AMA: Snowflake Head of Enterprise Marketing, India, Kanchan Belavadi on Account Based Marketing Strategy

Sales, Sales, Sales. Align with them every step of the way. Right from account identification to account planning to execution and tracking. For the big accounts talk to them everyday. For the other accounts, talk to them every week.

The first question is always “What are your business objectives/priorities today?”. Align everything to it. After that you can look at marketing metrics like: 1. What is the engagement for the content? 2. When was this last refreshed? 3. Does it align with our latest messaging? 4. Is this the best asset in this category?

The biggest indicator for me is always “excel”. If we are tracking too many metrics across different excel sheets, it is a clear indicator that we need a solution to manage that piece better. Another leading indicator is when you are unable to track your customer/prospect journey across different campaigns. Especially when you focus on large enterprise accounts, you are engaging with the same set of stakeholders over months and years (sometimes). It becomes critical to be able to understand all the different points of interaction across that large account over a period of time. That is when you know.

* The first KPI to monitor is leads generated from target accounts. The rest is all noise. If an organization has adopted an ABM centric approach, your sales reps are working on named accounts, so even if you engage with accounts outside that list and generate leads, you won’t find any takers. So, focus all efforts only towards those accounts. * The other big shift is from pure lead generation to account engagement. How many CXOs have you engaged with? How many mid-level, senior stakeholders are engaging with your campaigns (content, events, etc.). * As you build this, over a period of time, you can measure increased marketing footprint within that account. * For existing customers, customer advocacy becomes a key metric as existing business units then become your evangelists as you upsell to other business units.

The way you approach the accounts is what is different. * For a net new account, you are in the blind and trying everything under the sun. While you have 3rd party data on the target prospects, you can only customize to a certain extent. So your messaging is either generic or industry focused. You also have more room for trial and error as you broad base your campaigns. * Targeting an existing account calls for more finesse, as you have access to information about the customer, their buying behavior, their org structure, their tech stack. You also have access to internal stakeholders who can be your advocates, which goes a long way. Leveraging all this information and translating it into the right content and tactics is the key to success in an expand strategy.

This is not a one-size-fits-all solution. I have found that the content pieces through the funnel vary based on what are the current business objectives, challenges and gaps. If you are a new business and trying to generate mindshare and attract visitors to your website, you’d need more assets at the top of the funnel. If you are a known brand and the space is established (e.g. CRM), then you probably need to focus more on the lower part of the funnel. Your current account strategy is also a factor. For up-selling into existing accounts, you will probably want to focus more on advocacy (from other units), case studies and use cases – which are at the bottom of the funnel.

I have used intent data to varying degrees of success as part of the ABM program. The key thing to remember is that intent is a misleading word. It does not mean BANT qualified. You have to nurture them like any other lead. My experience has been mixed when we have tried to use intent data to drive conversions. However, it is a good temperature check mechanism for the overall account and helps to keep prospects engaged and shorten sales cycle over a period of time.

Everything begins with “What are your business goals?” And I cannot emphasize this enough. If you have a marketing problem and don’t know where to start, ask yourself this question “What are the business objectives?” and go from there. You won’t go wrong. Depending on whether the business wants to acquire new logos or expand into existing accounts, or focusing on competitive wins, you know where your ABM accounts are coming from. Once the focus is clear, you can identify accounts based on size, vertical focus, existing tech stack (e.g. if already using a competitive product and your current focus is not on competitive wins, then drop) ICP, and even geo focus if your sales teams are aligned that way, to identify the right set of accounts.