BNZSA Launches Programmatic Display to Augment Its Digital, Data and Tele offerings

Programmatic will offer customers the ability to create bespoke audience segments around technographic, firmographic and intent data to promote brand awareness and thought leadership content

BNZSA, Europe’s leading IT B2B digital, data and lead generation agency now delivers programmatic display that aims to give customers the ability to deepen relationships with prospects and to enhance subsequent lead generation campaigns.

Underpinned by the cleanest first- and third-party data available, and the largest telephone-based contact centre in EMEA, customers can now look to build fully integrated marketing programmes that utilise a multi-channel approach from a single supplier.

“Clients no longer have to search, evaluate and appoint multiple agencies for data, digital and tele to support their marketing programmes,” said Soniya Ganvir, Chief Marketing Officer and Head of Digital at BNZSA. “BNZSA provides it all under one roof with owned and operated data validation and quality assurance teams that guarantee data integrity and compliance as well as lead quality. Creatives for programmatic can also be produced for our clients by BNZSA’s in-house design team.”

With programmatic, client campaigns are fully integrated from end-to-end and this means BNZSA can maintain an on-going and relevant dialogue with prospects. BNZSA can also track interest and intent and maintain engagement with relevant and valuable content to underpin the personal relationships our Business Development Resources maintain with prospects to nurture leads ahead of handing over to client sales teams.

Layering programmatic to BNZSA’s integrated services has many benefits. Firstly transparency. Programmatic advertising offers a layer of transparency that marketers have struggled to get from traditional advertising.

This transparency is often around data insights and real-time measurement, which can track how creatives and targeting is performing. Brand awarenessis also a key. Programmatic play as it is a perfect way to push brand awareness not just to scale and overall total addressable market but also relevant prospects. Programmatic can also deliver content across multi platforms and devices so can reach those prospects in multiple scenarios such as when they are travelling.

Paul Briggs, Director of Global Corporate Development at BNZSA said, “Programmatic really gives the ability to put the creativity back into integrated marketing campaigns and is a very powerful ally when it comes to converting prospects from a subsequent or parallel lead generation campaign

“Firstly, BNZSA can identify potential prospects for its customers and develop a database rich in technographic, firmographic and intent data. Secondly, BNZSA can then surround these prospects with messaging and brand awareness and measure the metrics.”

This actionable insight can help craft the content for subsequent digital content syndication and enhance prospect engagement with BNZSA’s BDRs as there is already a clear sense of topic interest, relevance and sentiment before any conversation is started.

“Following this approach has a positive uplift in conversions to our Warm Handover Process, where BNZSA agents broker, arrange and moderate a call between the prospect and our customer’s sales or product specialist,” Briggs added. “This ultimately boosts closed won opportunities for our customers up to 300 percent.”

About BNZSA

BNZSA is a leading EMEA marketing agency specialising in tele-based demand generation with a team of more than 300 who are experts in delivering qualified, sales-ready leads. It was established in 2013 and has grown rapidly over eight years. BNZSA is privately-owned, has never relied on third-party funding, and has been profitable since day one. The company is based in Madrid, Spain, and has offices in the UK, France and Morocco. It invests heavily in its agents who are all native language speakers and deliver client campaigns in 16 languages globally. In addition to the uniquely human and personal dimension of the company, BNZSA is a leader in the application of technology to underpin its value proposition. It built its own bespoke CRM platform, and is a pioneer in the use of AI, NLP and ML technologies.

The Benefits of Outsourcing Business Development: Free-Up Your Sales Teams so They Can do What They Do Best… Sell

Business development is essential to keeping sales pipelines populated with qualified and nurtured leads – especially in B2B IT sales. But business development representatives (BDRs), or sales development representatives (SDRs) as they are also known, are not made in a consistent mould, and how they are categorised and deployed may differ from one company to the next.

Maintaining a healthy sales pipeline is critical to near-term monthly and quarterly forecasting and performance, but it can often be a huge challenge. And what about mid- to longer-term planning and sustained momentum? It’s not effective to start every month, quarter or year with a cold start – or an empty pipeline.

