Take a Closer Look at ABM: Best Practices with TOPO

Take a closer look at
ABM
Craig Rosenberg, Chief Analyst
www.topohq.com
Jessica Fewless, VP, ABM Strategy, Field & Channel Marketing
www.demandbase.com
These materials have been prepared by TOPO for the exclusive and individual use of our clients. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly
prohibited. These materials contain valuable confidential and proprietary information belonging to TOPO and they may not be
shared with any third party without the prior approval of TOPO. To learn how you can become a TOPO client, visit www.topohq.com

© 2019 TOPO. All rights reserved.
Agenda
1. TOPO introduction and findings
2. Account based strategy overview
3. Key activities for successful execution
4. Takeaways

TOPO introduction

We’re a research and advisory firm that helps
companies build world class marketing, sales
development, and sales functions.

How we help the world’s fastest growing companies
RESEARCH
&
ADVISORY
SPECIFIC, ACTIONABLE INSIGHTS
PRACTITIONER-ONLY ANALYSTS
DATA ON THE WORLD’S BEST SALES/MKTG ORGS
CONSULTING TRAINING

The world’s best companies depend on TOPO

Account based strategy

Account based strategy
Account based strategy is the coordination of highly valuable, personalized experiences across all
functions that impact the customer to drive engagement and conversion at a targeted set of accounts.
Account Based
Marketing
Sales
Development
Sales
Customer
Success
Targeted
Intelligence-driven
Orchestrated
Personalized
High Frequency

Five attributes of account based
ATTRIBUTE EXAMPLE
1 Targeted, high value accounts
Accounts meet the CLTV target based on revenue
and financial complexity
2 Intelligence-driven programs
Intent triggers custom insight-based programs
that create conversations
3
High value, personalized buyer
experiences
Customized assessment that identifys specific
opportunities for the buyer
4
Coordinated programs across marketing,
sales, and sales development
Pre-SDR program, outbound sales development,
and executive outreach
5 Account-centric measurement
Number of opportunities and pipeline created
from the target account list

A new funnel has emerged
THE TOPO ACCOUNT BASED FUNNEL

And it works, especially for the most important metrics
Percent of
respondents
that say account
based improves
key results

Keys to execution

Today’s theme is alignment
Align on…
1. Target accounts (and key stakeholders)
2. Coordinated programs against those target accounts
3. Measuring success (metrics) against those target accounts
4. The initial program (just don’t call it a “campaign”)

1. Align on target accounts

Organizations with a strong Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)
achieve 68% higher account win rates

From ICP to TAL to “we got this”
DATA ICP TARGET LIST
ATTRIBUTE DEFINITION
Ad spend >$50M/year ad
spend
Geos North America,
EMEA, and APAC
Industries • Financial Services
• Automotive
• Travel
• Retail
Behaviors • $15M/year tech
spend
• In-house
programmatic
function
• 25+ campaigns
The target list is your
target market
1. Qualitative (e.g.
sales rep feedback)
2. Internal (e.g.
closed-won by
segment)
3. External (e.g.
predictive analytics)
ALIGNMENT
Sales: “We got
this”

And if you nail the target list, you will win
Key account based
success factors

1b. Align on contacts: prepare team for
multi-threaded programs

Successful account based is multi-threaded even for SMB
Number of actively
targeted contacts
per account

Agree on the stakeholder map (this is not as easy as it
seems)
Entry Point Stakeholder who is most likely to initially engage: owns the process your solution supports, feels the most pain, and
can champion you through the process
Decision Maker Stakeholder who has direct responsibility and oversight for the process that your solution supports: has key signing
authority required to finalize the deal, the “entry point” and “user” threads report to the “decision” thread
Business Owner Stakeholder who will benefit from the solution: part of the buying committee and often recommends and sign-offs
on solutions, not owners of the process and subsequent buying process
Individual User Stakeholder who engages directly with the product: wants their opinion to be heard in the decision making
process, can facilitate a buying process but typically at a lower level
Tech/Ops Owner Stakeholder who manages the infrastructure to support a potential solution: can at times, depending on the
solution, help champion a solution or be brought in later via the business owner
Multi-
Threaded
GTM

2. Align on coordinated programs against
those target accounts

Step 1: Align functional groups to account based program
Functional groups
involved in account
based

Step 2: Prepare touches and just use existing tactics
CHANNEL % USING % SATISFIED*
SDR Outbound (email, phone) 87% 82%
Digital Advertising 79% 85%
Direct Mail 73% 69%
SDR Social (e.g. LinkedIn) 72% 61%
Marketing Email 70% 83%
Events 67% 78%
Executive-to-Executive Outreach 64% 59%
Content Syndication 48% 73%
Content Development 47% 61%
Site Personalization 37% 63%
SDR Personalized Video 28% 50%
Site Chat/Messaging 17% 74%
“What channels and tactics do you use for your account based efforts?”
*Among those using the channel or tactic

Get in the room and map touches
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26
ENTRYPOINTTHREAD
TARGETED AD CAMPAIGN ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
LINKEDIN AD CAMPAIGN ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
EXEC OUTREACH
REP EMAIL ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
PHONE ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
SOCIAL ✓
VIDEO ✓
DIRECT MAIL ✓
MARKETING EMAIL ✓ ✓
TARGETED AD CAMPAIGN ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
LINKEDIN AD CAMPAIGN ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
DECISIONTHREAD
EXEC OUTREACH ✓
SDR EMAIL ✓ ✓ ✓
PHONE ✓ ✓
SOCIAL
VIDEO
DIRECT MAIL ✓
MARKETING EMAIL

3. Align on measuring success (metrics)
against those target accounts

The new metrics model: Lead-centric to account-centric

For early stage programs, tracking meetings is a good
metric
Target
Account
Meetings

Overall, account based should be judged on these five
metrics
1. Account Engagement Rate = Engaged accounts / target accounts
2. Opportunity Rate = Accounts with a new opportunity created / target accounts
3. Account Win Rate = Accounts won / target accounts
4. Target Account Pipeline = Pipeline created in target accounts
5. Bookings or Revenue = Value of new closed-won deals with target accounts

4. The initial program

75% of Demandbase roadshow panelists
started with small, often unsanctioned programs

Get started plan
1. Identify willing sales partner(s) – even if it is just 2 of them
2. Agree on target list – even if it isn’t perfect
3. Align with their assigned SDRs
4. Design easy-to-execute program
5. Agree on pilot metric (meetings is best)
6. Meet weekly to optimize
7. Win
8. Have sales present case study to the rest of the team
9. Have sales knocking on your door

Takeaways
1. Success starts with identification of your target accounts
2. If you can just align resources on the same accounts, you will get ROI…even on the most basic
coordination
3. Account based is about different metrics and they are the good ones
4. But seriously…just go. Grab some accounts you can agree on, run marketing and SDR against them,
and measure meetings or opportunities
5. Because the benchmark results tell us you will be a hero

Take a Closer Look at
ABM
Craig Rosenberg, Chief Analyst
www.topohq.com
Jessica Fewless, VP, ABM Strategy, Field & Channel Marketing
www.demandbase.com
These materials have been prepared by TOPO for the exclusive and individual use of our clients. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly
prohibited. These materials contain valuable confidential and proprietary information belonging to TOPO and they may not be
shared with any third party without the prior approval of TOPO. To learn how you can become a TOPO client, visit www.topohq.com

Take a Closer Look at ABM: Best Practices with TOPO

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