Christopher Rack recently mentioned on LinkedIn, “There is a reason a Ferrari costs $400k and a Chevy costs $40k. The Chevy focuses on scale and the Ferrari focuses on personalization. All efforts to scale the Ferrari make it less of a Ferrari – and thus less impressive/valuable.”

It’s the same thing with your ABM content. The more we try to scale our content, the less valuable it becomes to the accounts you want to land and expand. 1:1 ABM is personal. You focus on:

• The account story – and the specific buyers within those accounts.
• Specific situations, needs, and challenges.
• Specific thoughts that need to be reframed.
• Specific selling and internal buying conversations that need to happen.
• Specific use cases and how your solution can be used across the organization — and the specific impact you can have.
• Making a connection with the buyers in the accounts you want to land and expand as selling and marketing at a high level is about establishing a connection, then leveraging that connection to hopefully find a win/win for the prospect and seller.

You can’t scale the connection that your content should create between your teams and your buyers. Yet, most GTM teams focus on 1: few and 1: many ABM content and campaigns to scale the pipeline. They are ignoring the value that 1:1 ABM content can deliver because it’s not scalable, or they do not have the capacity for it. As a result, they do not have the content that…

• Brings together the different buyers across named key accounts.
• Makes the specific business case for their buyers.
• Enables buyers to confidently make decisions in their direction.
• Speaks directly to named organizations and the human buyers within those accounts.
• Demonstrates their relevance to the account’s specific situation.
• Creates the right account experience that moves buyers to revenue at a higher ACV and expands existing accounts.
• Supports selling, retention, expansion and internal buying conversations.
• Makes a difference with less fluff and filler, more insight and dialogue, and more “this is exactly what I needed.”

Below, you’ll see why you need to add 1:1 ABM content to the mix and the impact it can have on revenue.

 

1:1 ABM Content Drives Stage Progression

 

As you can see in the image below, 1: many ABM content should focus on creating demand with key ICP accounts that align with your solutions on an operational, executional, and cultural level, and they are strategically ready for your solutions. Your 1: few ABM content should create sales engagement opportunities with high ICP matches and those that engaged with your 1: many content programs. While your 1: many focuses on industry/persona thought leadership content and content focused on ICP challenges and needs, your 1: few content should be showing situational relevance. Your 1:1 ABM content (which requires the most resources and investment) should only be used with those accounts in the pipeline and to expand existing accounts. Here you are providing custom content to support specific selling, retention, expansion and internal buying conversations. The focus is on telling the account story to drive stage progression and revenue wins.

Notice how you have increased relevance as buyers move along in their journey. Most teams do not have a personalization journey that matches the buying journey. We are in conversations with a vendor of warehouse management and companion SCE capabilities, with approximately $122 million in WMS software and services revenue. They sub-segmented content and outreach by vertical with a combination of digital advertising + SDR outreach that focuses on pharmaceutical distribution and electrical distributors.

Their Entire subsegment receives digital ad campaigns. SDRs monitor engagement (ZoomInfo intent signals, website visits, scoops, etc.). Engaged accounts are prioritized for SDR outreach.including 3 emails, plus voicemail, email, and LinkedIn messages that are framed around Empathy → Education → Action. Qualified leads are handed off to AEs and added to pipeline

Account ownership transitions fully to Sales and Sales is expected to identify and engage broader buying groups, using relevant content that marketing created and put into a content library. But most of the existing content is top-of-funnel and educational. Their current 1:1 content strategy isn’t effectively moving opportunities forward. This is happening because they didn’t increase their relevance as buyers progressed. They stopped at the industry/persona level. It’s not that buyers didn’t believe the story that this supply chain tech company told – it’s that they didn’t see themselves inside the story that was told to them. As the relevance stopped increasing, the buyers stopped progressing in their journey with the supply chain tech firm.

Here’s another example. Uniphore in the contact center and conversational AI space was building a strong pipeline with named accounts like Bank of America. But the accounts went dark after initial engagement. They stopped responding to sales and marketing outreach. 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. They showed prospects that they are smart, up to date on the latest issues and trends, and that Uniphore is a savvy, knowledgeable organization. But they didn’t sell and market change.

