Eric Martin spent 15 years with SAP, including time as VP Account-Based Marketing, before moving to Amazon Web Services. Here he applies his SAP experience to offer tips for driving ABM in complex organisations with multiple products and services.
Understand your customer
It’s critical that the whole ABM team understand the context for a customer; sometimes part of the account can be dormant, while another part is very active. Collaboration was critical at SAP where there is an extensive product portfolio, a huge breadth of services, and many customer relationships within a single strategic account.
Drive data down a two-way street
We shared information between marketing and sales and applied sophisticated data tools to provide insight. SAP has several internal proprietary systems (like Crystal Ball) that gather data and sentiment on accounts and marketing can then work with sales to identify any blind spots and adjust messaging accordingly.
Listen to people on the frontline
Remember, valuable insight comes from your customer-facing delivery teams as well as from sales colleagues. They are out there talking to your clients and listening to their feedback. Developing relationships across the wider team will provide continuity and insights to ensure a deep understanding of your customer’s needs.
Reward loyalty and adoption
Renewals, customer adoption, product usage and customer satisfaction are reflected in marketing KPIs as well as sales compensation and bonuses. At SAP we renamed our sales teams the ‘customer success organisation’ to reflect our extended view of the customer lifecycle.
You can read Eric Martin’s full Viewpoint in Account-Based Growth by Bev Burgess and Tim Shercliff, published by Kogan Page.
