Intent should not be your biggest factor when it comes to account selection for ABM. In fact, intent-qualified leads tend to result in lower deal sizes as everyone is reacting to the same signals and predefined needs to the point that it becomes a cost-based decision for buyers.
By focusing on the ICP, you can identify those accounts that are a best fit, match your business problem profile and are most likely ready for your solution even though they may not be showing intent. With these accounts, you can create the need and greenfield opportunity that leads to larger deal sizes.
Adam Schoenfeld (CEO of Keyplay.io) joins Eric Gruber on the ABM Done Right Podcast to talk about:
- Intent leads vs. ICP opportunities — what is better
- How teams are ineffectively defining their ICP
- How the ICP should be operationalized across the organization
- How we should engage the ICP
Listen to the Podcast Below:
Key Learnings from This ABM Done Right Podcast with Adam and Eric
- Intent data does not always = real buyer intent so we have to take the intent signals with a grain of salt – and we need to understand what’s driving the intent and why. Intent signals are not predictive of best fit, if the company matches the business problem profile and if the company will grow with you vs. churn.
- Fit is your foundation. Intent helps you with timing and prioritization. If you are focusing on fit – then you can put different strategies to market to accounts that match your ICP to grow your revenue over time. You can balance short-term revenue wins (the ICP accounts showing intent) with long-term revenue strategies where you can win larger deal sizes with accounts that are not yet showing intent. It’s short-sighted to focus on only those that are showing intent despite what Latane Conant writes in her books. Listen to this podcast to see why Latane is wrong when she mentions to only focus on intent-qualified leads.
- Too many GTM teams use proxies to define their ICP. They go into Zoominfo, 6sense and others and put in X industries, X size of companies, and maybe some technographics. They don’t speak to the characteristics that show why your ICP accounts derive the most value from your solution and why they are staying and growing with you. With AI, you can shape your ICP modeling to go beyond proxies and focus on the qualitative variables that are most predictive of an account moving forward with you, staying with you and expanding with you.
- Your ICP is who you serve best, who gets the most value from you and who provides you with the greatest revenue growth. Your ICP is not who you can serve. That’s your serviceable addressable market (SAM).
- On average, ICP accounts only make up 18-25% of the pipeline, which means there is a lot of waste in time and resources. The ICP is not being operationalized. It’s not part of how GTM teams make decisions. It’s not part of the product map decisions. This is happening because GTM teams treat the ICP as a project vs. an ongoing program where there is continuous optimization and reiteration an where there is accountability that teams are actually focusing on the ICP. We need to go beyond defining the ICP and putting it on a static PowerPoint slide and then not have it show up anywhere across the GTM. Click here to learn about our ICP Management program.
Additional ICP Resources:
- More information on our ICP management program plus our on-demand webinar: “You think you have your ICP, now what?”
- Why Your ICP Sucks and How to Get It Right Featuring the CEO of Rev
- Why GTM Teams Struggle with Selecting and Prioritizing Key Accounts for ABM
- Uncovering Your Winnable, Addressable Market (WAM)
- Why Latane Conant at 6sense is Wrong When She Says to Focus Only on Those Accounts Showing Intent
