Uniphore, a conversational AI and contact center tech firm, came to Personal ABM because they were driving initial engagement with tier 1 banks like Bank of America but they would go dark after engagement especially when sales became involved. This was happening because content and messaging were not resonating as they didn’t tell the account’s specific story. As buyers go through their journey, we need to increase our relevance., We may start at the industry/persona level with 1: many programs but then we need to get a clustered “situational’ relevance and then when it’s time to get sales involved we need to be relevant at the account level, the decision maker level and the stakeholder level.
The teams failed to address the state of indecision due to their fear of risk. Buyers were stuck in the wasteland between intent and action, their minds were swirling with all the things that could go wrong. Our client did not create an environment and an experience where the buyers were uncomfortable with their current state but also comfortable in making a decision.
The GTM teams slipped into a zone where they were just disseminating thought leadership and being top of mind. They wound up sending out content that was confirmatory. And, they were only marketing and selling ROI vs. the cost of inaction. They weren’t helping the buyers overcome their fear of risk, disruption, spiraling costs, and failure. They weren’t helping buyers change and get comfortable with change. They weren’t giving buyers a foolproof plan toward outcomes that buyers wanted. They weren’t selling and marketing believability and achievability to key accounts.
By changing the content, messaging, and sales/marketing interactions they were able to create a $500K revenue win with Bank of America that was previously unresponsive. Click here to read the full case study.
In the podcast below, Kristina Jaramillo, Eric Gruber, and their guest (David Anderson at Selling Innovations) share how to avoid the mistakes that Uniphore made that limit stage progression. David is co-founder and COO of SellingInnovations, which is part of DCM Insights that is led by Matt Dixon (author of the Challenger Dale and Jolt).
Lessons Learned From This Podcast with David Anderson, Kristina Jaramillo and Eric Gruber
- A lot of people say they’re doing ABM, but it’s really just marketing at a smaller scale to a smaller subset of accounts. To get to true ABM, you need to get customized to the account that you are selling to. And that means you need to understand what they’re trying to accomplish in their business. What are the CEO’s goals? How does that cascade down to whoever you’re selling? How are you customizing your message to that? And as conversations continue, as you learn more, then you can adapt the message, or you can find the next most relevant piece of content or build the next relevant piece of content based on the conversations.
- GTM teams need to take an inventory of all of their assets and put them into 2 columns: Should I buy? And what happens if I buy? 99% of what most companies put out are in the 1st column, not the second column. They are failing to address their buyers’ fears.
- We need to differentiate and compete with content that provides context and tailored guidance. Buyers are asking: What do I do with all this new tech, how do I trust it, and how do I govern it? We have to build a buying vision that goes beyond current needs. This will require teams to orchestrate a roadmap for future and existing accounts. We need to help buyers and customers understand what they need to optimize, automate, or reimagine now and in the future. We need content that helps sales and customer success/account management teams sell or gain adoption for solutions focused on current needs – but also helps them sell a much larger vision. We need to provide buyers with a vision that will embed our solutions across the organization, have accounts become reliant on our company (vs. sales teams), and drive greater CLV and NRR growth (the North Star). We need to change how buyers see us, as the firms that will win will be the ones that change how their buyers view them and how they buy from them. The ones that will win will be the ones that are showing buyers that it’s not just another tool roll-out, it’s a capability build that will continue to build and produce even greater outcomes over the long term.
- COI (cost of inaction) is stronger than ROI, but GTM teams continue to sell and market the ROI of their solutions before they even sell the idea of change to the key accounts they want to land and expand. We need to help buyers answer the question — should we do something different or not?
- Selling and marketing COI and ROI is only 1 part of the equation. What buyers are wrestling with in their mind (which is not often articulated by them) is what happens if I actually do something, They are worried that if risk were to come to fruition (ie. the configuration doesn’t work, the teams do not adopt it or they’re not going to get the promised ROI) they are now responsible. That exposure around making that change and being responsible for that change is what drives customers to go dark. Buyers are afraid of programs going sideways.
- ROI will help you build the business case. COI will help you build the business case, but they’re still afraid to go forward because they’re worried that they’re not going to be able to execute. We have to help buyers build the confidence they need by giving them a plan (not to just get the company to buy the solution) but to get the company to value. We need to show buyers that there is a plan in place to make sure that the program will be successful.
- We need to guide buyers to the most critical capabilities that they need to have. We need to show them how to make the right trade-offs and show them what’s the right solution for them, given what they’re trying to accomplish and what their limitations are. It is our job to help guide buyers on what’s important, what’s not important, what they should read and what they shouldn’t read as buyers get into analysis paralysis with all the information that’s being pushed out. We want to focus them on the things that matter, and give them the confidence that we’ve thought of everything.
Additional Relevant Content to Help You Drive Stage Progression and Win with ABM