There are many functions BDRs can perform to maintain a constant feed to the pipeline and free-up inside sales teams to focus on deal closure and client relationships.

Value-added activities BDRs can perform include:

Clearly, outsourced BDRs can deliver a myriad of tactical duties to enhance inside sales teams’ performance. Here are some key strategic benefits companies can realise when they work with an outsourced business development team.

Generate New Opportunities

Working with an outsourced sales team helps companies gain access to new regions and markets without sacrificing sales for long-term benefit. BDRs who work smoothly and efficiently on lead generation and qualification can be used to test new markets, introduce new products, and open new opportunities for inside sales teams.

No Recruitment or Lengthy On-Boarding

While outsourcing BDRs can be viewed as expensive, it’s a lot more cost effective that hiring and providing benefits to an inside team.

There is No Ramp-Up Time and Leads Are Delivered from Day One

An outsourced BRD team can hit the ground running and begin filling the pipeline immediately. Outsourcing means that clients do not have to wait for a team of BDRs to become experienced. Clients gain experts instantly. The BDRs that agencies have on staff are highly specialised and often have years of experience prospecting and generating leads. 

They know what’s what when it comes to business development and will apply their knowledge to your business from day one. 

Prospecting Efforts Result in Better Leads to Fill Your Pipeline

More leads aren’t always better. Outsourcing business development means higher quality leads. The BDRs works with sales teams to identify key qualifiers for leads, then applies that to their process to deliver the people who are more likely to close.

It is Cost effective Because You Only Pay for The Days That Are Worked

Clients can structure their outsourced BDR teams to suit their needs with flexible time allocated to campaign delivery.

The Team is Scalable and Development Can Be Amplified or Dialled Down Instantly

Changes to a BDR programme can be costly and time consuming when conducted in-house. Outsourcing gives flexibility to change sales needs and can help to grow new programmes quickly.

External BDRs also know how to shift resources to where they are most needed thereby keeping costs down, while maintaining productivity and results.

Improve Your Close Rate

Better prospecting with an outsourced BDR team means better leads. Better leads are more likely to close with sales reps. 

Increase Customer Satisfaction and Retention

Freeing-up internal teams from cold calling, prospecting, and other sales development tasks means they have more time to dedicate to building relationships with clients.

Essentially, inside sales get to do the things they do best which can increase their own job satisfaction and productivity. This, in turn, provides a higher quality experience to customers and clients.

Free Up Your Time

Outsourced BDRs mean that firms can focus on more important matters. There is no need to take time building processes and KPIs for an in-house team, and there is no need for on-boarding or train either. 

State-of-the-art data science means that agents are already working on high quality prospects. Also, agents receive active personalised coaching for continuous improvement in service and quality.

Quality Control Ensures Warm, Qualified Leads

To close the loop, the best agencies vet every lead generated before it is sent to the client.

In essence, outsourced BDRs provide companies with many advantages that reduce the burdens they are likely experience when trying to build their own BDR team.

Why the Creation of Virtual Sales Teams is Imperative in an Increasingly Digital Age

In an increasingly digital first world, it is perhaps inevitable that companies look to technology solutions to solve pain points such as pipeline acceleration before they look at how to fix internal workflows and processes that should be supporting their sales teams.

But how many times has a new technology implementation failed to deliver its promise to magically harmonise the sales and marketing function or improve the customer experience or more importantly help generate revenue growth?

The answer is all the time.

But this is not to say that companies don’t need the latest and greatest technologies to manage and process great swathes of digital information from suppliers, partners, customers etc. They do.

The issue is often that internal teams spend more time collecting, analysing, and processing the data from these platforms than selling or speaking with their customers.

So, what can be done to optimise your technological investments with your human resources, both of which take a lot of funding, to get an optimised and data rich sales operation?

For the larger corporations that have the deeper pockets, the solution could be to increase investment in inside sales teams but this might not be a viable option for companies with more limited resources.

