Many marketers like Tyler Pleiss have been talking about an account-based GTM on LinkedIn. Demandbase and Davis Potter at ForgeX even created an account-based GTM certification. But, what does an account-based GTM mean?
Is it just another acronym to add on top of ABM (account based marketing), ABS (account-based sales), ABE (account-based engagement) and ABX (account-based experience)?
Account-Based GTM is about aligning the complete marketing function as well as sales and customer success teams to focus on the true ICP.
In their Sales and Marketing Alignment Report, Mutiny found that 82% of sellers and marketers say closing more enterprise accounts is important to their company. But only 15% of sellers say marketing is highly effective at generating opportunities with high-value accounts for them to close.
There’s an issue here and it comes down to the focus of sales, marketing and customer success teams. When we do pipeline assessments for new and existing accounts, in most cases, we find that ICP accounts only account for 18-20% of the pipeline.
This is happening because teams are focused on the total relevant market vs. attracting, engaging, landing and expanding enterprise accounts that are in alignment with their companies and their solutions. They’re not identifying/prioritizing the right accounts and the website, content, messaging interactions and experiences do not speak to the ICP so teams struggle to bring the right accounts into the pipeline – and then move them to revenue. We need to align on the true ICP and orchestrate the ICP to focus GTM efforts on the accounts that can bring the greatest long term revenue growth.
Click here to read how most GTM teams do not have a true ICP
With an Account-Based GTM – Your North Star Is Not Pipeline Growth, ACV, MRR or ARR.
While we want to increase ACV (ABM deals should be at least 1.5 – 2X higher than other deals), improve enterprise win rates, and drive stronger MRR and ARR — the North Star metric should be NRR. When you focus on NRR…
✔️You focus all GTM teams on the complete buying journey and customer lifecycle. You have the teams working together as 1 function in unison to shift how they GTM. When you take an account-based GTM you understand that marketing does not have a problem. Sales does not have a problem. Customer success doesn’t have a problem. The GTM has a problem and we win together and we lost together (but hopefully more wins!) It’s understanding that the experiences that one team delivers will impact the experiences the other teams deliver and the overall account experience.
Account-Based GTM is About Connecting the Business Strategy to Your GTM Execution – and Making the Necessary Changes.
In many cases, ABM is being retrofitted on top of existing content, messaging and processes. Teams move right away to defining their ICP, the account list and the tactical components. They are just doing better targeting but they are not aligning their programs with the business goals. They’re not changing:
- How they think about the business and ensuring that they have a strong POV so they can come to each buyer/customer interaction with a POV about their business
- How they package their solutions
- How they communicate their value
- How they structure their GTM teams so they work as 1 function
- How they compensate SDR teams to support ABM and business goals
- The content, interactions and account experiences they deliver
- How they engage buyers across the organization throughout the buyer’s journey and customer lifecycle.
- How they enable buyers and customers to confidently make a decision
- How they overcome risk aversion and demonstrate the cost of inaction
- How they teach for differentiation against competitors and the status quo.
As Joel Harrison mentioned on our ABM Done Right Podcast, you need to forget about tactics and technology and focus on business and GTM transformation.
Click here to listen to the podcast with Joel Harrison
Click here to see how most teams are not ABM ready
Account-Based GTM Should Have Teams Going Beyond MQAs, MQLs, and 6QAs
MQLs can be your hidden enemy. They force you to optimize for something so early in the funnel that you’re setting yourself up for failure. To us at Personal ABM, the MQA is just the new MQL. It’s very subjective – and each team has its own definition of an account being “qualified”.
If NRR is the North Star (which it should be, as we talked about earlier in the article), then accounts should be GTM Qualified where there is an agreement between all teams on the accounts to work together on because:
- The accounts have proved that they align strategically, operationally, executionally, and culturally with the solution. This is key to accounts landing, staying, and expanding with you.
- The accounts have proved that they are strategically ready for the solution.
- The accounts have shown that they have an active priority where you can play a strong role.
- The accounts have shown that they are facing a situation where you have a situational story to tell.
- The accounts match your business problem profile.
- The accounts do not have your anti-ICP characteristics.
- The accounts have the right buyers engaged.
It’s time we go beyond the MQL and MQA, especially if we are going to start taking an account-based GTM, where you should be optimizing for long-term results. Optimizing for the long term means focusing on NRR and CLV growth, which requires teams to work together. MQAs are still too short-term, just like MQLs. Same issues, just a different acronym. We need accounts to be GTM qualified across the buyer’s journey and customer lifecycle.
Account-Based GTM Goes Beyond Campaigns
With an account-based GTM, you think about each individual touchpoint that all teams have with buyers/customers and each individual interaction and the impact it has on the collective account experience. You think about how buyers feel after each interaction and engagement. You think about the struggling moments that sit at the center of each deal and how the teams together will overcome those moments that need to be listened to, catered to, understood, reframed, and answered.
