A really good question came up in Inflexion Group’s ABM Academy Advanced Pursuit Marketing course this month: what should you do if you’re ‘volun-told’ to work on a less-than-ideal account — or in the context of this course, provide Pursuit Marketing support to a less than ideal ‘strategic’ opportunity? Many account-based marketers have been in this tricky situation, and it takes every ounce of diplomacy, skill and creativity we have as marketers to make the best of it.
Here are five steps to help you and your team plan for the greatest chance of success.
Step 1. Do your account and opportunity evaluation homework
First thing’s first: run any account and opportunity (also called a pursuit in Inflexion Group terminology) you’re asked to work on through your selection criteria to evaluate it on its merits. There’s a reason thoughtful selection is a critical component of any account-based marketing (ABM) programme. The characteristics of an account, opportunity, and the team assigned to it are predictors of whether marketing efforts can have a meaningful impact. Even if an account or opportunity looks incredibly promising, it’s still best practice to look at each element to understand what you’ll be working with and where you have challenges and advantages.
Dorothea Gosling and Laura Holmes spend time on this topic in the ABM Academy Pursuit Marketing training course because it is such an essential element in the overall process. Bev Burgess also covers this topic extensively in her new book. Making assumptions about accounts without gathering all the facts, good or bad, is incredibly risky when investing ABM resources. Even when presented with a fait accompli in terms of ABM support expectations, account insights are critical to any possibility of success down the road.
After you’ve learned more about the account, next look at the specific opportunity, if there is one. This is usually where things get difficult. While an account may be a good fit for the business, sometimes there are challenges with the actual deal or opportunity that will make it harder for marketing to have an impact.
To set realistic expectations, consider the reasons why the account and/or specific opportunity is or is not suitable for ABM. Some are internal and can be addressed more easily, such as lack of interest from sales in working with marketing, or lack of executive support. Others are more difficult to fix, such as offerings that are not as competitive in the market, or a history of bad relationships with the account. The most difficult kind are totally outside your control, such as deal timing, industry regulations, or RFP structure. Identifying what needs to change to succeed may go a long way to improving your odds of winning, and it will inform your ABM plan no matter what.
Step 2. Share your account evaluation for feedback and learning
Once you have as many facts as you can uncover on your own, don’t keep your evaluation a secret. Share your criteria and the outcome with the wider account team and ask them for any information you may be missing. This is a moment to lead with curiosity, as there was a reason this account was chosen for extra effort. This could serve as a learning opportunity for the team, who may not have been exposed to this part of the ABM process before. It can also save you from presenting incomplete or inaccurate information that would cast doubt on your concerns.
Sometimes, sharing with the full team may be politically fraught, and the last thing you want is to embarrass anyone, including yourself. If that’s the case, share it first with an appropriate leader or other influential member of the team for their feedback. Again, it’s wise to ask if there are any missing facts or others who might be able to contribute to a more complete understanding. Those who asked to include the account in an ABM programme may not have been aware of what makes an account a good bet. It’s always valuable to get team members and/or leaders onboard with the findings of your account selection process.
If you and the team agree you have completed a fair and accurate evaluation, and the account still isn’t looking good, then it’s possible a rational presentation of facts might result in the account not moving forward. Other times, it may not help. But it will have shown the team how you look at account potential, and you will have provided data-driven insights into what the team must work with, which may help temper expectations.
Step 3. Agree on objectives and timing
If you do need to move forward with a challenging account, make sure everyone on the team understands what is expected and when for the opportunity. Don’t make assumptions about outcomes or timing. While marketing is a key part of the team, ultimately, it’s sellers who are on the hook for accurate pipeline forecasts. This is especially true for large, strategic deals that can have a material impact on overall revenue attainment. Allow them to outline the major milestones and ask pertinent questions.
Once you understand their objectives, define your contributions. Based on the evaluation and your understanding of the situation, what are ways marketing can help, and what are metrics and outcomes that can show progress? Explain to the group what you will be tracking, including how and why, to provide clarity around marketing’s work. Also explain that you’ll use measurement to identify what is and isn’t working so you can update your plans.
Step 4. Build a plan (with contingencies)
A plan makes everything feel more do-able, even in the least hopeful situations. Based on account goals and timing, follow your account-based planning process, and apply your best practices, just as you would with a more promising account.
Even with an account that has significant challenges, there are always ways marketing can help. Think of this as a ‘do no harm’ approach to developing an account that is clearly important to the business. For example, building a more complete set of contacts and engaging as many of them as possible will help create a positive environment for your brand. This sets up future potential. So does tracking how contacts engage across all sales and marketing messages and activities, as well as tracking intent signals, to define the complete buying group in the account.
If you need a clear and useful framework for ABM measurement in the context of a specific pursuit, consider the Three Rs: reputation, relationships and revenue. Metrics within each of these areas can offer a roadmap for what to track so you show progress towards goals and diagnose issues along the way. Here’s a post with an outline of the measures.
Step 5. Track and communicate progress
Most complex, strategic deals have a long timeline to expected close. Especially when victory is uncertain, you’ll want to have a regular cadence of reporting and communication across the account team and with executives paying attention to marketing’s contribution to the effort. At the same time, it’s a good idea to think about what boundaries you want to place around your time and resource investment in the account. After the account team kicks off its efforts, agree on when and how often you’ll reconnect. Save meeting time by thinking about how often you’ll need updates from the team that can’t be shared via asynchronous communication methods, or collaboration channels.
Also define a dashboard that can be populated automatically as much as possible. Show it to them team for feedback, then keep it updated. Alert the team to updates and provide commentary about what the data means and what action you’ll take as a result. Don’t forget to claim victory when you have one. Even in challenging accounts, good ABM efforts won’t go unnoticed by the customer and shouldn’t go unnoticed by your colleagues.
Want to learn more about how to make the best of challenging ABM requests, or build your programme in general? Check out Inflexion Group’s extensive resources and ABM Academy training options, or reach out to me to talk about how we might help.