And just because you can afford to staff up, should you when there are agencies that can provide the necessary expertise and processes to offer business development representatives (BDRs) that can enhance your sales strategy, close more deals and boost revenue?

Benefits of outsourcing your business development

If your current pain points are involved in looking to build sales pipeline and scale faster, you probably should seriously think about working with a partner to provide you with a virtual sales team to instantly add more skin to the game.

Outsourced teams are also extremely useful when you want to reach new markets and to take advantage of the outsourced team’s expertise, technology, and extensive services that you might not otherwise have access to in-house.

And as mentioned above, another reason why companies outsource BDRs is because it tends to be more cost efficient than hiring a full inside sales team. 

So, if you are considering going down this route, here are a few things you should consider when outsourcing BDRs:

1. Save money with outsourced BDRs

Business development efforts often require a sizeable financial investment. Clients will need to weigh the cost versus the benefits to ensure they can gain a proper but realistic return on investment. 

To do this, firms must consider how much it would cost to build an in-house team, their goals, and the timeline to reach these objectives. This will give a better understanding about the direction to go in and identify actual budget and expectations.

2. Save time with outsourced BDRs

Setting up a whole in-house team of BDRs takes a long time. Outsourcing is a lot quicker. The best agencies can start by working with clients’ messaging, customer journeys and playbooks because they already have the experts and infrastructure in place. They can start delivering warm, qualified leads in a matter of days, not months.

3. Reduce the effort required from your in-house team

Realistically, clients will need to be involved with the outsourced BDRs. How much, depends on the agency selected. In the beginning, they may require a lot of information. But the best agencies provide clients with a dedicated Account Manager who is the main point of contact and can provide campaign reporting with a high degree of agreed frequency.

Overcoming Negative Perceptions of Outsourced Business Development

Pricing is the most common objection BDRs hear when they are meeting with prospects. Clients may think it costs a fortune and that you don’t have direct control over the results. This can make it scary to venture into the unknown if you’ve never used these kinds of services. But instead look at the actual value that comes with the cost. Cost savings is usually one of the main reasons for outsourcing BDRs in the first place. Bringing on an in-house team is quite expensive with recruitment, salaries, benefits and real estate to consider. Not to speak of the time and cost investment in training new team members.

Control is another reason why companies opt out of outsourcing sales. Some might think that because BDRs are in direct contact with prospects, there is concern about if they will represent the client company well. It may seem like total loss of control to have sales reps out of sight. But consider this: In-house staff can’t be monitored all the time as they complete their tasks – especially in today’s increasingly remote working environments. 

Rest Assured…

Good BDRs are self-managed most of the time, but the best agency teams have strong developmental support systems and feedback loops. Also outsourced sales agencies have a system of checks and balances to ensure their BDRs are performing the proper activities by quality control, mentoring and coaching.

Remember, agencies are only as successful as their clients are. They will have a vested interest in providing clients with the best results possible. The best success is achieved through trusted partnerships. And The best route to success, is a physical team of well-developed and mentored BDRs underpinned with state-of-the art tech.

BNZSA Appoints Seasoned IT B2B Sales and Marketing Leader Paul Briggs as Director, Global Corporate Development

Leading European B2B IT sales and marketing agency, BNZSA, has appointed Paul Briggs as Director of Global Corporate Development to augment its management team and accelerate its hypergrowth trajectory.

BNZSA is one of Europe’s largest B2B marketing agencies and specialises in tele-based demand generation services with more than 100 clients which include Acer, Dell, Fujitsu, HP, Intel, Juniper Networks, Oracle, Samsung and SAP. The company is in a period of sustained growth, recording 274 percent year-on-year revenue growth in Q2 2021 and is forecasting more than 300 percent annual revenue growth by year-end.

Briggs has more than two decades of experience in B2B technology starting as a journalist, then becoming a publisher for leading US, UK and European IT trade publications.