They didn’t show future and existing customers that they were missing something. They missed the commercial insight that’s needed to change the buyer’s thoughts on their specific approach, process, gaps, and impacts. They missed the commercial insight that’s needed to uncover the specific big risks that buyers have not thought about before and unseen opportunities. They missed the commercial insight that’s needed to cut through the thought leadership noise because it’s provocative, it’s relevant, and it tells the buyers their story vs. a generalized industry story.

Bank of America (one of their target accounts) had a huge IT team that developed, integrated and is now expanding the capabilities of its own AI virtual assistant system named Erica. They have hundreds of AI patents. Awareness and generic “consideration” content and messaging would not move this account forward.

But that’s the content the team was delivering. At best the company’s awareness content was thought curation and at its worst it was thought regurgitation. There was no clear POV. There was no teaching for differentiation. There was no driving change with status quo accounts. The content, messaging and interactions did not show Bank of America that the GTM team understood gaps in the bank’s current system and how it’s creating challenges within our client’s focused use cases: collections, complaints management, and compliance. They didn’t show the bank that they understand:

• The bank’s strategic vision
• Their product roadmap for Erica
• The desires of the bank’s 8 different lines of business.
• The impact that our client can have.
• Why the bank should outsource vs. spend time and resources on having their internal team implement the changes that our clients would make.

They needed account intelligence to guide content, messaging, and interactions. Through our deep account research, we learned that not only was Bank of America investing heavily into their self-serve platform, but they also invested in virtual reality to train agents and in voice of customer programs to get the feedback they need to improve the customer experience.

But everything was siloed and Bank of America was not bridging the gap between the digital experience and the live experience that customers would receive on the phone and in the banking centers. They weren’t bridging the gap between the customer experience and the agent experience as they did not have the conversational AI and in-call guidance that would help agents follow the best practices they learned during the training to respond to their banking customers’ struggling moments. There were no processes in place to ensure that the feedback that Bank of America received from customers was being acted upon by the agents. This wasn’t the story that was being told to Uniphore within content and messaging. As buyers move along in their journey, there needs to be increased relevance.

Within an account-based GTM, you may start off at the industry/persona level with 1: many campaigns that are focused on your ICP. But then, you take engaged accounts and cluster them to focus on shared situational relevance and shared needs. You then focus on accounts that continue to engage and have shown that they are strategically ready for your solutions and have a strategic priority in place – and you move those accounts to a 1:1 program that is focused on accelerating accounts to revenue. You focus on the specific needs and challenges of individual accounts and focus on the account story. From there, you personalize even further and focus on the decision making units within the account and address their collective priorities, gaps and impacts. And, you personalize to stakeholders to bring the organization together in one direction to help them form a consensus and move toward signing a deal.

 

1:1 ABM Content Answers the “What If I Buy” question

 

A VP of Marketing at a mobile device management company (MDM) recently took our ABM content challenges poll and mentioned that they have limited capacity for 1:1 ABM content. They recently launched Pando Edge AI Solution Accelerator , a project that aims to help organizations transform their edge AI ideas into operational realities.

According to the company, the ability to apply advanced intelligence right at the point where data is generated brings significant benefits, including faster response times and better cost control. For businesses, this approach translates into opportunities for innovation, greater efficiency, and the ability to offer improved customer experiences. The company notes that the global edge AI software market is expected to reach nearly $13 billion by 2032 , and believes many organizations are looking for ways to harness the technology’s potential.

However, the complexity of its deployment remains one of the main challenges facing technical teams, prompting the creation of a platform that combines strategic consulting with support services to accelerate project implementation. Through the Pando Edge AI Solution Accelerator, the company offers a solution that aims to shorten the timeframe for proving the viability of AI on devices, avoiding the need for companies to prematurely acquire additional infrastructure. This approach allows a project to move from theory to practice in a matter of weeks, while organizations maintain control over their investment and can evaluate the solution’s profitability before scaling it. Furthermore, it emphasizes compatibility with existing equipment and systems, aiming to reduce the complexity and risk of implementations. This platform also offers comprehensive support to ensure that, once the proof of concept is established, scalability to a large number of devices is seamless and secure.

