What Do Marketing & Sales Leaders Love About Account Based Leads?
February 14, 2017 11:28:59 AM | By Matt Benati
We talk a lot about Account Based Marketing, which has become Account Based Everything these days. But in my opinion, what we should be saying is Account Based Growth (ABG). That’s because the common thread – the “Account Based” part – is the driving force behind this strategy, and it boils down to REVENUE growth. When you make the switch from lead based marketing, focused on personas, to account based marketing, laser-focused on best-fit accounts, the resulting account based leads are the stuff sales dreams are made of.
Account based leads come directly from your best-fit accounts — from accounts that marketing and sales agree fit their Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and are worth targeting. This approach identifies which of your leads are key decision makers and which are buyers within those accounts, so you can further personalize your messaging.
When you focus on accounts first and leads second, you immediately increase sales velocity by eliminating the highly inefficient lead based funnel approach. Sangram Vajre, CMO of Terminus, makes a compelling observation about lead based strategies, “Less than 1% of leads that B2B marketers generate turn into customers.” With an account based strategy, you’re going straight to the source of a potential sale, and this results in highly targeted, qualified leads that are more likely to convert. And that ultimately equates to more revenue.
Since love is in the air this time of year, I asked a few Account Based leaders why they love Account Based Leads. Here’s what they had to say:
Trish Bertuzzi, President of The Bridge Group
“When you have successfully surrounded a target account with plays that drive intelligent engagement, there is nothing better than for that account to deliver a lead right back! Targeted, qualified and interested. Woot!”
Sangram Vajre, CMO & Co-Founder of Terminus
“Account based leads help the entire organization focus on something that matters and is clearly defined.”
Matt Heinz, Founder of Heinz Marketing
“I hate wasting time, so I love account-based leads because they’re typically far more precise, more qualified, more ready to have a conversation. I’m happy to play the numbers game with some lead sources and markets, but account-based typically makes better use of my time and resources to get deals closed.”
Elle Woulfe,VP Marketing for LookBookHQ
“You don’t need to convince the sales team that an account based lead is worth their time and effort. They know they’re a good fit and have a higher likelihood of converting so they love to follow up on them.”
Nick Ezzo,VP Demand Generation at Host Analytics
“I love the surprise of automatically getting new account information from the auto-responses, every time I reach out to my audience.”
Zak Pines,VP Marketing, Bedrock Data, Inc.
“Account based leads are by definition leads that have a strong likelihood to drive value for your business.”
Nancy Nardin,President of Smart Selling Tools
“I love that they put sales and marketing on the same team. You can close a lot more deals if everyone’s pulling in the same direction!”
Jeff Coveney,President of RevEngine Marketing
“I love an account-based approach because it provides a great one-two punch for organizations. Sales and Marketing can nurture leads like they always have while also pinpointing high-value targets to drive account success.”
Matt Benati,CEO & Co-Founder of LeadGnome
“Account based leads are efficient and effective at growing revenue. Stop wasting time on leads outside of your target accounts. Instead focus your efforts on best-fit accounts.”
Aaron Dun,Senior VP Marketing at SnapApp
The concept of ABM really helps you focus in on the core target opportunity. We love ABM leads because we know they will be right in our sweet spot, and it’s incredibly simple to create really targeted, personalized and dynamic experiences that create better engagement between the prospect and your company
Adam New-Waterson,VP Demand Generation at RevJet
“What I love about Account-based? I love never saying MQL.”
Tony Yang,VP of Demand Gen & Marketing Operations at Mintigo
“If you take a data-driven approach to target account identification like utilizing predictive (disclosure: I work for a predictive vendor), then any leads from these target accounts will be a much greater fit to your ideal customer profile. And if you’ve involved your sales team in this target account selection process and got their buy-in, then any prospects at these target accounts that you help them generate engagement with will be accepted by sales.”
LeadGnome is an automated solution that mines your sales and marketing campaign reply emails for information about contacts within your best-fit accounts. And not just email signatures — the entire unstructured body of the email. It takes just 2 minutes to set up using a simple email forwarding rule, and requires no changes to your CRM, marketing automation platform, or to the emails you send or receive. To learn more about the impact email mining can have on revenue, download our free guide:
