Download Building Your Target Account List

Building Your Target Account List:
The Foundation to an Account-Based
Marketing Approach in Four Steps
A Whitepaper by Demandbase, Inc.
Doug Rekenthaler Jr.
301 Howard Street
Suite 1800
San Francisco, CA 94105
www.demandbase.com
I. Using Target Accounts to Align Sales & Marketing
While the worlds of B2B sales and marketing have undergone enormous change, one
principle remains consistent: The more precisely aligned the sales and marketing organizations, the greater the likelihood of overall corporate success.
The fulcrum upon which the sales-marketing relationship rests is, of course, the target
account. Which is to say, the more that sales and marketing can agree on the DNA of a
target account, the greater the likelihood that the leads from the accounts with similar
DNA will, in fact, one day generate revenue for the company (along with bonuses, raises,
promotions, etc., for the players involved in generating and closing those leads).
“It’s fascinating that the fundamentals
of B2B marketing are the same today
as they were 50 years ago … although
today we have new tools and
techniques at our disposal.”
It’s a remarkably simple formula that too often eludes the typical
company. Indeed, a frequent complaint of B2B sales organizations
is the dearth of quality leads. In a recent survey of more than 1,150
B2B sales executives, for example, only 31 percent of marketinggenerated leads were considered suitable.1 Could it be, for example,
that the majority of “bad” leads were the correct level and title, but
from the wrong companies?
David Meerman Scott
How, then, to create a list of target companies indicative of a precisely aligned marketing-sales tandem? The answer: Unite these two
organizations in a concerted, data-driven exercise to determine which:
•
Accounts we are most likely to sell to (or more accurately, accounts that are
most likely to buy)
•
Marketing-sales efforts worked best in landing those accounts
•
Attributes are shared by those accounts
In other words, create a named account list—the list of the companies we believe are
the most likely to become customers. In this paper we will explore how Demandbase
built its named account list, successfully leveraging CRM data, sales histories, customer
information, sales experience, and third-party data to build a list that keeps sales and
marketing happily (and productively) aligned.
II. Finding Pareto’s 20%
More than a century ago Italian economist and philosopher Vilfredo Pareto observed
that in Italy as elsewhere, 80% of effects come from 20% of causes. “Pareto’s Principle”
which, today, is more commonly known as the “80-20 Rule,” can be translated in sales
and marketing parlance to mean that 80% of a company’s revenue will originate from
just 20% of its leads.
Even organizations unfamiliar with this rule intuitively understand that a small portion
of their customer base is of disproportionate value to the organization. What they don’t
know, however (but sometimes mistakenly assume they know), is which new accounts
and leads are most likely to become revenue.
1
Sales Speaks: Perceptions & Ponderings on Marketing Leads, The Bridge Group and Vorsight
|
2
It makes abundant sense, then, that the B2B organization needs to strive to understand
which of its existing customers fall into their corporate “sweet spot,” where maximum
revenue and minimal resources and expenses intersect. Only then will it have the information necessary to identify and target similar accounts with its
“Business strategy should not be a
scarce marketing and sales resources.
grand and sweeping overview. It
should be more like an underview,
a peek beneath the covers to look in
great detail at what is going on.” Richard Koch,
Living the 80/20 Way
How to identify these accounts? Fittingly enough, in the same way Pareto came up with his theorem and forever changed the face of economics: through the collection and analysis of objectively measurable
data. But it can be challenging, as sales and marketing often measure
success from a different set of reports, sometimes from different data
sets altogether. When a single source for the truth can be agreed
upon, then the measurement, collection, and analysis can begin.
III. Building the List
Step 1: Love the One You’re With
“The truth is that the customers to whom you wish to sell tomorrow are going to look
an awful lot like the ones you sold yesterday,” says Demandbase VP of Marketing and
Demand Operations Jennifer Pockell-Wilson. Therefore, a logical step in the finding of
“Pareto’s 20%” is to review a company’s existing accounts to spot all of the attributes
that are most commonly shared by all of its highest-value accounts.
In the case of Demandbase, for example, the company’s sales and marketing teams
collectively:
•
Performed an exhaustive 12-month closed/won analysis of its accounts using
opportunity and account reports in Salesforce.com, which was the system of
record
•
Identified the key attributes common to the company’s highest value customers,
and worked with sales to “fill in the blanks” on any missing data points about the
accounts they had sold into
•
Defined the common, core predictive attributes of these companies in order
to define a “target account profile,” including industry, company size, annual
revenue, and technology investments
During its analysis, no detail or trait was too small, irrelevant, or strange to be noted
and considered, says Pockell-Wilson. “We didn’t settle for the account attributes other
B2Bs might stop with, such as company size, industry, or revenue. We wanted to know
it all.”