After leaving publishing, Briggs set up his own consultancy business to help marketing, media and technology companies develop a presence in EMEA and APAC and implement successful go-to-market strategies – organically, via partnerships and through mergers and acquisitions.

“I’m extremely excited to welcome Paul to the team – especially at this time of hypergrowth for the company,” said Brahim Samhoud, CEO of BNZSA. “His extensive experience in business development will help us make the right strategic alliances to extend our value proposition to clients as well as furthering our geographical and vertical reach.”

Briggs began his career as a journalist for Computer Business Review and has written for and edited many leading European IT titles within VNU Business Publications, Ziff-Davis, IDG and Reed Business Information. He later became the publisher of leading trade publications including ComputerWorldUK and Computer Weekly. 

Briggs set up his consulting business, Media Mantra in 2011. One of his first clients was Madison Logic where he was responsible for its EMEA business and then as an employee the General Manager of its EMEA and APAC business. At a Madison Logic he was one of the first suppliers to offer customers content syndication based on intent data. He also helped roll-out an automated platform for account-based marketing. Briggs then moved on to performing a similar pan-European General Manager role at Selling Simplified.

“I’ve worked with BNZSA since its inception and have developed close professional ties with many of the team over the last eight years,” Briggs added. “I’m thrilled to be joining the organisation in a period of rapid growth and innovative development. I’m looking forward to devoting a lot more of my time to growing the BNZSA partnership ecosystem to accelerate its international growth.”

BNZSA in Numbers

About BNZSA

BNZSA is a leading EMEA marketing agency specialising in demand generation services with a team of more than 300 who are experts in delivering qualified, sales-ready leads. It was established in 2013 and has grown rapidly over eight years. The company is based in Madrid, Spain, and has offices in the UK, France and Morocco. It invests heavily in its agents who are all native language speakers and deliver client campaigns in 16 languages globally. In addition to the uniquely human and personal dimension of the company, BNZSA is a leader in the application of technology to underpin its value proposition. It built its own bespoke CRM platform, and is a pioneer in the use of AI, NLP and ML technologies.

Contact

Clive Savage, Vice President, Communications, BNZSA, clive@bnzsa.com, +44 (0)203 7394982, +44 (0)7951 328740

Intent Data: Its Value to Sales, Channel, Marketing and Business Development Teams

By Saurabh Rastogi, Chief Product Officer, BNZSA

Intent data, ideally enriched with technographic, firmographic and trigger insight, has widespread applications across the broad demand generation machine. Earlier this year, BNZSA launched our Intent Activation Engine to ensure that we and our clients can fully leverage these insights.

Here I look at how Sales, Channel, Business Development and Marketing teams can improve their effectiveness and enhance business results by leveraging rich intent insights. This is based on my experience leading data and predictive intelligence programmes at Oracle across EMEA as well as with a number of BNZSA clients.

Sales                  

Many sales reps have changing or evolving territories assigned to accounts they might be initially unfamiliar with.

A rep with, say, 40 accounts typically focuses heavily on two to four accounts to make their targets. The rest can be largely unknown or ignored.

Intent insight can act as a filter on all 40 accounts on an on-going basis and proactively identify the best account opportunities at any point in time. Reps can then leverage the broader sales support machine – business development, marketing, partners etc. – to nurture and develop these accounts until they are ready to progress to the opportunity stage. This leads to responsible and effective territory management which drives improved sales productivity.

Reps can also set up programmatic intent alerts on key accounts so they are on top of the evolving requirements within these accounts.

As proof, an Oracle rep told me, “I’m more successful now because I prioritise and focus on the accounts in my territory that I know are at the right stage of need and maturity. I know what to position and who to talk to”.

Channel

The Channel problem is the sales problem amplified. ISVs/vendors and partner organisations tend to be small with a relatively unsophisticated level of demand generation. They also have relatively large market segments to cover. Demand generation is largely sales-driven and advanced segmentation is usually not on offer. Intent filtered Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) accounts, with topics to discuss – augmented by rich firmographic and technographic data – makes the channel much more effective. Reps working the channel can now be laser focussed on a limited number of accounts for the best conversion. This data can be either sourced directly or indirectly provided through the larger product organisation.

