Read this before you start account-based marketing

Marketing is one arena of the business world in which many people like to throw around fancy terms, like account-based marketing. It seems easy enough to understand: a marketing strategy developed around a specific set of target accounts. The bullseye is smaller than when trying to target a niche or defined target audience.

Instead of one audience with hundreds or thousands of possible members, there are several audiences of ‘one’ so-to-speak. Considering this, most people launch their account-based marketing campaigns without ever really learning about what it takes to generate the desired results. It’s about communication and relationships, folks.

Your expensive gifts mean less to your target accounts than your expression of your genuine care and support for their success. If you can’t express yourself appropriately, don’t bother using this strategy. If, however, you’re very much like us and you are fascinated by the human psyche and how to tap into it for your business’ success, you’re in the right place.

Let’s look at account-based marketing from a different angle to most agencies out there, shall we? (Sidebar: don’t expect your average agency owner to level with everything in this post. It’s going to challenge their ability to overcharge you for account-based marketing services, so anticipate their resistance.)

Understanding account-based marketing

Account-based marketing is a lot like dating:

You find yourself attracted to someone as you discover that they meet more and more of your criteria for an ideal partner.
You plot your strategy for elevating your relationship with that person by finding out what they appreciate and aspire toward, and incorporating that into your controlled interactions.
Maybe you’re a bit nervous on your first date. You overthink and you forget to have fun and be yourself. Your best friend coaches you after the first date debrief and you realise that the next time you want to do at least one thing differently to make it more comfortable for the other person.
You go into the next date more prepared, and the other person starts to let their guard down and possibly shares some of their own anxieties. You relax a little because you’re more aware of the two-way responsibility to build upon the chemistry between you both.
As time passes, you both share and identify opportunities to help and support one another.

Of course, this isn’t a fairytale world and some dates will turn out to be a disaster, but that’s what makes account-based marketing so interesting. It’s a process of deciding who is worth all that relationship-building effort.

Key ingredients for successful account-based marketing

Coordinating the dating process between two people is challenging enough so you can understand our emphasis on the following skills. Your team should be competent in these things if you want to succeed and enjoy your account-based marketing journey:

Interpersonal communication
Knowing how to express yourself at an individual level, human-to-human as we say, is integral to winning target accounts. Not only saying the right words, but listening and processing information and feedback from the other person, being respectful and really seeking to understand what they’re saying — it’s all part of the deal.

Intercultural communication
Just because globalisation continues at a rapid pace, you shouldn’t assume that the people you speak to at your target accounts are exactly the same as you, or that they hold the same frame of reference. It is possible that what offends you culturally may be presented to you unintentionally and unknowingly in an interaction with your target account. Learn about other cultures: religious, regional, denominational, generational, political, lifestyle etc.

Negotiation and persuasion
It’s equally important to know when to push back, resist or redirect attention, as it is to know when to press pause or halt altogether. Practice negotiation and persuasion with your colleagues and allow them to practice on you. Go into conversations with your boundaries clearly defined for yourself and your team, and request time to process anything that’s proposed to you which might deviate from that for which you were all prepared.
Conflict resolution
Above all else, the ability to resolve conflicts and disagreements will help you in account-based marketing. Prepare ahead of time for where conflicts of interest and opinion may emerge. As Jay Shetty talks about in one of his podcast episodes, there is such a thing as a ‘fight language’ and you need to know what your target account uses as a fight language so you can adjust course during the development of your relationship.

The account-based marketing A-team

There is no escaping the need for marketing and sales teams to work together on this. Your star players who form your A-team must each have at least one of the above-mentioned skills. You must draw from both departments if you want to really win hearts, minds and budgets on an ongoing basis.

The mistake most managers make? They overload the people working on account-based marketing operations with other run-of-the-mill work. The famous 80/20 rule applies and, sure, cross-functional training and being able to switch gears — all useful things. There just needs to be an understanding that if a client recognises a stressed, energy-depleted representative of your company engaging with them, they’ll already know they don’t have the best of you.

Stop overworking people. Better yet: don’t start.

Make sure everyone understands who the leader of the pack is, per account, and that tasks are effectively assigned without unnecessary overlap. You could learn a lot from sports coaches for this.

We speak about business continuity a lot with our clients. Our mission is to be prepared and have plans and processes in place for the worst case scenario, with the faith that we won’t need to depend on them to survive. Rather have something and not need it than need it and not have it.

How far are you willing to go for your target accounts?

So, you have your skilled team members in place. What next?

Boundaries, friends. You must define these with the clarity of an enlightened monk. You have to know and understand and work within the parameters of every single person on both your team and your customer’s team.

Do NOT, under any circumstances:

Force, threaten or coerce anyone into doing something by which they are clearly triggered. You don’t know what people have gone through in life. What seems simple or silly to you might legitimately threaten someone’s health and/or mental health. Don’t be an ass.
Outlay funds without approval. In some situations, it can seem harmless to just spend a few extra dollars if it means you’ll win the account. Be mindful, though, that it sends messages of insubordination, disrespect for the team and even weakness to the target account who might walk away with the belief that you’re a pushover. Always take it back to the team and show that you’re processing the information before you make a decision.
Manipulate people into making the decision you want them to make. This takes courage and integrity and in some ways it seems counterintuitive to our jobs as marketers. It is, however, a mark against your integrity when issues arise down the line. You don’t want someone having a lightbulb moment about the time you did or said something which specifically convinced them to go against a core value or overstep one of their own boundaries.

You may proceed

Now that you know about the skills, people and boundaries you should have in place, you’re in a better position to embark on your account-based marketing journey. Account-based marketing services can be expensive so make sure you have the budget in both time and money to go after your dream clients, and good luck!

If you need help with your account-based marketing initiatives, you can contact us when you’re ready to have that discussion.