- When it comes to growing your SaaS business
there's the traditional B2B marketing
and then there's account-based marketing.
B2B companies that actually
do account-based marketing tend to have higher win rates,
tend to have larger deal size and they tend to grow faster
but when it comes to ABM, it can be really complicated
really fast for no good reason.
So having practiced ABM for years and multiple companies,
I'm gonna walk you through
the core principles that you need to know.
So to set up your ABM machine. Intro
(upbeat music)
What's up everybody? Welcome to unstoppable I'm TK
and on this channel, I help SaaS founders like you
grow your SaaS businesses faster.
Navigate the path to the next stage of growth faster
with unstoppable strategy.
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Be sure to hit that subscribe button and that bell icon
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every single time I drop an episode with the TK energy.
If you're part of my SaaS go-to-market coaching program,
if you're part is growing community, welcome back.
It's really awesome to see you over here.
So I remember when ToutApp or got acquired
by Marketo right at that time, ABM became all that rage.
It started to hit that mainstream
and everyone was talking about it.
Marketo itself had its own ABM platform
that they were talking about.
Engagio was getting started,
Terminus was going strong.
So there was just so many of these companies
talking about ABM, account-based marketing
but the funny thing was when it came to the people inside
of ToutApp and the people inside of Marketo,
they had been practicing account based marketing
for a lot longer.
So it wasn't that new to us.
So it's kinda funny to see the rage and even today
ABM is more the rage than ever before
and the problem with that on one hand
it's a competitive advantage
and you can do a lot better when you do practice ABM.
On the other hand, people over-complicate it
they make it way more complicated than it ever needs to be.
So in this episode, knowing everything that I know
about ABM and having practiced it
in multiple companies ToutApp and Marquetto
I'm gonna walk you through the exact steps
you need to follow, the key principles
that you need to know to set up your ABM machine
so that you get that competitive advantage
in the market and grow faster.
So if you're excited to dig into the principles
and the steps, you're gonna smash that like button
and let's go to principle number one.
So let me just explain to you what the difference is
between traditional B2B marketing
and ABM account-based marketing
and this is the simplest way that I can put it for you.
ABM is actually going after the accounts we want
as customers, instead of traditional B2B marketing
where we're just kinda waiting around
for a particular role type to raise their hand and say,
"Hey I may want to buy from you"
and then talking to them.
So on one hand you have the traditional demand generation
where you put out the content,
you run the lead magnets and run the ads
and you just hope that it's the right fit people
that actually raise their hand
and said ABM is saying, you know what?
We know who we want our customers to be
like let's go actually define that
and let's go after those people
and engage with those people
and let's prioritize the people that are coming in
through the demand gen activities
so that we focus on the accounts that actually matter.
So that's the core principle.
That's what you really need to know.
Anyone else that tries to make ABM more complicated
than that, is probably tryna sell you some software.
That's probably what it is.
So with that out of the way,
how do you actually go about setting up your ABM machine?
Like what are the principles
and steps that you actually need to follow?
Well, the first thing you need to do is actually
define your ideal account profile.
Now, if you are a regular viewer of this channel,
this is why I constantly talk about ICP
ideal customer profile.
Now, when it comes to practicing ABM
you're essentially creating your ideal customer profile
but also looking at it through the lens of actual accounts.
When you're part of my go-to market program,
I actually walk all the founders that I work with,
to actually define their dream 100 accounts
and actually define their ICP
with the eye towards creating an ideal account profile.
So this is something that we talk about
all the time on this channel.
So when you're doing step one, in ABM,
if you've been following everything that I say,
you probably have practicing ABM already.
So what's super important is to actually create this view
of like, okay, who are the ideal customers accounts?
That would be a great fit for our platform.
That's literally step number one
and you've probably already done it.
If, if you've been part of this channel for a while.
The second step that you need to do
is actually start to say, okay,
how do we get proactive around this ICP?
Right? Instead of just running a bunch of ads,
instead of just running a broadway show,
that's primarily inbound,
how do we actually say, all right
who are exactly these people that would be perfect
for us and would be perfect on the platform.
This is step number two of ABM
where we actually build out your dream 100 accounts.