While the company’s platform dramatically reduces the complexity of deploying AI on mobile devices, buyers will still be very cautious and afraid of the risk of disruption, failure and spiraling costs. While the company has content that answers why companies should invest in their Pando Edge AI Solution Accelerator, they do not address the “what if I buy” question. Unless you take a 1:1 ABM content approach to address your buyers struggling moments/specific concerns and help them become comfortable with change, there is a high possibility that your buyers will become indecisive. This is especially true if your named accounts tried a similar solution or approach and failed before.

We recently talked to the sales leader at a digital transformation firm. One of their biggest prospects spent half a billion dollars ($500M) on transforming with firms like McKinsey, and they failed twice. The sales leader gave a proposal price of $4M (pennies compared to what the prospect spent in the past), but he still can’t get the company to buy.

The company was so afraid of failure again.
They were afraid of disruption.
They were afraid of risk.

The sales leader had to deal with the burden that the team failed before, the fear of risk, the uncertainty, and the conservative decision-making. As Clark Barron mentioned below in his post, you cannot just sell value. Buyers do not just care about value – they also care about perceived risk.

Buyers fear the risk of failure and the risk of disruption to their operations. They need to believe that you have the right processes in place to mitigate their risk. You need to show buyers that you understand their specific solution and their concerns. You need to address where challenges may arise and that you have the ability to mitigate the risk. Most teams like to show a rosy picture without the thorns, but it’s how you deal with the thorns that helps companies see that you actually mitigate risk and that you will provide them with the promised value.

Your 1:1 ABM content can be the architect of trust that you need with your buyers. You must demonstrate that you can remove the risk of failure, disruption, and spiraling costs. You have to show how staying the same is riskier than moving forward with you — and that you are the safer choice. Unless you do that, you will not displace legacy tech, and you will not win over those that failed before or are indecisive about moving forward with your solution.

 

1:1 ABM Content Builds the Buying Vision (Now and for the Future)

 

GTM teams need 1:1 ABM 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). For example, those selling and marketing AI and digital transformation solutions will need to change how their buyers view them and how buyers buy from them. The ones that will win will be the ones that are showing buyers that it’s not a tool roll-out, it’s a capability build that will continue to build and produce even greater outcomes over the long term.

We’ve been talking to the AVP of GTM at a GenAI firm with solutions to help software engineering teams along the software development lifecycle. Through co-creation services and its AI platforms, the company looks to change, redefine, and reshape how software development teams work by ensuring that AI is integrated into every aspect of the enterprise software development lifecycle – and that modernization is seamless.

They need content to show future and existing customers how they can positively impact the end-to-end scope (from ideation to deployment) for targeted accounts, where they will see improved productivity, quality, speed, and transparency. They need to show a roadmap on how they’ll reduce the minimum viable product development time, lower technical debt, free up capital, and drive innovation and growth across target accounts in the banking, healthcare, retail, and manufacturing industries. A recent HFS Horizons report even mentioned that the firm needs to showcase more examples of new value creation and innovation utilizing Gen AI. They’ll need content that shows the new value creation that can be achieved that business, software development, and IT teams at named key accounts are not thinking about. Most importantly, they’ll want to show how the firm can provide that value for that target account, as many clients do not perceive the company to be a fit for different aspects of the software development lifecycle, including quality engineering.

Your team’s ability to keep and expand key accounts can be determined by the account experience that’s delivered before the deal is even closed and how you change the buying dynamic. The account needs to see how you will help them achieve their current and their future strategic initiatives and how you will increase their maturity over time.

 

1:1 Content Embeds Your Solutions Across the Organization and Enables You to Displace the Competition

 

DAT Freight and Analytics struggled with enterprise accounts seeing them as a “nice to have” solution vs a “must have” solution. They were also challenged with making the competition irrelevant to win higher value deals as there are much lower priced competitors and suites like E2Open offer transportation analytics for free. While the competition does not offer freight rate analytics at a component level and their analytics aren’t as extensive, DAT was consistently losing to their competitors.

• DAT recently lost a high-value deal to Uber Freight because the rate analytics the prospect was getting was “good enough”
• There are lots of E2Open customers that are not DAT customers as well as the rate analytics are “good enough.”
• DAT’s win/loss data shows that they repeatedly lost to Freightwaves, whose costs are 2X-4X lower, and provide rate analytics that are “good enough.”

