How To Turn Account-Based Marketing Into Account-Based Selling [Podcast]
Even in the B2B world, you aren’t selling to a “business,” you’re selling to another person. In the same way, people don’t buy from businesses, they buy from other people.
The purpose of account-based marketing—and what this week’s Conex Show guest calls account-based selling—is to make connections between the people buying and the people selling. This involves getting to know your audience, building personas, and creating content for the purpose of starting a conversation.
Creating content with an account-based approach means that you’re creating it specifically for a person, and hopefully inspiring a real interaction. Ultimately, account-based selling becomes a one-to-one conversation and a genuine relationship with your potential customer.
Michelle Cirocco, Head of Global Marketing at Televerde, joins the Content Experience Show to discuss ABM strategy and transitioning to account-based selling.
In This Episode:
Why Everyone is Ultimately Responsible for Sales
Marketing can take the time to build out complex campaigns, but our efforts will fall flat if we have not fully engaged sales in the process. Michelle explains how this starts at the very beginning when selecting key accounts, and requires alignment throughout.
“A good account-based marketing strategy should be delivering multiple leads within the same organization and providing a complete picture of this strategic account that’s going to result in a long-term relationship for the company.” — @mcirocco
Content Plays a Crucial Role in a Successful Account-Based Marketing Strategy
Michelle discusses how her team is using snackable content and soundbites in their lead nurturing campaigns to adapt to the changing ways that people engage with content.
“People buy from people, and the role of the content is to warm them up to start the relationship that will build the trust and, ultimately, lead to them becoming a customer or continuing the relationship with you.” — @mcirocco
Transitioning from Account-Based Marketing to Account-Based Selling
It’s important to recognize that there aren’t just multiple buyers, but multiple influencers and recommendations that are involved in the decision-making process. She explains how her approach has always been about identifying the right and appropriate people within an organization to communicate with, and engaging them with topics that are most important and meaningful to their roles.
“Account-based marketing itself has to be complemented by an account-based selling approach.” — @mcirocco