Business Development

All of the out-bound campaigns executed by business development groups need quality account lists as a starting point. Historically this has been primarily firmographic data, which has contributed to campaign inefficiencies and indifferent results. For various out-bound campaigns at Oracle, I saw an uplift of three to five times when campaign lists were selected using intent. More leads were generated, lead-to-opportunity and opportunity-to-close conversion rates were better, deal size was larger and the time to close was shorter. All campaigns can be supported programmatically so that data driven account selection becomes the business norm.

Marketing and Advertising

For advertising the use case is quite direct by deploying intent signals for specific topics to target accounts digitally or on social media. This can be done programmatically, so digital targeting always leverages dynamic intent data.

For marketing, intent-based segmentation can help to identify the best accounts for event and webinar engagements and focussing on engaging these across the business, rather than to cast a wider net with inferior results. Account Based Marketing (ABM) can leverage intent insights on focussed key accounts to develop ABM plans, prioritise accounts and allocate budget. For the first time, marketing can bring data-based insights to Key Account leaders and have an account-specific viewpoint rather than rely entirely on inputs from sales.

Intent insights can also be used to inform topics for content development which can be used for campaigns, website, SOMO and sales outreach.

In summary, intent data enables all elements of the marketing and sales process to effectively align internally, to focus effort where and when it is best applied to deliver measurably improved results.

The future of account based marketing

Account based marketing – A difficult, but rewarding ‘new normal’ for B2B sales

With greater uncertainty about technology investments, the current pandemic has ushered a necessary change in traditional B2B sales and marketing strategies and accelerated a greater need for effective account based marketing (ABM).

Without in-person channels like face-to-face meetings and networking events, it's clear that marketing and sales have really had to adapt. The pandemic has forced a new alignment between marketing and sales, which can only be a good thing!

The challenge remains how to build the close personal relationships that we know are the basis of productive and long-lasting B2B sales partnerships.

Where to start with ABM

Paul Stacey, Head of BNZSA UK, has written a series of blogs about the future of ABM:

  1. How it works, who it’s for and its benefits - recognising the challenges of delivering on a multichannel strategy, Paul explains how you can make ABM work for your objectives. ABM's main benefits are better focus on relevant accounts, earlier and better engagement with deals and ultimately better value for money from marketing.
  2. The software available to help implement an ABM strategy - if you're managing multiple channels, you may want to consider an investment in technology to help stay on top of everything. It's also worth considering working with an agency like BNZSA who can leverage multiple tools and specialisms to get the best results, especially in areas like database strategy and buyer intent.
  3. Why the human element of ABM should not be underestimated - Good agents beat bad digital; good agents complement good digital. In short, every ABM campaign should involve humans. Paul explains how to bring the human engagement into your strategy.

You can also learn more about how our integrated ABM approach can deliver a 70% lead-to-revenue conversion.

Drop us a line via our contact form or reach out to Paul directly if you'd like to chat about this further.

Demand generation powered by people: the future of effective account based marketing (Part 3)

In the third and final instalment of his assessment of Account Based Marketing (ABM), Paul Stacey, Head of BNZSA UK, considers the necessity for quality data and appropriate human intervention in successful ABM.

Let’s not kid ourselves, ABM is difficult

A truism is that not all ABM campaigns are created – or executed – equally. Indeed, some are definitely more equal than others. Don’t be confused by having a TAL. That’s not really Account Based Marketing. ABM is personalising tactics to the account and targeting only those accounts that matter. 

Very often organisations do the targeting but not the personalisation. Relying on flooding the internet and social platforms with ads or hiding behind unsolicited email is a sure way to fail.

You can have all the delivery tools in the world, but ABM is utterly dependent on data – and the quality of that data.

You need quality data to select the right account, and quality data to personalise to that account. You can’t personalise if you don’t know who you’re communicating with. Online and offline, ABM requires data to be able to personalise.