The content didn’t reframe the prospect’s thoughts on rate benchmarking analytics, show new ways of using the rate analytics, and the role it can play in key priorities across the supply chain organization. They didn’t show the impact that predictive rate analytics at a component level (something others cannot deliver) can have on:

• Pricing strategies to protect future margin growth
• Demand planning, distribution, and merchandising so you can reallocate products based on balancing demand data with predictive future “industry” and “component” freight rate trends.
• Supply procurement and operations as they can leverage demand forecasting with future component rate analytics to determine inventory levels for a stronger P&L based on inbound logistics costs.
• Sales and marketing, as they can plan ahead for promotions at the right time, based on demand planning and predictive freight rate benchmarking for minimal impact on the margins.
• Operational scenario planning to help build out playbooks to protect future profitability.

The content didn’t demonstrate how DAT Freight and Analytics can help each team across the supply chain, including finance, sales, marketing, and operations, make decisions based on real-time and predictive rate benchmarking data at both the industry level and the component level. They weren’t focused on the content; they needed to drive demand with high-value accounts, capture demand across the organization, and then accelerate that demand to revenue using 1:1 content that shows the specific impact DAT can have across key organizations.

Because DAT Freight and Analytics failed to show VPs of Supply Chain and the Chief Supply Chain Officer their specific gaps across the organization and the impact that DAT can have across their organization and on their strategic priorities, sales were often directed to speak a few levels down to the transportation manager or director. They weren’t armed with the right 1:1 ABM content to show how predictive freight rate benchmarking at the industry and component level should have on the complete organization where it becomes a must-have, embedded solution.

As a result, sales focused on cost savings and the size of their data, which VPs and the C-suite saw as nice to have, as they did not see the role that DAT can play in the bigger picture. Even the transportation managers saw DAT as a nice-to-have, as reports from Clozd show:

• Toyota was only going to use DAT data to understand the value of long-term agreements between them and carriers, and they felt that they would not see the value based on the high price tag. DAT was only responding to the predefined need (use case) vs. building a vision for how their platform can be used.
• Matthews felt that they would not use the platform enough throughout the year to justify the investment.
• Dole thought the cost of the product was high to the extent it could equate to an analyst’s salary, and they thought there could be more cost-effective solutions. They were putting the DAT platform into a transportation analyst silo and not thinking about the impact it can have across the organization.

By focusing on 1: few and 1: many content that reframed how supply chain teams viewed freight rate analytics and then 1:1 content on the specific impact that their solution can have across the target organization, DAT was able to win enterprise accounts that were on Gartner’s Top 25 Supply Chain list.

Digizuite (a digital asset management platform) is another example of a company that struggled to embed its solution across the organization and make their competition irrelevant. They faced heavy discounting pressures from competitors like Bynder and they continually lost enterprise deals to trusted legacy platforms like Sitecore and Adobe. Sales, marketing and customer success teams focused on marketing departmental pain points just like their competitors, so they were not able to drive engagement across the organization.

They failed to teach for differentiation and show target accounts how Bynder, legacy platforms like Adobe and Sitecore and other competitors do not integrate into the enterprise organization even though Forrester and Gartner reports show that most DAMS are under-utilized and are not leveraged outside of marketing. They didn’t have 1:1 content that showed gaps and impacts across marketing, advertising, PR, eCommerce, sales, operations, customer service, CX, account management, finance and business leadership teams. The content didn’t show how the competitor-specific gaps will impact specific strategic priorities of their target accounts and their ability to achieve strategic objectives.

In today’s digital environment where sales and marketing is pushing out more messaging and content, Gartner found that additional customer research and learning does not lead to greater clarity. It leads to deeper uncertainty. More often than not, today’s customers are left with no clear means for evaluating trade-offs or moving forward with sufficient certainty to justify an expensive, potentially disruptive purchase. Digizuite needed account-specific 1:1 ABM content, messaging and interactions that would help buyers evaluate information, prioritize various sources, quantify trade-offs and reconcile conflicting information. And, they needed to do this all while helping customers arrive at their own understanding of why they needed to move forward with the Digizuite solution.

