As previously published on 11/3/22 in The Drum

By Scott Gillum
Estimated read time: 5 Minutes

Regardless of what the economists are saying, companies are acting and behaving as if the country is in a recession, which will likely cause a very difficult end of year. 

As a result, organizations are taking a hard look at what they are getting for their investments. 

And do you know what’s not producing…account based marketing. Traditional ABM is not providing the real ROI the vendors promised, and here’s why. 

Right now, most of the value of ABM tools is their ability to track engagement and add new contacts to an account. This assumes that both of those activities contribute to either increasing awareness within the account with key buyers, and/or interest in an offer or solution. 

But is that really true? The best way to determine that is to ask the sales organization.  And if you do, this is what you might find based on our recent work. After accessing dozens of closed deals with sophisticated AI tools across three industries, we found on average, there were 6 or less contacts actively involved in moving the buying process to close. 

Gartner’s research states that on average, 17 contacts are involved in the buying journey. And while that may be true in some respects (contacts may be advisors or consulted in the process), we have found a core group of individuals (often only 3 to 4) push the deal through to close.  

We also discovered only 4 deals where buyers could be traced back to engaging in some type of marketing outreach or offer (download, attend, etc.). Half were already in the buying process, and as you continue to read you will find out why this happens.

It is not that ABM isn’t valuable, it’s just that it doesn’t go far enough. As mentioned, traditional ABM increases contacts and tracks engagement. Account Based Management filters those contacts into categories of behaviors and identifies the movers of the buying process. More importantly, it can help reps understand how to use the group to advance opportunities. 

By doing that, it immediately improves your return on effort. Using AI personality profiling tools allows us to eliminate those personalities that are not likely to either start or drive the buying process. It can identify the core group of individuals likely to drive the process forward very quickly. 

From our research, we have found that there are typically four “roles” represented in the core group. 

1. The Business Requirements Driver – this is typically a functional area head. 
2. The Knowledgeable User – typically this person sits in the functional area and may either start or advance the research on the  issues, solutions and vendors. They are also often the project owner. This role is critical to driving the process forward and often gets overlooked because of their level within the organization (often a director or manager).
3. The Implementer – the person who needs to be involved from an implementation or integration standpoint. Often IT, but it could also be HR, Ops, etc.
4. The Closer – this is not the “closer” of the sales kind, it’s the closer of the buying process. Often procurement, it’s the person who handles setting up the vendor in various systems after approval and could also be the User or the Implementer.  

These players come in and out of the process as it progresses. The key to success is that you need one or two of them to stay with the process. If you don’t have them identified, you’ll lengthen the buying process and/or cause a stall. 

Another shortcoming of traditional ABM is while good at distributing relevant content to contacts within the account, the content alone is not enough to move the buying group. Again, not bad, but not enough. 

It is not sufficient for motivating someone to take action on their own, yet we rely on it almost exclusively. Moving the group forward requires understanding the individuals involved in the buying process, along with their motivations. It also requires knowing how to use the “core” individuals to move other members of the group.You have to know how to motivate them to take action. 

By understanding buyers at a personal level, you’ll discover that some people like to share information and sell others on new ideas. Some buyers like to champion new ideas but only if they see an opportunity to advance their careers. 

Others will never lead and are just happy to be part of the team. All of this is critical for moving opportunity forward, and all of it can be known through the understanding of personality types. 

Extending and enhancing ABM programs with these personality insights also helps address two common misconceptions. First, the need to add more account contacts, which you don’t. And second, content engagement signals intent. For example, there are two personalities who consume content, but are not actively involved in the buying process. 

Years ago, I was that guy building “Always On” programs, but now with advanced AI tools, there are much smarter ways to create, manage and close opportunities in accounts. The exciting part is the opportunity for marketers and sales organizations to work towards a common goal. 

In a recessionary environment, pushing ABM to this next level allows you to become more precise. It increases the chance of producing a positive return which allows you to keep budget dollars… and jobs. 

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