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Account-Based Marketing: 5 Steps to Get Started And Drive Growth for Your SaaS Business | TK Kader | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: Account-Based Marketing: 5 Steps to Get Started And Drive Growth for Your SaaS Business
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Video Transcript
If you're looking
to drive
growth for your SaaS business,
then account based marketing
may be one of the best
growth strategies for you.
Here's the thing, though
ABM account based
marketing is not the right strategy
for every company.
And a lot of times companies
overspend on technology
instead of just focusing
on the right basics
to make an album plan work.
So in this episode, I'm
going to walk you through the five steps
that you absolutely need
to know
on how to implement
a proper account based marketing
strategy to drive
growth for your SaaS business.
And when you implement these five steps
and include a bonus one, you will be able
to accelerate your path
to that next stage growth.
Intro.
Let's everybody.
Welcome to Unstoppable.
I'm T.K., and on this channel I help
SaaS founders like you grow
your SaaS businesses.
faster with an unstoppable strategy.
Now, if you're new to this channel,
welcome.
I drop in episode every single Sunday
with actionable strategies
and tactics from the trenches
on how to grow your SaaS business faster
if you new.
Be sure to hit that subscribe button
and that bell icon
and you'll get notified every single time
I drop an episode with the TK Energy.
If you are already part
of this community, my people.
Welcome back.
It's really awesome to see you over here.
I learned about ABM
at my last company, Tower.
We were at this very, very specific
inflection point.
We had a self-service business
where people could sign up
for our product for 30 bucks a month
and then $49 a month.
But what we really wanted to do
with our fresh series A funding
was we really wanted to figure out a way
to go upmarket.
wanted to sell
to more mid-market companies.
They were already coming in on their own,
but we wanted to sell top down.
We wanted to have a sales driven motion
we wanted to get one year deals.
And also we just wanted to charge more
because we just realized
that we were severely under
charging for our product.
And so in order to do that instead of
just waiting around for these companies
to come to us,
one lone salesperson at a time.
That's who we sold to.
We decided to launch an entire account
based marketing campaign
to go after our ideal companies
and help them to become customers faster
by introducing ourselves to them.
here's the thing.
I learned the hard way that ABM account
based marketing is not perfect
for every type of company.
It worked for us
when we sold Tower up to Marketo.
All of a sudden
I was the SVP of Strategy at Marketo
and I was at the forefront.
Marketo was one of the best
demand generation platforms out there.
I was at the forefront
with the thought leaders around ABS.
I learned a lot more over there as well.
So in this episode,
I'm going to walk you through exactly
who ABM is for, who it's not for.
And then I'm going to walk you
through the five steps
that you need to follow
to implement an effective account
based marketing strategy.
And if you watch till the end,
I'll also give you a bonus one on
how to ensure
that you're successful with it.
Now, let's first
get into exactly who it's for
and who it's not for.
ABM works best.
My example is probably
one of the best use cases for
and for tool wrap.
It works really well.
when you have larger axes.
ABM in itself
is not exactly the cheapest
go to market motion that you can do.
In fact, it's
probably a little bit more expensive
than a lot of the other
go to market motions that are out there.
And they cover a lot of different ones
in this channel.
But if you have larger TVs
meaning average
contract value, the average deal size,
then ABM is worth it.
If you have multiple decision makers,
meaning in order
to actually win a deal, go top down,
you need to convince
multiple stakeholders
to actually say yes,
that ABM works really well
because you're essentially going
after a target account
and marketing to specific decision makers
that exist within a single company,
a single account,
and getting them to all reach consensus
before they even reach your sales team.
And lastly,
if you have longer sales cycles, ABA
is in a way
designed to shorten sales cycles.
If you have longer sales cycles
and you have larger CVS,
you have a whole sales process.
Your multiple stakeholders
than ABM is going to be really,
really effective
to actually
not only get
into more accounts faster,
but also win those deals faster as well
to shorten the sales cycles.
that's who ABM is good for.