By changing their 1:few and 1:many content and adding 1:1 content that focused on the account’s specific situation, Digizuite saw a:

1:1 ABM Content Influences the Internal Buying Conversation

 

In a recent ABM Done Right Podcast, Mark Stouse, CEO of Proof Analytics, mentioned that the analytics show that ABM has a greater impact at the middle and bottom of the funnel than at the top. Yet most organizations do not think about how they will strategically accelerate accounts toward revenue. They do not think about how they can use ABM to drive a buying consensus across the organization. In fact, Mark Stouse said that most ABM content and campaigns work against the objective of ABM as it promotes “self-interests” vs. “team interests”.

CNBS Software, an ecommerce and account receivables solution, that competes with SAP Hybris, Magento, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, and other legacy platforms, learned that there should not be a hand-off between sales and marketing once selling conversations begin, especially if they want to continue getting wins like:

They learned that sales and marketing need to work together across the buyer’s journey and customer lifecycle to land and expand accounts as they were struggling to move stuck accounts forward. CNBS Software was losing the internal conversations that sales and marketing were not part of.

For example, they used ABM to get conversations with a healthcare products firm that serves long-term care (LTC), skilled nursing, assisted living, hospice, and VA facilities. This firm wanted to move from a traditional phone and fax sales system to a modern, self-service e-commerce platform. But, the firm has two sides of the business to support: new purchases, which are in strong demand, and rentals. Our client’s software which was designed specifically to integrate with SAP’s ERP, does not have the capability at this time to meet the needs of “rental” businesses.

Despite having a team-to-team call and seeing a demo, the executive buying team at the healthcare product firm was still hung-up on what to do with the rental business. They did not see the risks, costs, and impacts of choosing an e-commerce platform that sits outside the ERP but accommodates both sides of the business. Sales tried having further conversations with the team. But the VP of IT acted as the gatekeeper and kept the distance between sales and the “buying team” that was collecting requirements in a vacuum and having internal conversations. Before working with Personal ABM, CNBS Software would typically give the team time. In many cases, they were giving teams time to make a wrong decision as they were not working together to influence the internal conversations that happen behind closed doors.

This time, marketing and sales worked together to create a consensus in their favor. Content was created to show the effects of working with an “Outside SAP ⇨ In” platform like Magento and BigCommerce and how it would impact:

• Go-live time and performance.
• The P&L beyond development costs.
• Corporate initiatives, such as IT, would be tied to the e-commerce projects for six to 12 months with the other platforms.
• Margins as other platforms, do not enable customers to segment customers and their pricing by profitability nor provide configurable products whose final features and prices are calculated in real-time by the customer.
• IT operations after the go-live would need to put “manual processes” in place, as most ecommerce platforms are not automatically synchronized and integrated with the ERP.
• The sales team will still need to focus their time on re-orders vs. driving new business.
• Distribution, service performance, customers, and ongoing revenue.

The healthcare products firm needed to see how their decision would have widespread impacts across the company and on customers. Sales teams needed to build social and email relationships with key decision makers that the gatekeeper was trying to keep at a distance – and build those relationships based on insights that would affect their business. And sales was delivering content that was designed to influence the internal conversations that sales and marketing were not part of. Marketing and sales worked together to ensure a “win” vs. taking a 50/50 chance that the buying team would decide in their favor.

Click here for an example of the content that CNBS Software used to influence the internal conversation.

1:1 ABM Content Protects Key Accounts

 

P&G (a long-time client of a RGL Logistics – a regional 3PL located in Green Bay, WI that specializes in DC management, WMS & TMS) was a customer that our client looked to grow. The accounts team drove discussions at the Director level. But it was about the activities that were being completed and general “benefits” – and not about the gaps that were filled and how it positively impacted operations, finance, employees, and customers.

Because accounts were not having the right customer conversations that were supported by case studies, 1:1 ABM content, and messaging that proved “unique value” gained and where future opportunities lay, the team was not able to drive top-to-bottom engagement. They could not get access to the VPs and the CXO that Ryder (a larger, national competitor that operated the DC in Green Bay while RGL operated the warehouse) had close relationships with. Three years of having the wrong conversations led P&G to caution our client that the company would most likely move to the larger, lower-cost national provider. This was our client’s biggest customer with the greatest revenue growth potential, and they were about to lose it!

