing
An Interview with Steve Hurley, Vice President, Learning and Performance Excellence, ITSMA (Information Technology Services Marketing Association)
Campaigns are becoming more focused than ever, with greater effort expended on identifying the right audiences and customizing activities to specific niche markets and individual companies. Account-based marketing has emerged as an effective approach as IT marketers shift lead generation programs from quantity to quality. We asked Steve Hurley, Vice President at the Information Technology Services Marketing Association to share his insights into account-based marketing.

Marketing2IT: How does account-based marketing differ from traditional approaches to lead generation?
Steve: Account-based marketing is different in that it is a true and unadulterated approach to taking all the marketing resources that you normally use for a broader audience and focusing them on one account. It tends to be resource intensive including labor and a certain amount of budget.

This is a very hot topic right now because the industry is mature, there is more competition and companies are experiencing an inability to differentiate themselves and an inability to find and grow new accounts. Plus buyers are becoming more discriminating, saying "You've sold me millions of dollars of products I haven't seen the return on." Account-based marketing is not just about generating revenue. It's not saying, "Let's just throw more things in the pipeline." It is developing a deep, long-term trusted partner relationship with your customers. It's getting to know your customer on a deeper level.

I've sat in on major account planning sessions that were basically pipeline review sessions. This is very different from what account-based marketing is but it's extremely typical of how many companies manage accounts. Some companies even call this account-based marketing.

One example of successful account-based marketing is a large IT company that said 'We are losing traction with a major account. We need to understand them better.' The company spent 200 man-hours interviewing key players to find out the account's core issues. They put a marketing plan together and in a relatively short time saw results.

M2IT: What are three of the most effective tools of engagement in the account-based marketing toolkit?
Steve: Three of the tools that are most important are:
1. Tools to help you determine the best accounts to go after.
2. Information aggregators like Hoovers and Standard & Poor's that provide focused, specific account information.
3. The proper design and implementation of a workshop between marketing, sales and the client so that it's a magical experience instead of a pipeline review.

M2IT: How does account-based marketing affect Marketing's relationship with Sales?
Steve: It's a new role for marketing. Marketing typically comes in at the tail end of things, which is absolutely the wrong approach. With account-based marketing once you see the prospect's needs you don't attack with the sales force.

Account-based marketing can hugely improve the relationship between marketing and sales because marketing can show strong evidence of the results of their activity. When you broadcast a campaign across your industry, the quality of the leads may be suspect and it's hard to gauge success. When you target a single account with a goal of $10 million, if you have success it's hard for sales to argue with that.

Marketing has to have a good relationship with the account executives. It takes a lot of cooperation and commitment between sales and marketing for planning and execution.

Account-based marketing shows the target account that the vendor has resources and a commitment to helping them grow their business. You want to keep that level of messaging at the key stakeholders in the account. You're changing the mindset of the customer so that they'll listen very differently.

M2IT: What are the basic steps that marketers can take when conducting account-based marketing?
Steve: Be very clear on what the objectives are, who needs to be involved and what success would look like, and clear on what account-based marketing means to your company. Instead of just doing a beta, think about the programs; think about the relationships between sales and marketing. Be thoughtful. Launching account-based marketing can take significant internal marketing. This is very typical. When approached with account-based marketing, Sales might say 'we do all that, we know their issues.' Marketing has to counter that, ask for evidence of success, and be clear on the value they're bringing.

M2IT: How do you decide which clients are a good fit for account-based marketing?
Steve: You need to decide if you can only invest in 2, 5 or 10 accounts. These may not be the top revenue generators. They might have great growth potential or be in an important industry. We recommend picking a company that you already have good relations with versus a company that doesn't know you - a company where you see potential and there is the likelihood that you can gain traction.

Regards,
Justin Launderville
Marketing Writer
CMP Media's TechWeb Network
jlaunderville@cmp.com