If you are a self-service SaaS business
where a user just signs up
for the product and swipes
a credit card,
ABM might be overkill for you
and may not be the right thing for you.
So that's who it's for and it's not.
if you're still watching,
then ABM is likely for you
or you really want to learn about ABM.
Let's dig
into the five steps
that you need to follow
to actually implement
a proper account based marketing plan.
If you're excited to dig into step
number one,
go and smash out
like button for the YouTube algorithm
and let's get right into it.
So step
number one
in building a proper account
based marketing plan
is the same step number one
as any sort of marketing plan.
But it's particularly true for account
based marketing because remember,
you want to go after specific accounts
and market to them in order to do that.
Step number one is to really establish
a proper ideal customer profile.
Your ideal customer profile should have
the standard things like formal graphic
demographic, techno graphic,
but it should
ideally get into more details.
When I work with founders,
we do 29 different points
to really flesh out
a proper, ideal customer
profile to really understand
who is our ideal customer.
Why is this an urgent,
important problem for them?
How are we differentiated?
Why are they underserved?
Why have they not gone
with the competitor yet?
And how do we actually approach them?
So you want to make sure you first define
your ideal customer profile.
A lot of times
people confuse their ideal customer
profile with their total
addressable market.
So if this entire circle
is your total addressable market,
let's just say you're going
after a $12 billion market.
What this little segment
is going to be your ICP
and usually your ICP
is going to be a very specific segment
of this total addressable market
that's going to get you
to that next stage of revenue growth.
They're more likely to buy now.
They're more likely to engage now
and to get you to that next
to your revenue growth.
And that's where our ideal customer
profile really comes in handy.
And that way
you're already shrinking down your total
addressable space
that you're going to be going after.
Once you have a proper
ideal customer profile, the next thing
you'll really want to flesh out
is your messaging.
The reason messaging is super important,
particularly for account
based marketing plays.
You're going to be running
a number of different place
or a number of different people
in order to really get their attention.
Let's just say
you send them an email,
it's going to have a subject
line, otherwise
they'll never open the email.
Let's say you do a cold call.
Well, in that case,
the first sentence
is going to be super important.
Just can't be.
Hey, you have a second? Right.
Whatever comes after
is what's going to really
keep them on the line
if you're going to run ads.
Well, what's going to be the ad copy?
All right.
All the way right down to your home page.
If they click through
and they will research you
before they engage with you,
that big piece of text right up top
in your home page,
well, that's your messaging.
So based on this very specific ideal
customer profile
to get you to that next stage of growth,
you really want to make sure
you have proper messaging in place
because otherwise
you're going to put a lot of effort
in your account based marketing place
you're going to reach these people
that really should be buying from you.
But a way, you're going to show up
with t shirt stains on your shirt.
You won't look very good
and they'll judge you on that.
And first impressions count
and they'll
won't want to do business with you
when you really get your act together
down the line
because you've already had it all wrong.
They'll say, No, no, no, we're good.
We went with the other guy.
So you really want to make sure
you get your messaging down?
Once you have your ICP
and your messaging,
then come step number three,
this is where it really gets fun.
What you want to do is create what I call
your Dream 100 list.
Your dream 100 is out of this ideal
customer profile.
You really want to flesh out
100 accounts.
You can.
In fact, it's best
to do this in a spreadsheet
or your CRM system.
You want to do
100 of these target accounts
that fit into your ideal customer
profile.
Now, if you're like,
okay, I have a million of them,
or I have a thousand of them.
Well, in that case,
what I would say is
you want to go back
to your ideal customer profile
and refine that a little bit
more to figure out
which of that market
is more likely to buy
and how you can filter down
with the most likely to buy companies
that are in that space.
So you want to build out your dream 100.
Now, part of this is the company.
Part of this is the contact info.
Part of this is data around the company.
But more importantly,
it's also the key decision makers.
There's going to be key decision makers
that you have in order to win a deal.
