Target high-potential accounts through hyper-personalized sales and marketing to accelerate growth. This is the objective of Account-Based Marketing (ABM), a technique that is making inroads in France after a long evangelization phase. While the adoption rate is soaring, the results are not. In particular unreliable data that impacts the targeting and relevance of the content put forward.
Account-Based Marketing (ABM): hype tempered by mixed results in France
Faced with the emergence of a new, better-informed and more demanding "super-buyer" persona, B2B companies are challenge their sales action for maintain their competitiveness and win market share after the pandemic parenthesis. The craze for Sales Enablement (+343% adoption rate over the last five years*) and theABM (94.2% in 2021 vs. 77% in 2019**) illustrates this dynamic perfectly. In France, the ABM has clearly emerged from the evangelization phase and is gradually establishing itself as a powerful lever for attracting high-potential accounts. The launch of the French barometer of strategic account marketing supports this view. It reveals that ABM adoption rate stands at around 55% in France... but the results remain mixed. In fact, only 30% of French companies surveyed said they were "more or less satisfied" with the sales results generated by their Account-Based Marketing sequences. Overall, French professionals rate ABM at 6 out of 10... feedback that clearly contrasts with the results reported across the Atlantic. :- 87% of marketers believe thatABM outperforms other marketing activities (Rollworks)
- Companies with a mature ABM strategy attribute 79% of their sales opportunities and 73% of their total revenue to Account-Based Marketing (Terminus).
- 30% of marketers who deploy ABM campaigns engage twice as many decision-makers and senior executives (Sirius Decisions).
Low-quality data... the ABM's kryptonite
This is the main conclusion of the "RevOps Reality Check" study (Openprise). " Poor-quality data is the kryptonite of ABM campaigns : with inaccurate information, organizations risk targeting out-of-market accounts and giving priority to the wrong prospects. Missing out on a high-value prospect means a loss of revenue. Targeting an account that is unlikely to buy is a total waste of resources. ".Bad Data triggers unnecessary ABM sequences
Every account approached as part of an ABM campaign is the subject of a time-consuming, energy-intensive and costly Sales - Marketing focus:- in-depth work on "customer knowledge",
- creation of ultra-personalized, even personal, content,
- high-level copywriting,
- detection of weak signals and intentional data, etc...
Which data to feed ABM campaigns?
By definition, Account-Based Marketing requires a substantial pool of Data, since it implies a high degree of personalization. A distinction must be made here between contact data and so-called "behavioral" data:- Identification data : this includes firmographic data (company name, activity, size, sales) and contact information for decision-makers and influencers in the decision-making sphere (surname, first name, position, telephone number, email address, location, etc.).
- Behavioral data : this includes data on the target account's engagement, on the specifics of its business sector, on the technological solutions used in-house, on purchase intent, etc.