Terms

Account-Based Sales

What are Account-Based Sales?

Account-Based Sales (ABS) is a strategic approach in business-to-business (B2B) sales and marketing that focuses on building personalized relationships with specific high-value accounts. It involves identifying a select group of ideal customers and tailoring sales and marketing efforts to their unique needs and challenges. ABS requires close collaboration between sales, marketing, customer support, and product development teams to create a unified, customer-centric experience, contrasting with traditional sales models that often pursue a larger volume of leads with a more generalized approach.

Key Principles of Account-Based Sales

Implementing Account-Based Sales involves several strategic steps:

  • Account selection: Identify high-value accounts based on your ideal customer profile.
  • Account research and profiling: Gather information on target accounts and their key stakeholders.
  • Cross-functional alignment: Ensure collaboration between sales, marketing, and customer success teams.
  • Personalized messaging and outreach: Tailor communication to address the unique needs and challenges of each account.
  • Account-specific campaigns: Develop customized marketing strategies for target accounts.
  • Relationship building: Foster strong connections with stakeholders within target accounts.
  • Sales and marketing orchestration: Coordinate efforts across departments to deliver a unified customer experience.
  • Measurement and optimization: Track key performance indicators (KPIs) and adjust strategies as needed.
  • Customer success and post-sale nurturing: Ensure ongoing support and engagement with customers after the sale.

Crafting Your ABS Strategy

Crafting an effective ABS strategy involves:

  • Defining your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and identifying key buyer personas within target accounts.
  • Developing a content strategy that addresses different stages of the sales process and caters to specific buyer personas.
  • Structuring your sales team to include roles such as account executives, sales development representatives, marketers, and support representatives.
  • Segmenting your target accounts into tiers and creating customized outreach strategies for each tier.
  • Tracking key metrics like average contract value (ACV), lifetime value (LTV), and customer acquisition cost (CAC) to measure the success of your ABS strategy.
  • Maintaining tight alignment between Sales and Marketing to ensure a seamless and unified customer experience.

ABS Versus Traditional Sales Models

Account-Based Sales (ABS) and traditional sales models differ in focus, resource allocation, and sales and marketing integration. ABS treats each account as a unique market, dedicating significant resources and personalized strategies to a select number of high-value accounts, while traditional models spread efforts across a wider array of prospects. ABS also requires a closely coordinated effort between sales, marketing, and other departments, which is less emphasized in traditional sales models.

Measuring Success in Account-Based Sales

Measuring success in ABS involves tracking various KPIs:

  • Account engagement score: Measures the level of engagement with target accounts.
  • Deal velocity: Tracks the average time it takes for a target account to move through the sales pipeline.
  • Opportunity conversion rate: The percentage of target accounts that become qualified sales opportunities.
  • Account expansion rate: Measures the success of expanding relationships within existing target accounts.

Other terms

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On Target Earnings

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On Target Earnings

Product Champion

Learn about product champion, including identifying potential product champions, & cultivating a product champion mindset.

Product Champion

Internal signals

Learn about internal signals, including identifying key internal signals, strategies for effective monitoring, & impact of internal signals on sales strategy.

Internal signals

Jobs to Be Done Framework

Learn about Jobs to Be Done framework, including applying the Jobs to Be Done framework, & key principles of Jobs to Be Done.

Jobs to Be Done Framework

Weighted Pipeline

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Weighted Pipeline

Text message marketing

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Text message marketing

Purchase Buying Stage

Learn about purchase buying stage, including understanding the buyer's journey, & key strategies to influence purchase decision.

Purchase Buying Stage

Programmatic Display Campaign

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Programmatic Display Campaign

Key Accounts

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Key Accounts

Value Statement

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Value Statement

Cold Call

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Cold Call

Accounts Payable

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Accounts Payable

Sales Qualified Lead

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Sales Qualified Lead

Persona Map

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Persona Map

Google Analytics

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Google Analytics

Outbound Leads

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Outbound Leads

Day Sales Outstanding

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Day Sales Outstanding

Buyer’s Remorse

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Buyer’s Remorse

Artificial Intelligence in Sales

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Artificial Intelligence in Sales

Virtual Selling

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Virtual Selling

Funnel Analysis

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Funnel Analysis

Email Deliverability

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Email Deliverability

Lightning Components

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Lightning Components

Marketing Operations

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Marketing Operations

Call Disposition

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Call Disposition

Single Sign-On (SSO)

