Account-Based Sales: How to Properly Approach Your Desired Customer Acquisition

1. What is Account Based Sales?
2. ABS in 3 steps: How to successfully implement Account Based Sales
3. This software supports you in Account Based Sales
4. Conclusion: Finding and winning ideal customers is most effective with ABS

Not only in marketing, but also in sales, the trend is increasingly towards the individual approach of selected individuals. Why "quality over quantity" is worth it in sales and how to implement Account Based Sales in concrete terms, you will find out in this article.

What is Account Based Sales? 

In Account Based Sales, also known as Account Based Selling, the focus is on the quality of customers, not the quantity. As in the Account Based Marketing companies pursue cross-departmental goals of building and expanding long-term relationships with selected business partners. The so-called Key Accounts are ideal customers and are defined with Ideal Account Profiles. They are personally addressed and cared for. However, Account Based Sales can only work if sales and marketing work hand in hand.

To be successful in Account Based Sales, the software Ocean.io offers suitable Sales solutions. More on this later in this article.

ABS in 3 steps: How to successfully implement Account Based Sales

Source: Sales for Life

Step 1: Assemble an ABS team

Responsibilities can vary from company to company. The account management, the internal sales department or the account based marketing management are usually the leaders in the ABS implementation. The crucial thing is only that the respective position combines the knowledge of sales and marketing. Regardless of the number of people, these roles should be represented in your ABS team:

• Customer Success Manager: designs a personalized experience from building to continuously expanding business relationships
• Sales Account Executive: identifies up- and cross-selling potentials in close cooperation with marketing
• Account Manager: leads the meetings, optimizes the account strategy and is the main contact person for his customer base
• Sales Development Representative: researches (dream) accounts and creates personalized messages for them
• Product Manager: develops new functions and applications based on customer feedback
• Marketing Manager: creates a playbook and message strategy, is responsible for marketing campaigns and evaluates them
• Data Specialist: ensures the update of contact and account data
• Customer Support: informs the team about difficulties and problems

Step 2: Identify your Dream Accounts (ideal customers)

First, you should focus on the most important W-questions: who, what, where and when.

• Who: Take a closer look at your most valuable accounts. Who influences the buying decision (in-)directly and who has the final say?
• What: Evaluate their activities to have context-specific personalized conversations.
• Where: Identify the optimal channels for Social Selling and prospecting.
• When: Find the optimal timing for addressing them.

Unfortunately, this step is not as quickly done as the length of the text would suggest. During the process of identifying your dream customers, you have to tackle several tasks:

• Perform market analysis
• Create Ideal Account Profile
• Gather information on your accounts (Buyer Personas)
• Define story and value proposition per account
• Identify a hook for each account
• Create a list of ideal customers

Step 3: Win your Dream Accounts for yourself

Now things really start to happen: In exchange with your Dream Accounts, you should make a positive impression. As in Inbound Marketing in Account Based Sales you publish content that was specifically created for a certain group of people. This content is created by the input of sales and marketing. Offer your accounts concrete cooperation opportunities that are in the interest of both sides and meet with them regularly in person to discover up- and cross-selling potentials as well as other ideal customers.

To win your dream accounts, tasks include:

• Transform accounts into opportunities
• Qualify opportunities
• Conduct presentations, demo versions and other appointments
• Work out content
• Analyze and evaluate activities

Concrete examples of Account Based Sales:

• Low effort: personalized and helpful emails, voicemails, videos, prints
• Medium effort: reports and surveys, online seminars, workshops, use cases
• Great effort: individual company workshops and pilot projects

This software supports you in Account Based Sales

In order to quickly achieve success with Account Based Sales, you should use a corresponding software. It reduces your research time and shortens your sales process. The platform Ocean.io helps you find Dream Accounts faster, set up appointments and close deals.

Essential functions of the ABS tool:

• Lookalike Search: get further account suggestions by entering a company URL
• Keyword Research: get more precise account suggestions by entering terms, e.g. skills of your ICPs
• Persona Builder: create personas based on your ICPs
• Company Filters: filter, sort, prioritize and personalize target group specific lists
• Contact Filters: filter by titles and people
• Intent Data: find out when leads are looking for solutions, because this way you can set priorities and formulate personalized approaches
• CRM Integration: find new leads that are not yet part of your CRM
• Chrome Extension: quickly add leads to lists
• Verified E-Mails Only: do not send emails to deactivated accounts

Conclusion: Finding and winning ideal customers is most effective with ABS 

Account Based Sales is a sustainable customer acquisition strategy. Usually, it takes about 12 to 24 months for your measures to bear fruit. If you keep in mind the opportunities that arise from a solid customer base with absolute ideal customers, it's definitely worth the effort. To reach your goal as quickly as possible, you should not wait any longer: Convince yourself - with the free and non-binding Test version of Ocean.io!