These attributes will be different for every company, but Demandbase discovered two
significant characteristics shared by virtually all of the company’s sweet spot accounts: a
high volume of unique monthly Web visits and marketing technology buying patterns.
Unique Monthly Visits – The monthly web traffic numbers of a potential
prospect were a key indicator of value. Since Demandbase solutions work by
identifying the accounts visiting digital content, companies with higher web
traffic numbers were more likely to see an immediate impact of a tool like
|
3
Demandbase. They were also proven to close faster and more consistently than
accounts with lower traffic numbers.
Technology Buying Trends – Because Demandbase’s own technology works
well with most existing marketing technologies—such as marketing automation, web analytics, or content management systems—the companies that are
“The aim of marketing is to know and already using these marketing technologies in their stack were far
more likely to purchase Demandbase.
understand the customer so well that
the product … sells itself.” Peter Drucker
With these critical attributes to a B2B organization’s sweet spot accounts clearly identified, a final step involves filling in any blanks
across all of the accounts to make them as uniform as possible.
Step 2: Find More of the Same
Now it’s time to take those sweet spot account profiles and actually look for the inaugural members of our named account list that will match most closely to what we are
looking for.
Since Demandbase sales and marketing agreed that any B2B website enjoying a high
volume of unique Web traffic was tailor-made for the company’s unique applications
(Demandbase helps companies identify in real time the account-based data behind
those visitors), it turned to third-party Web analytics services such as Compete.com to
locate similarly high-trafficked B2B websites that fit the traffic threshold established in
the sweet spot audit of its own high-value accounts.
Similarly, Demandbase established that companies using marketing automation software, content management systems, or paid web analytics tools were far more likely
to purchase. In order to identify those companies, Demandbase used a combination of
third-party Web tools such as BuiltWith.com (which identifies the underlying technology scripts hidden in websites, such as web analytics or marketing automation) and
good old-fashioned legwork, including:
•
Perusing those marketing technology vendor websites for customer lists
or mentions
•
Scanning company social media pages including LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.
•
Searching for online references to companies using those services
•
Purchasing sponsorships at live events hosted by or involving those companies
•
Attending technology user conferences (e.g., Eloqua Experience, Adobe Digital
Marketing Summit, etc.)
Through this combination of list building tactics, and then cross-referencing the traffic lists with the technology list, Demandbase was able to pull
together a list of target accounts that fit our “sweet spot” profile. These
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle are the companies that we will then monitor and identify when they visit
Demandbase.com, look for at live events, and proactively reach out to with
targeted multi-channel campaigns including Company-Targeted Advertising and personalized content at Demandbase.com.
“It is a capital mistake to theorize
before one has data.” |
4
Step 3: Put Faces with the Names
Once you identify your “sweet spot” accounts, the next step is to build a list of the people who will likely be on the buying committee at these accounts. Unfortunately, account data alone rarely meets the needs of B2B marketing or sales executives, who may
be faced with the prospect of engaging with a very large, multifaceted enterprise with
dozens of stakeholders all playing a role in the buying process. In other words, while account data needs to be where you start, it is unlikely to help sales know when or where
to engage inside an account or provide marketing with the “how” or “to whom” to tailor
its messaging.
“That’s the problem with most high-level account profiles,” says Megan Heuer, group director for Data-Driven Marketing at SiriusDecisions. “They’re not actionable at the Why
should I call? and What can they buy? levels. They’re also not helpful to marketers who
want to determine the most relevant messaging and offers. They’re a start, but they are
not enough.”
Therefore, the final step in the process is to use third-party data providers to flesh out
contact information (e.g., company address, SIC codes, phone numbers, etc.) and perhaps purchase contact lists within those companies.
For companies that opt to do the latter, Jason Stewart, marketing director at Demandbase, has a few words of experience to guide them. “It may be tempting to jump at
volume discounts offering contact names the data vendor says are in line with what
you’re looking for. Don’t. You’ve done the hard work and know your sweet spot better
than anyone else. Work the list you have created, preserve the quality of the list without
getting greedy for quantity.”
The named account list is the first step. It is the foundation of an account-based marketing approach. Once it is in place—and contact lists are acquired that are strictly comprised of the potential influencers and buyers from those companies—tools like buyer
personas and nurture programs become more effective because the prospects and
leads on your lists are from the accounts that have been singled out as potential “sweet
spot” accounts.