And the big magic
in account based marketing is
you start to focus on 100 companies
or so that you really want to target,
but not just the companies,
but specific people at those companies.
And so
you'll actually want to flesh that out
in your dream 100 list as well.
So those are the first three steps.
Then the funnel
really starts to begin right
before I go to step number four.
And don't forget,
I have a bonus one all the way
and let me just pause here for a second.
Are you getting a little excited?
I get super excited about account
based marketing place
because you can get very focused
and you can yield incredible results
and they can shorten sales cycles.
A lot of magic happens
and it really brings together
the company
because whoever is wearing the sales
hat hovers, wearing the marketing hat
and all brings everyone together
and aligns everyone
because you're like
this 100 companies is all that matters
is how we're going to win.
Here's how we're going to hit
our revenue number. Let's go after them.
And it just it just becomes a lot easier.
So you're getting excited
about running your account
based marketing play.
Can I just get a
yes in the comments below
and also smash up like button
for the YouTube algorithm?
It just loves it when you do that.
And honestly, sort of.
We put a lot of love into these videos.
Also,
if you're in this stage
where you're building out
your account
based marketing play
and you need help
implementing all of this,
this is why I created my SaaS
Go to market coaching program.
You don't have to go anywhere right now.
I'll tell you more about it at all of
at the end of the episode.
I'll also link to it below.
Let's go to step number four,
and this is where the fun starts
to happen.
Step number four is personalization.
And I don't mean
just, you
know, hey,
I saw that you went to insert school.
that's not personalization.
True personalization is when you actually
go into each of these companies
and you start to really and analyze
what are the key
unique things about them
that really necessitates your product,
that ties into your messaging.
So you really want to look at
what's going on in their world,
what's going on in their blog,
if they're a public company
that you're approaching.
Back in the tower of Days,
we used to have our
orders actually research
their public filings.
The quarterly filings
that they had to understand
what was top of mind
for the leadership team.
So you really want to build out
personalization
for each of these hundred accounts.
The reason this is worth
it is because you're going after 100
high value accounts
that, you know is in your ideal
customer profile.
You've developed messaging
that you know
is going to resonate with them,
but also to cut through the noise
in addition
to the right messaging and the ICP,
you really want to have
the personalization ready
for each of these companies
that really in a way shows that, hey,
we really understand your business
and this is why we think that we should
do business and our software solution
would be valuable for you.
So you really want to build out
the proper personalization and bake that
into your dream 100 list.
So that's easy for you to access
once you have the personalization.
Then comes the fun part.
The fun part is
then you launch your campaigns.
This is the ABM execution.
one of the big things that super powerful
about ABM account based marketing,
it's a little bit of a misnomer
because it's both marketing and sales.
What I mean by that is you're
going to take this target 100 accounts
and you're going to figure out ways
to get in front of them.
You want to get in front of them
and get your message in front of them.
And your message
should be personalized
with the data that you researched.
And you want to do that
in a concentrated way
through as many channels as possible.
So the no brainer ways,
if you have salespeople
or you are the sales person,
you should do outbound.
And this can go in terms
of email,
DMS and calling,
but that alone isn't going to do it
because you have 100 accounts.
let's just say there's five, people
in each of these accounts.
That's 500 people.
And you may not have enough people
to do all of that.
So you also want to have air cover,
air cover as marketing, where by the time
the salesperson shows up does outbound,
they have heard about you.
This is where marketing comes in.
Remember, sales is 1 to 1,
marketing is one to many,
which is why you need both in order
to win in account based marketing.
So in terms of marketing,
you'll want to run ads,
you'll want to do social, organic,
you want to post online and engage
with them and connect with them.
You'll also want to do search engine
marketing and search engine optimization.
So they find you. They start looking.
You can invest in some intent data
tools
to figure out who's already in market
so you can target them
in a more personalized way
and add them to your doing 100
ad together.
Between marketing and sales,
you can also go to relevant events
where you know
your target
100 accounts are going to be there
and you can seek them out
in a very personalized way.