RGL’s teams were like most commercial leaders (nearly 60%) who saw no need to take a different approach between customer acquisition and customer retention and expansion. More than half believe the same provocative messages they use when communicating with new prospects are still applicable in a renewal scenario. But studies from Corporate Visions and others show that customer retention conversations require an entirely different approach – especially when you have to defend the relationship, reinforce your value and highlight the reasons why you are the safest choice.

When it comes to retention, you need to realign with key stakeholders. Most customer success teams focus on adoption, utilization, satisfaction and problem/resolution and they lose track of the metrics and goals that decision-makers actually care about. If teams do not show existing accounts how staying – and potentially buying from you is the safest move, they’re more vulnerable to your competitor’s disruptive messages, as was the case with P&G. They were looking toward Ryder as they did not feel safe and assured that they’re already working with a partner who can help them solve new challenges as they arise.
To overcome the relationship gap with the much larger competitor, the team decided to involve sales & take a personal approach to marketing. This began with looking across each touchpoint that our client can have with key decision makers and influencers and seeing where we can increase relevance and have P&G acknowledge gaps filled and the impact.

Rather than being a credibility tool, case studies were designed for the conversations that sales and accounts teams needed to have with P&G leadership. RGL Logistics moved away from the traditional case study that provides a quick synopsis of the client’s challenge, the activities that were completed and generic benefits. The case study discussed why there were supply chain challenges in the first place at P&G, why there were gaps and how our client was the only 3PL that would have filled those gaps (making the competition irrelevant!)

The case study was built for a conversation that showed the impact on On-Time, In Full Delivery that our client had (a key focus area) and the total value achieved in addition to where the future opportunity lies. Backed by stories, the purchasing manager decided it was time to reconsider buying habits. This led to an intro with P&G’s Director and the VP decision makers, where stories were further validated to prove the case on hard costs vs. soft costs (and risk versus growth).

RGL Logistics needed to consider P&G’s frame of mind during renewal conversations. They don’t currently feel the pain they felt before they chose your solution—they’re living in the “after-solution” state. So sharing quantified results will only put numbers to what they already know. Numbers are helpful, but they aren’t enough to sway your customer on an emotional level. RGL needed to remind them what life was like before their solution. They needed to help P&G visualize the gap between before and after and remind them of the negative impacts they avoided by choosing RGL in the first place. P&G needed that emotional element that numbers cannot provide alone. This is the job of 1:1 ABM content.

The team had on-demand 1:1 content for the conversations that sales and accounts teams needed to have with P&G. For example, our client’s “On-Time, In Full” article showed P&G how manufacturers like Unilever (a key competitor to P&G) have low service performance to customer scores and how it will cost them 3% in profit margins. Within the article, we showed how shipment delays are not just a transportation problem, and they can be caused by how the warehouse and DC operate. Three out of the six stories that prove it’s not just a transportation problem were based on the challenges faced at the P&G plant and DC that our client directly fixed.

Our client’s “Total Value” article was created immediately after the buying committee mentioned that they wanted more than cost savings and that they were looking for increased efficiency, stronger KPI growth, improved customer experiences, and total supply chain value, even though they didn’t know how to define it. Within the article, there are stories that demonstrate how most 3PLs have limited control over inventory turns, even though there’s a 77% correlation between turns and profitability. We demonstrated how 3PLs prioritize cost over their manufacturing clients’ customers, which negatively impacts service performance and organic growth. And, again most of the stories speak directly to P&G. We even created a total supply chain value index and calculator that would help P&G define what they are looking for – and hold RGL accountable to delivering it, which is something competitors were not able to do.

By focusing on 1:1 ABM content to protect the P&G account, RGL was able to protect the account, take the DC away from their competitor. RGL took over the complete Green Bay location. They were awarded new e-commerce businesses without an RFP or bid process. And RGL are also in conversations to expand the contract further to other P&G sites.

