How to know if account based selling is for you

What is Account Based Selling?

Account Based Selling (ABS) is an account focused approach to selling. This is where the sales rep is responsible for the success of a particular account. This strategy is reliant upon understanding the needs of valuable accounts and using those insights to create a personalised experience for each of them. Content marketers will benefit from ABS by understanding their target market and knowing which characteristics unify them. By targeting these groups with highly accurate messages you can increase conversion rates and develop trust. Sales and marketing must work together to curate this funnel for buyers.

These are two key elements in successful marketing communications campaigns. When deciding who to reach out to within an organisation, it is important not to spread yourself too thin. Thus, Do not try to sell your product or service to your entire professional network. Instead, you should focus on a select number of prospects you think would be the best fit for your brand based on their knowledge, authority and influence. ABS is all about creating valuable connections with influential people who already have a need for what you are selling

Who do I target in account based selling?

To do this, you need to have a well defined ideal client profile. Then, find the accounts you should target by using technographic and firmographic data. There are many sales intelligence tools, such as Triggr and Uplead utilise public information to help you do this. By setting up trigger events, you can identify a dynamic target list to sell to.

What are the benefits?

The main benefits of ABS are that you will likely get larger deals and there is less reliance on individuals. Therefore, you can be confident in the accounts that you are going after because these should be a good fit. Targeting these accounts will allow you to have a personalised approach and improve the deals you close.

Who should use ABS?

ABS is particularly useful for certain companies that have features such as:

• You sell to medium to large sized companies
• You operate a product or service that is subscription based or requires continual purchase
• Relatively long sales cycle

Do not change to ABS if your criteria does not match. Make sure it fits your sales model as this is because it is an expensive and intensive way of selling. Integrate ABS slowly into your company by allocating specific sales people or teams to focus on it. This lets your team test and focus on what works for you.