Your data needs to be both demographic and behavioural. Who are your prospects and what are they doing? Can you understand what they care about and what problems they are trying to solve? Get this right and deliver valuable insights and solutions, and you’re getting there.

The smartest companies are able to combine every piece of first-party data gleaned from multiple channels – online, social, webinar, events, media etc. When combined with strong third-party data, an organisation can establish a single view of what every account and every known individual within that account is doing.

In my opinion, very few organisations can do this. Some claim to. Others want to. But only few can.

Smart companies also use data to re-target within and across multiple channels. They also use smart scoring models to track engagement and convert leads from MAL to MQL at just the right time. But be wary of self-fulfilling prophecies. If you re-target a small audience, they will over index on engagement and you’ll get false positive leads.

Demand generation powered by people

So, you’re a smart company. You have your well-oiled multi-channel market plan in place.  You’ve nailed your scoring. Congratulations! How are you converting leads? 

Ultimately, unless you’re selling a solution with very low consideration and a short sales cycle someone actually has to speak to the client or prospect at varying points during the cycle. I wholeheartedly believe in the principle of Demand Generation Powered by People.

As mentioned in the first article in this series, traditional ways of meeting prospects and nurturing relationships is out the window. But that doesn’t mean conversations can’t be had. They just need to be by phone or video conference. Indeed, the very nature of how we work today may offer greater opportunities for the personal touch. People are more captive at their desk at home today than ever before. And with a greater sense of physical isolation, staying connected with the outside world is particularly appealing to many of us – your clients included.

But this requires intelligence and a relational approach. It also raises a number of questions:

There’s no hard and fast rule here. It truly depends on the campaign you’re running and your relationship with the client – but the personal touch is essential for successful Account Based Marketing.

The simple fact is that personalisation through digital alone is hard. Even with the best DCO solution it’s hard and expensive.

Good agents beat bad digital; good agents complement good digital. In short, every ABM campaign should involve humans.

So, can an organisation scale and engage at the right point in the customer journey? Yes, but to do so you need the right data to determine when to engage at the right time, coupled with the human capital to support the outbound calls. Humans can identify bad data, rescue poor leads and convert good leads in a way that machines can’t.

Lead qualification is a good example of using people early in an ABM journey, while BDRs are good example of using them at the end.

I’ll say it again, my mantra is Demand Generation Powered by People because I believe that the best demand generation campaigns are personal.  

ABM is no longer an alternative B2B strategy. It feels like it’s the only one that matters.

To summarise

Demand generation powered by people: the future of account based marketing (Part 2)

In a series of three articles, Paul Stacey, head of BNZSA UK, examines the current state of Account Based Marketing (ABM). In this second instalment, he provides an appraisal of the ABM vendor landscape and where to invest.

Can software alone solve ABM today?

There are multiple activities involved in creating and executing a successful Account Based Marketing programme. These span lead management and marketing automation, sales intelligence and intent data collection, content marketing, email marketing, CRM and customer data management, predictive analytics, and ad serving and re-targeting.

For some companies, investing in one or more of these types of tools is a great way to start an ABM programme.

Many ABM products specialise in one or a few of these areas. While these tools are often complementary to larger account-based engagement platforms, they do not provide a comprehensive ABM solution.

Businesses looking to invest in a platform to support Account Based Marketing should look for solutions that allow them to:

Fully featured ABM, or account-based engagement, platforms usually include the following set of capabilities:

Other ABM related software include:

The challenge is to make the vendor selection that’s right for you, and embed them into your existing sales, marketing and communication programmes.

With careful selection and deployment these solutions can radically improve an organisation’s ability to find, engage and convert target accounts and buying groups. 

But these buying groups are all people. So again, I return to my key point – that demand generation in B2B should be powered by people not just machines.

What ABM tools are you using, how are your teams responding, and how are they helping you succeed?

Demand generation powered by people: the future of effective account based marketing (Part 1)

In this series of three articles, Paul Stacey examines the current state of Account Based Marketing (ABM). He looks at the necessary alignment with sales and marketing strategies; an appraisal of the ABM vendor landscape and where to invest; and considers the essential linkage between high quality data and timely human intervention. 

