7 Hours of ABM in a Day, Distilled to 15 Minutes | Ep. 275

Welcome to Scrappy ABM. This is your podcast with practical playbooks that don't break the bank. In this podcast, we dig into the exact playbooks that ABM practitioners are using today to get their first ABM program off the ground. We'll dig into how they're using their current tech stack in order to create scrappy programs that rely more on creativity than new technologies. So if you're looking for how to get ABM off the ground in your organization in the next 90 days, let's dive into this episode. Hello, welcome to Scrappy ABM. This is your podcast with practical playbooks that don't break the bank. This is your host Mason Cosby, and today I'm really excited to bring, uh, you this specific episode. For the past almost year, uh, we have actually hosted this full-day workshop called ABM in a Day. We've had over 900 marketers come through it, and as we were looking back at the survey feedback information on what were the most helpful pieces of information, uh, we actually wanted to do is in this episode, I'll go ahead and give you the, the best of the best. So hopefully in the next 15-ish minutes, you get the greatest value instead of having to join us for 7 hours. So hopefully that's helpful. The number one thing that people said was the most helpful for them was actually a clear structure and system for their ABM program. So if you've listened to the podcast for any length of time, you may have heard us talk about our two core frameworks of the Account Progression Model and then the 4D Framework. So to make this super simple, the Account Progression Model is just clear stages of a buyer's journey. So we define this as awareness, initial engagement, meaningful engagement, Marketing Qualified Account, Sales Qualified Account, Opportunity. And there's also a re-engagement stage for where you push accounts when they're not quite yet ready, but you don't want to keep running them towards the exact same conversion-based programs. The reason this was so helpful for people is what we actually do live is we have people write down all of their existing programs. And once they've written down all of their existing programs, we actually have them align where their programs currently sit today based on those core stages. So I think the most helpful exercise that everybody can do right now is literally take out a sheet of paper, write down everything you're currently doing, and then ask yourself, what is the primary intent and purpose of this program? Is it to get people to know that we exist? If yes, that's an awareness level program. Is it to get people to better understand the problem that they're experiencing? If yes, that's an initial engagement. Is it to help them understand the viable solutions that are available? That'd be meaningful engagement. Is it to get them to better understand how we uniquely can help them? That'd be marketing qualified account. Is it to get them to book a meeting? Pretty important for the inevitable sales process. Uh, if it's a booked meeting, then that's an SQA. And then lastly, if it's they are now in our pipeline, that is then the opportunity stage. So truly, if you map everything out that you're currently doing and then figure out where it fits, you've actually got the step 1 to your ABM program. So hopefully that alone is helpful for you in the first couple minutes. The second aspect from a structure perspective that many people have said is super helpful for them is our 4D framework or our activation playbook structure. And that 4D framework is inclusive of data, distribution, destination, and direction. Data specifically targets plus triggers that then create personalized, nuanced, and specific messaging. So as you think about targets, this is simply who are we reaching out to? And then your trigger is the reason you're reaching out. One of my favorite simple examples is a great fit company that we want to work with has a former customer go into that organization. So target would be on the target account list. Trigger would be a Champion Tracking play. So when you combine those two things together, that actually creates context so you can nuance your messaging. The reason this is so impactful is that so many people only build programs around targets without triggers or reasons to reach out. You just end up doing more targeted cold outbound efforts that we call ABM, but are really just more spam efforts. So what we're We wanna make sure we nail down that trigger component. Once you've nailed down the trigger aspect, you then have clear reasons to reach out, and then you can actually nuance the different channels you're using based on the reason you're reaching out. We think of channels or distribution in two different categories. So first would be direct, which is your standard outbound emails. It'd be LinkedIn DMs, it'd be phone calls or indirect. So think more of events or Ad programs or organic social. Higher in the account progression model, we have found that indirect channels tend to work better and lower in the account progression model, direct channels tend to work better. So you want to align the channels that you're using based on the reason you're reaching out, plus where the account is in their journey. From there, you want to then outline the destinations you're sending people to. So my standard thing that I always say on this is, uh, I've yet to find someone that really struggled to figure out how to book a meeting. They know to go to the top right-hand corner of the website. Click, schedule a call, and then go through that process. Where people struggle is they need a reason to actually want to book a meeting. And I have found that content is the most helpful thing for educating people at scale for why they should book a meeting with you. So you wanna make sure that the content destination you're sending people to aligns again with the reason you're reaching out and where the buyer is in their journey. One of those helpful things from a structured perspective as we think through content is that there's actually 3 kinds of content. So there is problem, there is product, and there is proof. So problem, Would be again, higher in the account progression model. Product is lower in the account progression model. And then proof actually typically works all throughout because the more that we can build proof to people that we can actually help them solve their problems and that we've seen their problems hundreds or thousands of times, the more likely they are to want to continue to work with us. So we weave problem, product, and proof content all throughout our entire account progression model. The last thing is then direction, which is just simply how you plan to track and measure success. We break this down into, there are 3 kinds of tracking capabilities. So it's. Engagement, it is opt-in, and it is meeting booked. When you look at engagement, this could be social engagement, this could be email engagement. There's tons of ways to track engagement. But the only reason we would track engagement is as a leading indicator to showcase that accounts are actually aware of us and are engaging with our brand in any capacity. The reason we track this is because it's exponentially easier for someone to buy from