So you’ve been thinking about implementing Account Based Selling for your company but you’re still trying to get the feel of it, understand where to start and how to implement it in your lead management system.
Well, this is where we would like to help you.
There’s plenty of information online about what Account Based Sales is, so we’ll only say this – it’s the sometimes-overlooked counterpart of Account Based Marketing; a sales strategy where you focus on client companies as leads, rather than just one contact from the company as a lead.
If you’re looking to get started, or confirm that Account Based Sales is the right move for you, here are a few tips to consider-
1. Figure Out Whether You Need It in the First Place
Account Based Sales is much more time consuming and effort-heavy, so it isn’t recommended as a day-to-day approach to selling.
It’s ideal for closing company accounts that are so large that you’re likely to have a few contacts you’re working on within that one company – and working on multiple prospects at the same time helps increase your chances of winning the account.
Multiple contacts means multiple sales executives and a lot more time.
2. Be Clear on Whom You’d Want to Target With an ABS Strategy
Discuss this with the management of your company and zero in on the type of accounts that you’d want to target with Account Based Sales.
This is important because they would likely, once converted, be landmark accounts and should hence be in line with your company vision. You can also make recommendations based on the type of customers who’ve done very well with your products/services.
3. Do Your Homework on Your Targets
When you’re targeting a company as a whole, it’s important to be updated and know the various challenges that it might be dealing with. Keep an eye on the news, set up a Google alert and then tailor your communication with them accordingly.
A good way to do this is to have weekly or daily team meetings with all the sales executives who might be working on the same account, to de-brief each other and stay consistent with communication.
4. Set up Different Communication Channels & Workflows for the Contacts
Work with your marketing team and your lead management software to set up email workflows, SMS, etc. with the right communication for contacts in the company.
This is where it helps to have a lead management system that can do the automating for you, freeing up your time from actually sending communication to focusing on their contacts and prospecting.
5. Make Analytics a Part of Your Strategy & Track It Everyday
You need to have tracking metrics at two levels –
- One to understand the kind of effort your sales team members are putting in (are they being consistent with their prospecting and follow ups?), and
- The other is to understand the level of engagement from the different contacts (how far along are they in the sales journey, what are their lead scores and upcoming activities?).
Needless to say, Account Based Sales is a high-effort high-reward strategy that can really work when done right.
With the Kylas Growth Engine, our sales CRM software, we’ve made sure we include features designed for Account Based Selling strategy as well – to name just a few, you can create contacts, assign deals against them, automate emails, set up filters, notes & tasks and collaborate with your team.
If you haven’t had a look at our feature set yet, you can browse them here.
Have a question about Account Based Sales? We’d be happy to answer it for you! Just drop a comment below.