Step 4: Stay With It
Actually, there is one more piece of the named account puzzle but it’s more a philosophical commitment than a step in the process: continuously revisit which accounts are of
greatest value to the organization and the attributes that define them. In the same way
an automobile or any other machine can be thrown out of alignment from dynamic
operating conditions, so too do B2Bs and the markets they serve constantly change
and require vigilance on the part of your sales and marketing teams. For example, while
Eloqua was the key MAS technology identified at the time the initial Demandbase list
was created, accounts using Marketo and Aprimo have also become key targets for the
Demandbase sales team.
“We have a very tightly aligned sales and marketing process that constantly works together to monitor and gauge these attributes,” says Demandbase’s Pockell-Wilson. “The
good news is that once you do the hard work up front, it’s a lot easier to sustain that
process moving forward.”
|
5
IV. Beware the Bright Lights
Before we get started with the process of building the named account list that is right for an
organization, it is important to note that this also means avoiding the mistakes and erroneous assumptions that can lead an organization into developing and pursuing the wrong list.
While analytical data is a critical means of identifying the picture-perfect customer for
your company, notes Ardath Albee, CEO of Marketing Interactions, “You also need to be
able to recognize who is not a potential customer for your company.”
“I urge you to know which customers
buy more or have the potential to buy
more or have greater influence.
And invest accordingly.” Tim Suther
CMO, SVP Acxiom
Given the scope and complexity of the typical B2B sales engagement, many sales and marketing organizations come to know these
accounts in great detail. This can lead to certain assumptions about
the kinds of organizations that are of greatest value to the company.
And as any acronym-savvy grade school student can attest, danger
lurks whenever we assume anything.
“As we started the process of building our named account list, we
had certain instincts about which accounts were our most important,” says Pockell-Wilson from Demandbase. “We used data to test our instincts. Some
were on target, but some were really, really wrong.”
Similarly, sales, marketing, and even C-Suite executives are not immune to the allure
and “big brand blindness” to which all of us are susceptible, meaning they assume that
their marquee or brand name accounts are their most valuable.
A B2B’s sweet spot accounts may, in fact, be the more innocuous brands that, for example,
may have been easier or faster to sell, that are more self-sufficient and therefore less expensive to support, or that serve as terrific reference accounts for building new business.
V. Conclusion
Andrew Carnegie famously noted that corporate teamwork is “the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.” Which is to say, the more tightly aligned a
B2B’s marketing and sales organizations, the greater the likelihood their combined
efforts will produce improved revenue results for the company.
Because the sales lead is the most tangible point of exchange between these two
groups and the one upon which the overall success of the company depends, it makes
sense that a joint exercise in defining and developing a named account list is ideal for
producing that marketing-sales alignment.
As we have seen, the key steps to this process require marketing and sales to use a
variety of internal and third-party data sources to:
•
Identify the company’s most valuable accounts
•
Isolate the key firmographic and decision-making attributes unique to those
accounts
•
Use this data to identify optimal prospects
The result to this process is a marketing-sales tandem united in a powerful understanding of who they need to pursue and how best to pursue them, not to mention an
“uncommon” confidence in their chances of success.
|
6
About Demandbase
Demandbase is a Real-time Targeting and Personalization platform for B2B. Demandbase works by identifying the companies
that are visiting a website, and then by making that insight
actionable in your existing Marketing and Sales programs and
technologies. Real-time identification means you can make
targeting decisions as well as personalize the content or web
experience based on otherwise unavailable attributes of the
visitor, such as specific company, company size, number of
employees, industry, or 1st party attributes such as customer
or pipeline standing, or even competitor status. Demandbase
offers Company-Targeted display advertising, website engagement and conversion modules, and CRM integration for a
consistent view of accounts from spend to revenue.
Demandbase is where Digital Presence and Account-Based
marketing intersect, allowing B2B marketers to target their
most valuable audience and personalize the experience to
make engagements more effective and more measurable.
About MarketingProfs
MarketingProfs is a rich and trusted resource that offers
actionable know-how designed to make you a smarter
marketer—from social media and content marketing to lead
generation and online conversions. More than 405,000 members
rely on our free daily publications, podcasts, virtual conferences,
and more to stay up-to-date on the most important trends in
marketing, and how to apply them to their businesses. Plus,
MarketingProfs delivers enhanced professional development
training through online seminars and short webcasts, indepth how-to reports, research, interactive planning tools,
online courses, and in-person events. MarketingProfs helps
the smartest marketers worldwide turn even the toughest
marketing challenges into success stories. Basic membership is
free—register now.
|
7