you when they know that you exist versus if they do not. So engagement tracking is important. It's just not the end-all be-all. It is a great metric. To show early signs of success and movement, not we won. So we track engagement to then secure some form of an opt-in. When I look at an opt-in, some people are going to think, wow, ABM is talking about form fills. I don't really love to do that much from a form fill perspective, but for context, our 7-hour workshop as an example does have a form associated to it. So I found that live engagement are good things to to put some form of a form submission around because candidly, we do need someone's email information to let them into whatever the webinar platform is. So when you have live engagement or events or things along those lines, I find that those really work well. And alternatively, if there is something that is super, super high value, then we have found that those things, and I, I mean genuine value, those things are fine to put a gate around. For example, if you actually wanna see all of these different frameworks put into a usable template, uh, you can go to scrappyabm.com/template. There is a form fill there because that template is actually the exact template we use for our clients. So we have actually used that to build out all programs for all clients that we've ever worked with. It is genuinely super helpful. It's the number one thing that people said they really enjoyed from the workshop. And if you just go to scrappyabm.com/template, you can get it totally for free. So feel free to use that and use these structures as a way of engaging as a way of developing the system through which you engage your target accounts. All right. So those are really the first two core things that people found a ton of value in. The third thing that I think is super helpful for everybody is the concept of the BCP. So we look at the concept of the BCP. This stands for Best Customer Profile. Uh, I have a confession. My main goal in all things account-based marketing is to try to simplify and use less jargon. But we did create a new term called the BCP with the primary and express intent of creating something that no one else could claim. So we come into a customer engagement and they say, oh, we've gotten our ICP nailed down. People don't typically like it when we review their ICP and tell them that their ICP is not correct. So we created the concept of the BCP, which is another way of looking at how to engage these specific customers. So the reason we did this is again, many ICPs are developed at an executive or a board level, and they're very forward-looking. Ideally, we're also doing some look back, but sometimes people are not doing as much look back to prove out product market fit for their ideal client profile. The example that I like to give as an exercise is putting your ICP criteria into your CRM and then toggle on the lifecycle stage of customer. If you don't see that many customers come up That likely means that your ideal client profile is more idealistic versus ideal. We use the BCP or best customer profile as a way of looking back to identify which customers are the happiest, typically through NPS scores, which customers have stayed the longest based on their length of engagement and who has been the most profitable. When I look at happy, longstanding, profitable customers, I think every organization would like more of those. So that is one of the core things that we look for. As we think about how to do targeting, we then marry that BCP, which is something that we again are creating, with the ICP, which is typically done at a board or executive level. And there is often an overlap between those two. The overlap of those two is the sweet spot to build out your ABM program because you still get the executive level alignment of who we're going after at an ICP level, but the historical backing and data to showcase we have product market fit with this best customer profile. When you have that overlap of those two, that then creates what we refer to as the TAP or the target account profile. And the easy way that I like to remember this is we do this exercise to identify the market we want to tap into. Yes, you do not have to laugh at that joke, but that is how we think through all of these things. So in short, as you're thinking about your ABM program and building this out, I mean, at the time of this release, we are heading directly into H2. It's almost July. Um, so a lot of people are trying to figure out how do I make an impact in the second half of the year? Um, I'd highly recommend that you first identify the best customer profile by doing a look back on the past 24 months of customers that you've worked with to see who has paid you the most amount of money, who is the highest profit, who is the happiest, and who has stayed with you the longest. And you can look at the longest not just through when they closed, but have they already signed a multi-year deal? Have they already renewed for the following year? Are they super engaged at the moment? We have every indication they're going to continue. So first do that. Once you've done that, go ahead and write down every program you're currently running and align that to that account progression model to identify what you're currently doing and where it falls. Once you've done all of that, you'll find two things. One, you may be super heavy in certain areas and actually maybe want to deprecate some programs because they are kind of competing for the same audience. Or you may want to get rid of some of those programs because they compete for the same audience. And then two, you'll find that you probably have some gaps. So what we want to do is then develop specific playbooks to fill in those gaps. Once you've identified how to get the full program mapped out in detail, you'll then want to use that 4D framework to map out the data, the distribution channels, the actual destinations you're sending folks to, and how you plan to measure success for every playbook at every stage. Once you've done all of that, you'll you've got great targeting criteria for the exact customers you wanna work with. You've got clear understandings of exactly where you sit today for the starting point of an ABM program, and you've got a clear roadmap for the gaps you need to fill. So hopefully this episode in and of itself has been super helpful. If you want more, uh, of this, we actually do have our upcoming ABM Day workshop on July 28th. So feel free to come and register for that. You can use 75OFF as a thank you for being a podcast listener, and it'll only be $50., to join us live. So again, thank you so much for joining me today for this episode of Scrappy ABM, and we'll see you guys in the next one. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Scrappy ABM. If you're looking for more content just like this, I highly recommend you go subscribe to our newsletter. We release weekly playbooks so that you have the actionable ways in which you can start to build an ABM program today. Just go to scrappyabm.com/newsletter to subscribe. And if you enjoyed this episode, we'd really appreciate if you'd leave a 5-star review and hit the notification bell so you never miss an episode. I look forward to seeing you in the next one.