When leadership and GTM teams think about ABM, they think of top of funnel – putting new logos into the pipeline even though GTM teams struggle with accounts going dark. They think of top of funnel even though the reality is that there is a much better use of the ABM lever with existing customer accounts where you can maximize your revenue. In the ABM Done Right Podcast below, Steve Richard (SVP of Revenue Enablement) joins Eric Gruber (CEO of Personal ABM) to discuss how teams can drive ARR, GRR and NRR growth.
Here Are the Key Lessons from This ABM Podcast with Steve and Eric
- Many GTM teams do not know their numbers and what it takes to get there with ABM. They are jumping in without taking a look at the business to see where gaps lie and where we need to change processes, interactions, experiences and motions to get to the numbers that leadership wants. Teams need to look for the red in the business across the buyer’s journey and customer lifecycle.
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- Too many GTM teams are doing a land grab and that doesn’t work in this environment. You want to focus on landing your best accounts that will consistently renew and grow over time. We have to be more thoughtful on the accounts we want to land and expand to become the pillars of the business. These are the accounts where we need to go beyond campaigns and focus on the individual interactions and the account experience to get accounts to revenue faster at a higher ACV and existing accounts to expand with us.
- Part of the reason that teams struggle to drive ARR, GRR and NRR growth is that companies are structuring teams around function vs. aligning with the customer. Chris Walker from Refine Labs also discussed this on LinkedIn, where he mentioned that an all-bound revenue team builds the process and strategy around the customer’s buying process – not the company’s internal departments. We have to stop looking at marketing operations, sales operations and customer success operations and look at revenue enablement and how we’re going to nurture, engage, land and expand key accounts. We need to look across the whole lifecycle of revenue.
- We need to get processes and systems in place to align with customers. This includes content. In many cases, teams focus on content for the buyer’s journey – but not the customer journey which Steve argues is even more important, otherwise you will see churn and miss revenue opportunities.
- It’s not about campaigns. It’s about each touchpoint, each time your GTM teams have a chance to create a memorable moment with prospects and customers. It’s about each interaction and how the human buyers in the accounts you want to win, protect and expand feel after engaging with sales, marketing and customer success teams. We need to change the thinking from a campaign orientation to a thinking about focusing on the right accounts and customers and this is how we are going to orient our marketing and GTM to those customers to maximize ARR, GRR and NRR. We need to get the right account intelligence so we can align with the evolving strategic priorities of accounts we want to win, protect and expand.
Click here to see the account intelligence that should be guiding content, motions, messaging and interactions
- While it is important to enable sales teams to land key accounts, Steve, under the direction of the CEO has put a stronger focus on enabling customer success teams to protect at-risk accounts to remove churn and to drive expansion with their most profitable customers. They are focused on revenue in year 2, 3, 4,5,6, 7 and 8 and so on and increasing the customer lifetime value because that’s where they see the strongest opportunity for future growth. It’s a better business decision to focus on customer stickiness than new sales and it’s why enablement leaders should stop and think about what have they done for their customer success teams and the broader customer experience teams lately. Enablement calories should be focused on what the business needs – and in most cases, it’s in protecting and expanding key accounts.
- Sales, marketing and customer success teams need revenue enablement and account-based enablement where they can get specific content, messaging, and insights for the struggling moments that sit at the center of every deal – moments that need to be listened to, understood, catered to, reframed and solved. We need to enable sellers, marketers and customer success teams in the flow of their work for specific accounts where they can respond with speed and precision no matter what obstacles or opportunities come their way. We need to influence the selling conversation, the account retention conversation, the account expansion conversation and the internal conversations that are happening behind closed doors. Many teams are losing the internal conversation. That’s why accounts are going dark or getting stuck. That’s where churn is happening. Account-based enablement is an area that Steve would like to explore further at Mediafly as he’s dabbled with it but has not gone deep enough due to limited resources. Steve sees that in the future more companies will adopt account-based enablement to uplevel their ABM programs.
Click here to see how Personal ABM can enable your sales, marketing and customer success team
- When Steve started with Mediafly, he noticed that the team struggled with multi-threading before and after the deal is closed. He sees a need to enable sellers and customer success teams to have social, email and live conversations with the buyers and influencers in the organization that they do not yet have relationships with. They need account-based insights and personal content that earns sales and customer success teams a conversation and the right for the C-suite and VPs to engage and get involved in the buying, renewal or expansion process. Customer success and sales teams need to know what content to use, know when to use it and how to deliver the right message across the organization. And, that is not automated sequences in Sales Loft or Outreach. Teams need to know how to deliver high-touch, personal 1:1 messages and content that shows how you are aligned with their business vision, you understand their specific gaps and how it would impact the key decision makers teams are trying to reach – as well as their department and the company as a whole.
- Your ACV is a product of you understanding the problem and your ability to solve the problem for as many people at the account as possible – and your ability to teach for differentiation against the status quo and competitors.