1:1 ABM Content Changes Buying Behavior, Increases Margin Growth and Drives Account Expansion

 

Ascension (a Blue Yonder partner) saw diminishing returns after implementing their TMS or WMS solutions. Clients like Sephora would trade dollars for hours to fix on-demand challenges that may arise even though Sephora’s warehouse and DC were not scaled to meet the needs of a fast-moving operation or the needs of their 2300 global stores and their e-commerce customers. The manufacturer’s tech did not enable the warehouse to prioritize replenishment, which led to delayed orders, waves, and carrier moves. They weren’t engaging in planned distribution where the warehouse knows how products will ship to stores even before it arrives at the warehouse. While they implemented automation for expected volumes, the company lacked fulfillment automation for surge demands caused by new, hot lipstick colors or holiday demand.

Driving this, most tech implementation consultants functioned like the manufacturers’ line workers: reacting, not proactively strategizing. Our client kept receiving a shortlist of 30 pain points needing coverage within six weeks to go-to-market causing our client to build for “wants”. Because our client was not having the right customer discussions, Sephora would treat our client as technicians and pay for man hours vs. strategic value that has higher profit margins and revenue growth. And Sephora would try to penny-pinch and negotiate the number of hours and resources that would be needed for different projects.

Leadership, Sales and Account Management Teams Were Having the Wrong Conversations and Interactions. There was no conversation involving our client in the go-to-market planning of new products or lines. They didn’t have the content, stories, and messaging to show how building for 30 software points, only seeing 5–8% of the entire picture is leading to missed details and requirements as there’s no visibility into pipelines, growth plans, customer-driven needs, and current/future operational bottlenecks. They couldn’t show the impact and how it delayed retail/e-commerce presence, wasted marketing dollars, increased days in inventory, slowed cash conversion cycles, missed customer shipments, and created out-of-stock conditions. They couldn’t show Sephora how the current reactive IT approach was allowing Ulta to beat them in customer loyalty and for Amazon to make inroads with the high-end beauty market as GTM time for new products and shades was increased by six months.

Ultimately, they didn’t have messaging, content, and support for the “why evolve” conversation that needs to happen to change buying behaviors and expand profit margin and revenue growth.

To win the “why evolve” conversation, Ascension Logistics needed to:

1. Document results so Sephora can acknowledge the impact that our client had on their business for 5+ years
2. Highlight evolving supply chain pressures and competitive pressures from companies like Ulta and Amazon. They needed to describe shifting internal and external pressures as a logical progression or evolution not a surprise or disruption.
3. Share the hard truths on Sephora’s supply chain gaps and impacts on operations, customers, sales and the P&L. They needed content and messaging to highlight the missed opportunities both internally and externally from Ascension’s vantage point as a trusted partner and not just another technical vendor.
4. Emphasize the potentially harmful risks and repercussions of not changing their approach to supply chain technology and de-risk moving forward in a new way.
5. Get personal and show Sephora the specific upside opportunity that’s available to them and not generic benefits. They needed to transfer ownership of the solution and all of the internal/ external positive impacts Sephora can expect from making the change.

Ascension needed content for specific account management conversations and Sephora’s internal conversations. Before, working with Personal ABM content was designed to only support “acquisition” campaigns vs. the “customer success conversations” and “interactions” that account management teams need to drive revenue growth with existing accounts. Account management teams were left to their own devices to reframe thoughts and ideas, demonstrate relevance, make an emotional connection and build the business case as described above.

By having content that supports the “why evolve” conversation not only was Ascension having the right interactions – they were able to influence the internal conversations that happened behind closed doors and build a consensus for change, Ascension was able to drive 25%+ more profitable growth with Sephora and other top accounts.

Final Thoughts & Opportunity for a Free ABM Content Assessment

If you want to land and expand more enterprise accounts, then we need to increase our content’s relevance, provide tailored guidance and context, change the narrative, create a larger buying vision, align teams across the organization, and build trust. We need to go beyond top-of-funnel thought leadership and create content that addresses the why change, why now, why you, why stay, why evolve, and why expand conversations.

If you are struggling to drive stage progression, go upmarket, expanding key accounts, and drive greater NRR growth for your AI or digital transformation solutions, book a free ABM strategy session with us. We will assess your ABM content, show you where gaps lie, and identify your growth opportunities.

Schedule a call below.