While it’s inspiring to look at the success marketing and sales teams have achieved through ABM, you might be wondering how you can begin to show similar results. What can you expect to see with ABM? And how can you show it in a clear way?
That’s a topic of hot debate—something we often talk about on our blog and within our own marketing and sales meeting rooms. As account-based marketers enabling teams with account-based tech, we know first-hand the measurement challenges B2B marketers face. We like to think about this in two buckets:
- How do you generate more opportunities and revenue?
- How do you show the results in a simple, visible dashboard?
Both of these questions ultimately explain why the bulk of B2B marketers are flocking toward ABM as a strategy. Seventy-three percent of SiriusDecisions’ recent survey respondents said average deal sizes were larger within ABM accounts, and 91% said ABM accounts had higher ROI than other programs.
What does that mean? As marketers, we’re being held to a higher standard. Luckily, ABM has become the secret weapon you need to succeed.
Rise to the evolving challenge with ABM
As a strategy, ABM helps answer the bigger question of marketing’s impact on influencing opportunities and generating revenue. Teams are no longer just checking off a list of vanity metrics by handing a bucket full of leads to their sales team; high-volume, low-value leads just aren’t how deals are won in today’s B2B ecosystem.
With the world of B2B marketing quickly evolving, more marketers are responsible for questions like:
- How many accounts have you reached?
- How has engagement improved over time?
- How do your programs influence opportunity creation?
- How have you increased close rates?
- How did you impact revenue?
Did you notice a theme? None of these questions are centered around how many leads were generated. And there’s a reason. More and more companies are realizing that a lead-driven world doesn’t lead to the impact companies need to compete.
It's all about the account
Marketing and sales teams must now speak the same language. After all, you rarely see a case study or customer page littered with quotes from leads, you hear stories from accounts. The bottom line? You close accounts, not leads.
ABM is the clear-cut way to rally marketing and sales teams together to influence opportunity and revenue associated with target accounts. According to TOPO, a traditional funnel may close just 0.25% to 1.5% leads targeted, but an account-based funnel helps companies close around 11% of accounts targeted. That means it’s time to move toward an account-centric revenue strategy.
We get it, that can feel like a lot! Luckily, teams of all sizes and structures are able to move past the lead and begin focusing on the accounts and metrics that really matter. Thanks to vast improvements in tech and data in recent years, most of these efforts can be consolidated through a healthy ABM tech stack.
Great! But how do I show results?
While getting a winning strategy up and running is its own feat, it’s just one leg of the journey. After all, it’s one thing to make an impact, but another to show it clearly. That’s where our second bucket comes in: marketers need a way to show wins with the right measurement dashboards.
Most marketers have tools that enable campaign performance measurement around leads, not critical account-based metrics. And once you bring both sales and marketing actions into the mix? Showing mutual impact can prove a little more complex. Luckily, with advancements in account-based tech, measuring your impact on accounts is more streamlined than ever before.
Prove your influence
Marketers have too much digital data spread across multiple systems (MAP, CRM, ad networks) with too few resources to consolidate and analyze it (IT and BI oftentimes prioritize Finance and Sales). This means lots of time spent manually patching together information to justify marketing budget to the C-suite. This is when you need the holy grail of account-based influence — the ability to show the reward of strategic account-based plays.
With RollWorks’ Account-Based Dashboard, you can quickly show management how your program is delivering results:
- Reduce data consolidation time and provide end-to-end visibility of account-based efforts
- Easily see new opportunities and won deals from targeted accounts and ABM campaigns
- Configure settings and tailor insights to your unique definition of influence
Ultimately, this comes down to showing marketing’s influence on opportunities and revenue associated with target accounts. While an array of other helpful metrics are available (think: engagement, lift, account-level insights), your executive team will be looking for these bottom-line metrics first. It will be what fuels future investment in your winning ABM programs.
Here are some examples we find helpful from the RollWorks dashboard:
What’s Next?
As revenue teams begin moving toward an account-focused strategy, you can begin to equip yourself with the right tactics to increase revenue and the right tech to show your success. From there? You can continue to get buy-in for programs that make a true impact across your organization. If you're ready to see what ABM can do for you, request a demo or explore our B2B marketing resources.
About the Author
More Content by Randi Barshack, CMO