A hundred is a good number.
If you wanna do 50, that's fine.
If you wanna do 10
because yet you do million dollar deals, that's fine.
You wanna do a thousand,
I would push you a little bit and say
maybe that's too broad.
I would get specific.
Literally like take the revenue you're at right now,
what's the revenue you want to get to
and literally take your average deal size
and look at how many deals you need to do to get there.
That should be the size of your dream 100, maybe twice that
because you'll win rates are gonna be 20 to 50%.
So what you Wanna do is essentially build out a full list
of these accounts that you wanna be going after
and you don't wanna just stop at accounts.
You also wanna target three to five contacts
that are in those accounts.
Meaning let's just say you primarily sell
to the VP of marketing well
for these target accounts that are the perfect fit for you.
You should have the VP of marketing,
maybe a couple of directors of marketing and the CEO
and if they have a CMO
and maybe include the CRO or the VP of sales as well.
That way you can actually attack that account fully.
This will come in more handy later.
I'll explain why in step number three.
So step number two is you build out your dream 100 list
and actually flesh out or the people,
what are their titles?
What's your contact info,
What's their LinkedIn, what's their email,
what's their phone number, actually map all that out.
This is one of the fundamental differences
in an ABM practice where you're not just saying, well
here's the persona, which is kind of an abstract view.
You're saying here's the literal accounts
we're going to go after.
You're not just saying, well, let's just run some ads
and hopefully some of these people will raise their hand.
You're going to say, okay
let's actually go after these accounts.
That's the fundamental difference.
So now before I go into step number three
where all this comes together
let me just pause here for a second.
Number one, ADM does not have to be complicated.
Number two, you don't need to buy a lot of tech
to make ABM work for you.
Number three, ABM is frigging awesome.
So if you are not embracing it
you should absolutely embrace it.
If you're starting to see the power in this,
can I just get a yes in the chat below,
in the comments below
or just put ABM in the comments?
That's cool too
and also smash that like button for the YouTube algorithm
because it really likes it when you smash that like button.
So does my team.
So do I, because we put a lot of love into these videos
so hopefully you're getting value.
So please smash that like button
and put yes in the comments below.
Also, if you are
at that stage where you're like, you know what?
We need to embrace this ABM discipline.
We need to build out the machine
and you actually want a step-by-step process to follow,
then I invite you to check out
my SaaS go-to market coaching program.
Inside of that program,
I'll walk you step by, step on actually building
out this ABM machine based on my years of experience
so that you don't actually have execution risk.
You can actually focus on what matters.
I'll tell you more about it.
At the end of this video
let's go to principle number three
this is where it all comes together.
This is a super important one.
So remember, ABM, the fundamental difference is
we're actually going after the accounts, right?
So step one and two was really about who are our accounts?
What are the perfect accounts?
What is our dream 100 accounts
that we absolutely need to have?
Right? Step number three is where it all comes together.
Step number three is where you engage, right?
You actually engage with these accounts
and there's three specific ways you do this,
this is what makes it different between just
demand generation, demand generation is like, well
how do we put out a net?
And how do we attract people, right?
With ABM, the reason it's super powerful,
it's kind of a misnomer was calling it
account based marketing
is because it's also account-based selling.
What you're also doing is you're bringing together
the sales team and the marketing team to work together
to go after these accounts
and this is where the engagement part is super important.
Once you have this list, you'll wanna get sales
and marketing aligned on it
and say this is what's super important for us.
These are gonna be our next 100 customers.
Let's go get them
and so once you do that, then there's essentially
three things you wanna be doing to engage.
The first thing you're gonna be doing is
you're actually going to be spinning
up an outbound machine to engage with these accounts
in a meaningful way.
You'll be sending them your manifesto.
If you don't know what a manifesto is,
check out this video.
It's called my unstoppable sales funnel framework
where I talk about what a manifesto is.
I'll link to it below.
You don't have to go right now.
You actually want to set up outbound,
where you're emailing them or FedExing them.
Not joking. FedEx is probably the most effective.
It has a 99% open rate, right?
So you either you're sending them something
either through email or
through FedEx to actually engage with these accounts.
So that's step number one.