You think about how you’re going to nurture buyers/customers from a sales, marketing, customer success and even a product perspective. Instead of thinking about scaling activities and tactics, you think about the impact you can have on revenue by improving account interactions and experiences – and building the right “human” relationships with the buyers inside accounts you want to land and expand.
Account-Based GTM Integrates 1: Many, 1: Few, and 1:1 Approaches
Account-based GTM has you integrating 1: many, 1: few and 1:1 approaches vs. taking a siloed approach like the traditional ABM pyramid, which has you running 3 distinct, different programs based on tiers vs. supporting a buyer’s journey with increased relevance along the way. The ABM pyramid has you putting 1:1 ABM where it is the least effective. It should not be sourcing the pipeline.
Done right, 1:1 ABM is not scalable. It takes a significant time, resources, and money investment to do 1:1 ABM right. This investment should be used with accounts that have the greatest probability of landing and expanding with you at a high ACV. As we were telling an EVP of Marketing at a company with $95K ARR to $650K ARR deal sizes, your 1:1 should be focused on moving accounts to revenue. It’s about improving the experiences that sales, marketing and CS success teams have at the middle-to-bottom of the buyer’s journey. Her company was following the traditional ABM triangle, where 1:1, 1: few and 1: many programs were siloed vs. integrated. When you take an account-based GTM motion, the ABM programs are streamlined, where you increase relevance as buyers move along their journey.
You may start with 1: many (targeted demand gen), focusing on ICP accounts and hitting industry and persona relevance. You see which ones are engaged and which ones have a situation where you have a situational story to tell. You cluster these accounts and do a 1: few program. You see which ones engage — and you see which ones in the engaged accounts have a strategic priority that you can play a strong role in. You now start telling the account story and have content and messaging that’s bespoke to the account and to the different decision makers.
With an account-based GTM, you focus on the complete account experience and each digital, social, email, and live interaction. You increase your relevance and give decision-makers breadcrumbs of value along the way—breadcrumbs that grow bigger and bigger. You think about how you’re going to integrate the five different ABM approaches that were recently identified in the new book by Bev Burgess:
- Strategic ABM: Fully customized marketing for high-value accounts
- Scenario ABM: Focused on specific outcomes with specific accounts
- Segment ABM: Targeting similar accounts with common challenges and situations
- Programmatic ABM: Using technology to scale personalization
- Pursuit Marketing: Focused on high-value opportunities
Each approach has a role in the account-based GTM. In future articles, we will reveal our account-based GTM arrow, which should replace the ABM pyramid, and show the role each of the approaches above should play in an account-based GTM.
An Account-Based GTM Should Seed Future Growth
But we need to segment smarter, focus on the true ICP and the winnable, addressable market segment within it, focus on the complete account experience, and measure differently. By focusing on NRR and what’s needed to drive greater lifetime customer value. As mentioned earlier, account-based GTM goes beyond campaigns. It focuses on improving each digital, social, email, and live interaction, as well as the collective account experience. This needs to go beyond tech live Demandbase and 6sense.
Despite new Demandbase product launches (like their new Agentbase) — GTM teams still struggle with limited returns on their investment in the platform. For example. the “Campaign Outcomes Agent” that was pre-released in Q4 may have driven 40% higher click-through rate and a 25% greater lift in page visits than standard campaigns. But, teams are seeing accounts going dark after engagement. They are taking an account-based demand gen approach. They’re just doing better targeting instead of changing the account experience to impact revenue growth now and in the future.
We need to go beyond MQLs or (MQAs — the new MQL), cost of acquisition, and about how many touches (phone calls, emails, ad impressions etc.. Your account-based GTM should focus on fixing the revenue leaks in the business. So KPIs should focus on the issues that are stopping companies from moving accounts to revenue, getting higher wins and driving CLV growth. For example:
✔️ Are GTM teams able to engage VPs and the C-suite or are they directed to speak to managers and directors (a few levels down)? I spoke to an ABM leader yesterday who told me that their strategic account win rates are 13% and enterprise win rates are in the low 20% range. They are struggling to engage VPs and the C-suite, that’s needed to win with strategic and enterprise accounts. They need to change the account experience and their interactions for these accounts — and account-based GTM is about changing the account experience, not just better targeting.
✔️ Are GTM teams able to engage buyers across target organizations? To drive greater enterprise wins, your GTM teams need to align with the strategic priorities of enterprise accounts and embed their solution within the organization. Too often teams focus on departmental pain points vs. focusing on what the target enterprise prioritizes and where they want to go. This is why they are unable to bring buyers across the organization together to form a consensus that leads to a larger deal.
It’s time we focus on the long term and change how we GTM. It’s time we change the account experience vs. do better targeting. It’s time that we give buyers the relevance they desire and move value along the way.
Schedule a call below to see how you can take an account-based GTM approach.