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Single Sign-On (SSO)

On-premise CRM

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On-premise CRM

Request for Proposal

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Request for Proposal

Smarketing

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Smarketing

Triggered Email

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Triggered Email

Warm Email

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Warm Email

Account-Based Marketing Software

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Account-Based Marketing Software

Nurture

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Nurture

Channel Marketing

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Channel Marketing

Persona-Based Marketing

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Persona-Based Marketing

B2B Sales Channels

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B2B Sales Channels

Direct Mail

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Direct Mail

Siloed

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Siloed

Affiliate Marketing

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Affiliate Marketing

Business Process Management

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Business Process Management

Intent-Based Leads

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Intent-Based Leads

Chatbots

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Chatbots

Average Customer Life

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Average Customer Life

Lead Routing

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Lead Routing

Webhooks

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Webhooks

Sales Partnerships

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Sales Partnerships

Sales Prospecting Software

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Sales Prospecting Software

HTTP Requests

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HTTP Requests

Site Retargeting

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Site Retargeting

Use Case

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Use Case

Sales Development Representative (SDR)

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Sales Development Representative (SDR)

Competitive Advantage

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Competitive Advantage

Lookalike Audiences

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Lookalike Audiences

GDPR Compliance

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GDPR Compliance

Request for Quotation

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Request for Quotation

Ransomware

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Ransomware

Personalization in Sales

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Personalization in Sales

Order Management

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Order Management

Sandboxes

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Sandboxes

Video Email

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Video Email

Content Syndication

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Content Syndication

Sales Engagement

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Sales Engagement

Psychographics

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Psychographics

Demand Generation

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Demand Generation

Private Labeling

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Private Labeling

Deal-Flow

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Deal-Flow

Account Mapping

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Account Mapping

Ad-hoc Reporting

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Ad-hoc Reporting

Brand Equity

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Brand Equity

Content Management System

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Content Management System

Consumer Buying Behavior

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Consumer Buying Behavior

Digital Advertising

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Digital Advertising

Lead Generation Funnel

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Lead Generation Funnel

B2B Data Solutions

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B2B Data Solutions

Sales Methodology

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Sales Methodology

Sales Sequence

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Sales Sequence

Branded Keywords

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Branded Keywords

80/20 Rule

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80/20 Rule

Freemium Models

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Freemium Models

Funnel Optimization

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Funnel Optimization

Technographics

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Technographics

Mobile Compatibility

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Mobile Compatibility

Persona

Learn about persona, including different types of personas, creating a user persona, benefits of using personas, & persona development process.

Persona

B2B Data Enrichment

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B2B Data Enrichment

HubSpot

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HubSpot

Sales Metrics

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Sales Metrics

Sales Enablement

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Sales Enablement

Sales Script

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Sales Script

Edge Locations

Learn about edge locations, including understanding edge locations benefits, types of edge locations, & implementing edge locations.

Edge Locations

Trusted Advisor

Learn about trusted advisor, including becoming a trusted advisor: key strategies, & qualities of an effective trusted advisor.

Trusted Advisor

Buying Committee

Learn about buying committee, including identifying key members of a buying committee, & strategies for engaging a buying committee.

Buying Committee

Business Development Representative

Learn about business development representative, including skills and qualifications for BDRs, & roles and responsibilities of a BDR.

Business Development Representative

CRM Enrichment

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CRM Enrichment

Custom Metadata Types

Learn about custom metadata types, including benefits of using custom metadata, creating and managing custom metadata, & custom metadata vs. custom settings.

Custom Metadata Types

ETL

Learn about ETL, including understanding the ETL process, steps in the ETL workflow, benefits of ETL in outbound sales, & ETL tools to consider.

ETL

Account-Based Marketing Benchmarks

Learn about account-based marketing benchmarks, including setting account-based marketing goals, & key metrics for ABM success.

Account-Based Marketing Benchmarks

Lead Qualification

Learn about lead qualification, including the importance of lead qualification, key elements of lead qualification, differences between lead qualification and assessment.

Lead Qualification

Statement of Work

Learn about statement of work, including key components of a statement of work, & crafting an effective statement of work.

Statement of Work

Marketing Automation

Learn about marketing automation, including benefits of marketing automation, & key features of effective marketing automation.

Marketing Automation

Customer Success

Learn about customer success, including key strategies for customer success, benefits of prioritizing customer success, & customer success vs. customer support.

Customer Success
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