Account Based Marketing – A difficult, but rewarding ‘new normal’ for B2B sales

With greater uncertainty about technology investments, the current pandemic has ushered a necessary change in traditional B2B sales and marketing strategies and accelerated a greater need for effective account based marketing (ABM).

ABM has been with us for some time. So, it’s not a new and recent readjustment of B2B sales and marketing augured by Covid-19 per se. But the changes in how sales and marketing teams have had to rethink their alignment – perhaps rationalising their account or industry focus – in the current climate means that companies have this year had to respond quickly to new priorities and audiences.

ABM is an obvious plan of attack in our new world. But effective ABM is particularly challenged today as previous direct and personal – in-person channels like face-to-face meetings and networking events – have evaporated. In-person client activities of yore like hospitality at sporting occasions or the arts were arguably on the wane anyway, but intimacy with clients and prospects has never been so challenged. And yet have never before been so important.

Relationships in our increasingly virtual world are less direct and personal, and decision making far more dispersed – both geographically and organisationally.

Effective ABM is expensive, it’s difficult, but executed well, has the potential to deliver exceptional returns.

As most of you know, ABM, also known as key account marketing, is a strategic approach to B2B marketing based on account awareness in which an organisation considers and communicates with individual prospect or customer accounts as markets of one.

Despite its name, ABM is really less about marketing to an ‘account’, and more of an understanding that B2B investment decisions are made by buying committees from varied internal silos. So, their collective actions constitute an indicator of interest, intent and engagement. But reaching the decision-making group is hard and is inevitably increasingly complex. Getting your ABM strategy right has never been more important or tougher. 

A significant part of the promise of ABM is the ability to personalise messages, content and programmes to differentiate by addressing prospect’s specific needs.

How it works, who it’s for and its benefits

ABM is typically employed in enterprise-level sales organisations. If you do it well, you can realise these benefits:

While business marketing has been typically organised by industry, product/solution or channel (direct/social/PR etc.), ABM brings all of these together to focus on individual accounts. Done well, you will reap the rewards of your tailored solutions. Done badly, you will waste a lot of time, effort and money.

So, sellers today need to rely on integrated marketing and communications in a way they have never done before. Marketing needs to be personalised, and it needs to be intelligently deployed across multiple channels. It needs to be joined-up, complementary and highly relevant.

But going the multi-channel way brings risk. A multi-channel approach inevitably waters down spend levels within each channel. The temptation is to increase media spend at the expense of creative personalisation. When this happens the uniqueness of a message is lost, and marketing activities become commoditised and potential customers see little or no difference between suppliers and their competitors. When that happens, price becomes the only obvious differentiator. Personalisation is paramount.

Organisations which are currently seeing the greatest benefit from ABM are IT, Services and Consulting companies. With complex propositions, long sales cycles and large customers, these organisations are ideal candidates for the approach. This is because ABM is ultimately dependant on data, and these sectors major on the value of data. They have complex solutions, and they have complex buying groups.

ABM is, though, spreading into other sectors and a benefit can be seen to be an increased return on investment. Consequently, there is something of a ‘gold rush’ in the ABM automation space.

If you read the ABM technology vendor’s marketing claims, you would be led to think that automation can overcome marketing and sales teams’ current challenge for intimacy with clients and do it all instead – identify, reach and engage with your highest-value prospects – at the touch of a button. But can these off-the-shelf solutions truly automate at scale while retaining key customer insights and preserving intimacy? I think not.

There is a place for automation of course, but it’s worthless without high quality data, and essentially, the intervention of people.

I would argue that the human touch is necessary in at least one, if not multiple touchpoints in any company’s ABM campaigns. Demand generation must ultimately be powered by people.

But how to achieve the perfect marriage of automation, data and people?

Tune in for the next instalment. But in the meantime, what do you think? I welcome your thoughts and comments.