The second thing you're gonna be doing
and usually with outbound it's usually run by the SDR team
or if you're super early, than the founder themselves
or the VP of sales
but this is truly sales and marketing partnership here.
So outbound comes first.
The second thing that comes is you wanna run ads, right?
And the ads should be primarily around air cover
ads for air cover
meaning you should put out your manifesto,
you should run ads on the manifesto
so that these same people but you want to target them,
you wanna target these accounts specifically
as tightly as possible
and when you do that, what'll end up happening
is when they're receiving your emails
or receiving the FedEx, they'll also be like, Oh, wow.
I think I saw them online.
Like this company's everywhere
and it starts to have this halo effect
which is one of the powers of ABM
and then the third thing you wanna be doing,
is you wanna be signing up for intent data.
Intent data there's some companies out there that do this
where you can tell them
here are the accounts and here's our target accounts
and they'll tell you out of all those accounts
who's in the market right now.
Who's literally interested in buying your type
of software right now, or expressing interest.
and that way you can move them up to the top of the list
and engage them in a slightly different way
knowing that they have shown intent.
So these are essentially the three ways you
should be engaging to mobilize your account-based marketing
and sales plan.
Number one, sending out outbound email or FedEx or both,
running ads for air cover
and also use utilizing intent data to actually
move people up on the list.
By the way, intent data can come from external sources.
Like they could be going to publication websites
and there are some providers that gave you this
or it can also be coming from your own website alert.
There's some ways to actually measure and look
for when a particular company is coming to your website
or multiple people are coming to your website
and that's a form of intent as well.
So to recap, that's all you need to actually spin up
your ABM machine.
ABM, What's the fundamental difference,
you're going after the accounts that you want as customers
instead of waiting for them to discover you.
Number one, build out your ICP.
Number two, you just flesh that out
into your dream 100 accounts plus contacts
so you actually have a target list to go after
and number three, engage first through outbound email,
then FedEx if you can afford it,
if your deal size is gonna afford it.
Ads to target those accounts and then
also utilizing intent data to prioritize those accounts
as they start to become aware of you guys in the market
and then you can actually engage them in a deeper way.
That's your ABM strategy
in the simple steps that you can get started on.
Now, if you're in this stage where you're building
out your ABM machine, your account based marketing machine
then chances are you're at that stage where you're figuring
out your broader go-to market machine.
This is why I created my SaaS go-to-market coaching program.
Inside of this program, I work
with you step-by-step to actually build out
your scalable go-to-market machine.
ABM, being one of the more
important strategies that we have in the program as well.
We go into the details of how to build out your manifesto
which is the strategic narrative,
how to build out your ideal customer profile
and then also how to actually run your broadway show
which are some of these engagement strategies
that I highlighted.
So if you want the step by step framework to follow
to actually build out this ABM machine,
then I invite you to check
out my SaaS go-to market coaching program and join us.
You can get more details around the program
by going to tkkader.com/gtm tkkader.com/gtm.
You can also link to it below as well
and inside of that page, you'll get more details
about how the program works, how I'd work with you.
and you'll have a little form that you can fill out
to actually apply to join.
We have it as an application only
because we wanna make sure we're working
with clients that we can actually help, right?
And so when, when you apply to join
we'll get on a phone call.
We'll diagnose where you are in terms
of your go-to-market machine
and your SaaS business
and then from there, if it's a good fit
then I'll give you all the details on the program.
We can start working together.
So go to tkkader.com/gtm will actually help you
implement your account based marketing machine.
You overall go to scalable, go-to market and machine.
So you can actually get to the next stage of growth
10 times faster.
Now, if you got value from this video
be sure to smash that like button, if you haven't already
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Also be sure to comment below,
let us know what you thought.
Let us know how you're building an ABM strategy.
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or a team member that would get value from this
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That pretty much wraps it up and go check
out the SaaS go-to-market coaching program
if you want a quicker path to actually implementing all
of this, you can work together to do that based on all
of my experience.
Lastly remember, everyone needs a strategy
for their life and their business.
When you are with us, yours is gonna be unstoppable.
I'm TK, and I'll see in the next episode.
(slow cheery music)