This execution piece
is not the hardest piece,
believe it or not.
The hardest piece is these four steps.
You do these four steps, then
your execution actually
becomes a lot easier.
You know exactly who to target.
These 100 accounts.
You know exactly how to message to them,
you know, exactly
what channels they're on.
You know exactly what to say to them.
Because you've done the work
around the personalization,
getting that personalized message
in front of them is not the hard work.
is really getting intentional about
who are the accounts you're going after.
What is the 100 accounts?
Who are these people
and how do you personalized to them?
Then it becomes easier
to actually execute.
if you skip one through four
and just jump to the execution
and say, Look,
here's our ICP
and you wrote it in a napkin
and you hand it over
to a marketing agency or fractional CMO
that can't get a real CMO job,
then you're going to spend a lot of money
with the wrong messaging,
with a whole bunch of motions
that are wasted.
But worst of all,
you're going to burn your brand
because first impressions matter.
So they're going to see
that really shitty campaign
they're going to say,
These guys are not serious.
So by the time
we actually get around to this,
we're not going to do business with them.
And it's really hard
to get a second chance
after a bad first impression,
which is why the step
five is super important.
Now, I promised you a bonus step,
which is step number six, By the way,
if you're so watching,
you're getting value.
I hope you are.
Please smash out.
Like but for the YouTube algorithm,
it just loves it when you do that.
The bonus step is to establish
a set of metrics.
What you don't
want to do is just set it and forget it.
And the biggest thing that I recommend is
you actually have a monday metrics
meeting with sales and marketing.
The big thing here is
you really want to measure all the way
from the campaigns
you're running on the marketing
all the way to the opportunity
that you're working in sales
and you really want to connect the dots.
The reason this is super important
is out of these hundred accounts,
you really want to understand
what's working and what's not.
Typically for an account based
marketing campaign,
you really want to understand how quickly
they're becoming opportunities
and how quickly
they're becoming customers.
And you really also want to understand
which aspects of your campaign
are really working.
Based on this data,
let's use the blue marker right here.
This is going to be a feedback
loop to your execution
and also to your entire strategy.
Based on this,
there are a couple key
things that you'll be looking for.
The first thing you'll be looking for
is, is our ICP correct?
Meaning these hundred accounts
that we're targeting,
is it resonating with them?
Was our thesis around why
this is the most relevant market
to go after Relevant?
The second one is the messaging.
Is our messaging actually resonating?
Part of this will be through
the outbound campaigns.
Part of
this will be through
the marketing campaigns.
So you want to work
together to understand is our messaging.
This thesis,
we have our on the messaging.
Is it actually working?
and the third thing
you want to understand
is what channel is working.
I've worked with countless companies
with their account based marketing plays.
I'm running in my own companies.
The big thing that I've learned in any
go to market
strategy is
there's always this one channel
that crushes it.
So while you will be doing intent and ads
and social
and SEO and email admin calling,
one of them is going to emerge
as the channel that just crushes it,
which is why you want to look
at these metrics and figure out
which channel is crushing it.
And you essentially
want to put more dollars into the channel
that's crushing it the most
because that's working
and you want to double down on it.
The reason I put this as third is
if your messaging
and targeting isn't working,
then nothing will matter.
But if you're messaging is working
and you're targeting is working,
then it's a cool where is it working
and where do we put
in more resources and more money
so we can scale this?
And that's how this whole thing
comes together.
And then it gets really fun.
So now you know exactly who account
base marketing is for
and who it's not for.
If you have a self-service business,
probably not the best idea,
but if you have larger CVS,
if you have longer sales cycles
that you want to collapse,
if you're multiple stakeholders,
they have to convince
in the sales
process, account
based marketing is super powerful
for you.
Now, in order to actually implement
a proper account based marketing plan,
step one,
you want to flesh out
your ideal customer profile.
Don't just write it in a napkin.
Do a proper ideal customer profile.
Exercise.
Once you have your ICP,
then define your messaging.
