Transforming Sales with Account-Based Selling

Account-based selling is your laser-focused strategy for those very specific, high-value accounts. It empowers your team to invest in crafting a hyper-personalized approach to the most valuable targets. The question becomes: which prospects qualify for this type of sales? That’s where strong sales intelligence comes in.

What is account-based selling?

Account-based selling (ABS) is a sales process that focuses the team’s efforts on a select number of high-potential and high-value accounts.

And for good reason: these two factors, high-potential and high-value, are highly related. ABS depends on great sales intelligence to figure out which prospects have the best chance of becoming customers. Starting with a comprehensive prospect research method, the sales and marketing teams identify and nurture companies that have a close fit with an Ideal Customer Profile. Over time, the sales team connects with decision makers and tries to demonstrate their product’s value.

However, this method naturally whittles down the number of customers that you might attract. ABS means that a lot of resources are invested in a limited number of potential clients. To support an account-based selling model, you’ll need to think quality, not quantity – in other words, the deals you make must be large enough to justify the effort it takes to close them. Better make sure that your sales intelligence tools are the best they can be.

ABS and ABM, working together

Much like the relationship between SQL and MQL, ABS relies on sales and marketing alignment, as the marketing department develops accounts up to a certain point and then hands them off to sales. Marketing’s version of ABS is account-based marketing, or ABM.

Who should handle ABS activities?

ABS is essentially the polar opposite of cold calling. Cold calling starts with long lists of contacts that display varying levels of purchase intent. It’s up to sales to work through the lists, which tend to have a low conversion rate (unless you’ve got some tricks up your sleeve). So the people in charge of cold calling need a lot of patience as they hunt for those occasional interested leads.

On the other hand, account-based selling is more about working your way through the hierarchy towards a final decision-maker. At that level, they’ll want to talk to someone on your team with the authority to customize a deal. For reasons like this, ABS is often headed by a senior account manager on your sales team.

What are the benefits of account-based selling?

Companies use ABS for one reason: to close more sales. But what do the numbers say? Across the board, ABS and ABM strategies deliver significant benefits:

• 89% of companies report that ABM strategies generate superior ROI compared to non-ABM efforts, with 30% of them saying that ABM-related ROI is at least 21% higher.
• ABM takes effect quickly – 60% of companies experience a revenue increase of at least 10% within a year of starting an ABM strategy.
• With an ABM/ABS strategy, deal sizes increase by an average of 20%.

Beyond immediate revenue generation, ABS also boosts long-term client relationships and expands sales opportunities:

• The close connections built by an ABS process mean that your salespeople and the client’s representatives have many chances to discuss customer pain points. Hopefully, this will lead to up-selling and cross-selling opportunities. Plus, if you are dealing with a growing company, or one with multiple branches, you can become the vendor of choice for a large number of the client’s departments.
• Customer satisfaction is one of the most important factors in a long-term relationship. A Verint study found that customer experience is the most important factor for continuous customer loyalty. During the ABS process, you’ll find out a lot about client expectations and get the chance to deliver on them with a targeted solution. This process establishes good communication and proves your commitment to the account’s success.
• As your team gains experience with ABS, they’ll discover more about the kinds of companies that turn into loyal customers– and those that don’t. By keeping accurate records of prospect interactions, you’ll learn valuable lessons about the most effective sales tactics and most attractive product features. This can make your entire sales strategy more efficient, even when dealing with non-ABS prospects.

What is the difference between account-based selling and account-based marketing?

ABM and ABS are closely related, but there are important differences between them. You should understand what sets them apart so you know which department is responsible for what. Let’s take a look at how account-based sales and marketing differ.

Example of account-based marketing 

ABM includes activities like:

• Creating customer profiles and working with intent data to identify prospects
• Using sales intelligence to gather data like contact info for decision makers
• Promoting awareness through content creation

Example of account-based selling 

Once marketing has gone as far as they can to collect prospect information, they send over their data to sales, which then:

• Contacts the prospect by phone or personalized email
• Meets with stakeholders and decision makers to explain value proposition, product features, etc.
• Closes the deal

Account-based selling KPIs

Measuring the success of an ABS strategy depends on metrics. There are a few critical KPIs, but don’t forget that ABS is a multi-team effort. If marketing isn’t doing a good job with ABM, it will be difficult for sales to make up for poor quality leads. So tracking ABM metrics is also essential.

Win-loss rate. The win-loss rate is kind of the final word on the performance of an ABS method. It compares the number of closed deals to those efforts that are either underway or still up in the air. Win-loss analysis can tell you if the team’s performance is up to par or needs improvement.

Productivity metrics. Measurements that examine how much your team is doing, and the results of those efforts, can be a useful way to discover problems with a sales method. Sales productivity metrics include conversion rate, sales cycle length, revenue, and sales-expense ratio.

Long-term metrics. Your team has put in a lot of effort to close deals, but is that paying off in the long run? Or are clients giving your product a try and then leaving? Certain SaaS sales metrics are helpful to determine this (even if you aren’t a SaaS company). These include customer acquisition cost, customer lifetime value, monthly recurring revenue, and churn.

Account-based sales strategy

The first part of creating an ABS strategy is to determine if it’s the right fit for your organization. Companies that use ABS usually meet the following criteria:

• A product that is relatively complex and high-cost
• A customer base that is limited in size and made up of large companies (that can afford the product)
• A highly competitive market (so that ABS can be a differentiator)
• A sales team that is staffed according to certain roles (see below)
• A financial structure that can support a long sales effort

If your organization fits the bill, then here are some steps to create an ABS strategy:

Divide tasks with marketing

Either sales or marketing can handle building an ideal customer profile (and/or buyer personas) and filling out the details. However, it might be a good idea for sales to focus on selling while providing feedback to marketing about how effective their research and content is.

Decide on KPIs

It can be a challenge for a small sales team to track and analyze every number across many accounts. Using a CRM can make this job much easier.

Secondly, an important purpose of ABS metrics is to balance quantity with quality. It’s easier to sell to a limited number of high potential companies because you can concentrate more effort on them. But does the resulting revenue cover your targets? Getting the balance just right can take time.

Build a team  

Besides the hand-off from marketing to sales, there are other transfers of responsibility during ABS:

• A sales development representative (SDR) works on the messaging for direct prospect communication and performs outreach efforts until a deal looks likely.
• An account manager steps in at that point, works with the SDR to close the deal, and is the primary contact for the account after closing.
• A support representative maintains occasional check-ins with the client and updates the team regarding product usage, client queries, etc.

Work on outreach

You can reach out directly to the prospect in one of many ways. Here are just a few:

• Personalized emails
• Customized gifts
• Product literature written specifically for the target
• Connecting through social media such as LinkedIn
• Hosting a personalized workshop

Key takeaways

• Account-based selling (ABS) concentrates sales team activities on a relatively few high-potential and high-value accounts.
• Sales and marketing work together to develop accounts and then approach them directly.
• An ABS strategy includes defining sales vs. marketing tasks, defining KPIs, creating a dedicated team, and engaging in outreach.