The messaging should be personalized
to the ICP you're targeting at Mass.
Once you have that,
then break down your ICP to the hundred
most promising accounts
and list out all the data
you can find around these accounts,
including the key people
you need to be targeting.
Once you have that,
then you want to actually do
some work
and personalizing this
for each of these accounts
and each of these people
so that by the time
you get in front of them,
you are set up for success.
Because remember,
first impressions matter
and then finally you can drive execution.
When you drive execution,
make sure you have the ground game.
That's the sales team.
That's the 1 to 1
along with the air cover.
That's marketing.
That's one to many.
The two work together.
If you're doing this right,
by the time
your sales team is approaching
these people,
they have already heard of you
through your marketing.
That's where the power really comes.
And lastly, as a bonus,
you want to measure the metrics
both across sales and marketing.
Based on your metrics.
You will want to iterate
on your ideal customer profile,
on your messaging.
And then as that's working,
you will want to double down
on the channel
that's performing the best.
So now you know exactly how to
launch a proper account
based marketing plan.
Now, here's the thing.
What you may not know is, okay,
how do I flesh out a proper ICP?
I really don't
want to write it in a napkin.
How do I actually define my messaging?
I want to make the right
first impression.
How do I build out my dream 100 list?
What data should I collect
and how do I actually put it together?
Or what kind of personalization
should I do?
And most importantly,
how do I actually do this?
Sales motion
for outbound
and the marketing motion
for the air cover.
And lastly,
how do I actually track these metrics?
Well, this is why I create my SaaS
go to market coaching program.
inside of this program,
we do three key things.
First, we flesh out
your ideal customer profile.
Now, I've worked with countless founders
inside of this program.
Everyone thinks they have an ICP
until they work with me.
We do a 29 point analysis
to really understand
who your ideal customer
profile is going to be.
Once you have your ICP, then
we teach you
how to develop your messaging.
We call this a manifesto.
Your manifesto is your positioning.
It's your value proposition,
it's your strategic narrative.
It's how you communicate to the market
why they should do something
about the problem
you solve and why they should choose you.
Once you have those two pieces,
you have your core strategy
for your account based marketing plan,
and also, honestly,
for any go to market motion
you want to run.
Then comes the third pillar.
The third pillar is your Broadway show.
The Broadway
show is a consistent
set of sales and marketing activities
that you can run,
whether it's to your broader ICP
or to the specific dream 100 customers
that you have to actually
get your message in front of them
and convert those two leads,
pipeline and revenue growth.
It is an incredible program.
If you'd like to work together,
just go to T.K.
Datacom, slash G T and T.K.
Datacom slash GTM on that page.
You'll get all the details
around the program.
Now, this is my sixth year
running this program.
What I've learned is the better the fit,
the better the results.
And we've had incredible results.
We have countless success stories
that we've shared on this channel,
and we'll share them with you as well.
all we ask is
if you'd like to work together,
just follow form
and book a call with us on the call.
We'll figure out where you are,
what your goals are.
If it sounds like it's a fit
and we can actually help you,
we're off to the races right away
and it's an incredible program.
So just go to T.K.
Care.com slash GTM.
Also,
if you got value from this video, please
smash out like button
for the YouTube algorithm.
It just loves it when you do that.
I drop an episode
every single Sunday
with actionable strategies
and tactics from the trenches
on how to grow your SaaS business faster.
So if you haven't already, be sure to hit
the subscribe button and that bell icon,
you'll get notified every single time
I drop an episode.
Also, if you have a fellow founder,
if you have a team member
that would get value from this,
if you're part of a Slack group
or WhatsApp group with other founders,
please share this video with them.
It'll just mean the world to us.
We want to help
as many SaaS founders
as possible build incredible
software companies.
And let's remember,
everyone needs a strategy
for their life and their business.
But when you are with us,
yours is going to be unstoppable.
I'm take nothing next episode
or inside the SaaS
go to market coaching program.
Take care everybody
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