How to Set the Foundation for your ABM Strategy

There are two primary paths to growing a software startup. For inexpensive, plug-and-play solutions, product-led growth has been a popular and successful framework. On the other hand for startups selling highly customized software that demands larger budgets, a more intentional, account-based approach will be a more effective strategy.

What channels and marketing methodologies align to PLG and ABM?

ABM

1.     Purchasing account lists / research platforms

2.     Leveraging executive social media presences for social selling

3.     Attending small industry events

4.     Picking the right investors

PLG

1.     Creating educational content and training materials

2.     Running highly intentional paid ads

3.     Maintaining a consistent social media presence

4.     Trial or freemium offerings

In this piece I’ll briefly dive into each ABM-focused tactic and how it can help bring in customers with high LtV and low CaC.

Step One - Account Lists and Firmographic/Technographic Data Platforms

There is nothing new about buying account lists. Companies like Discover Org and Clearbit have been doing this for decades. Newer companies that have been successful in this space include Apollo.io, 6sense, and other new entrants like LeadIQ and Cognism.

However, a popular trend in the last 2 years has been the rise of smaller consulting and data services that led by proven sales & marketing leaders from. Some examples:

While I’ve only worked with one of these services previously, I believe them to be far more effective at helping startups find their initial customers compared other resources for capturing account data. Not only do these teams usually have access to all platforms available for account research, they may also have relevant industry or vertical experience which informs and improves the effectiveness of outreach.

It's entirely possible that a source of account data or consulting service may generate no new business and be a complete waste of money. I recommend starting small with a few platforms whose results you can hedge against each other to receive better services. And it’s important to remember, while a lot of companies believe they can assist with account research only a few have access to the data to be truly helpful.

Step Two - Leveraging executive social media presences for social selling

This strategy is more about the how. Personally, I believe calling someone is the worst way to try and sell products, followed by email. While emails to company domains can work, even these filter out external communications.

In the past few months, I’ve had more executives reach out to me to demo their product than I have in my entire career. And something tells me that it’s probably not the executive writing out messages. However, I still appreciate the approach because it shows that the company is heavily invested in the outreach.

While you certainly can hand off these conversations to a seller, developing the initial relationship with your prospect as an executive can be the difference between a conversation and a voicemail. Especially when the outreach comes from someone who has held a similar role and isn’t just someone trying to grow revenue through sales.

Step Three - Attending Events (Both Big and Small)

Events have been an important channel for building relationships and showing experts your unique perspective their industry. It’s a great place to build trust but also found long-term customers but they can also be very expensive to attend, with never-ending sponsorship tiers that can make them feel pay-to-win.

First, I’d say the traditional larger conferences like Dreamforce (Salesforce), SaaStr, Inbound (HubSpot), CES, SXSW, Adobe Summit, etc. are not good investments for rapidly growing companies. With large corporations with large budgets in attendance, it makes it very difficult to be seen at these events. And most of the time the host has an agenda and their own perspective on the industry that they want to promote.

Instead, I recommend attending small, regional events and to generally avoid anything tied to a specific company. Examples can include:

Industry Association Events, EX:

o   MGMA for healthcare

o   Commodity Classic for agriculture

o   IMTS for manufacturing

Community Events, EX:

o   KubeCon + CloudNativeCon

o   The Robotics Summit & Expo

o   Ethereum Community Conference

Depending on your specific focus you will need identify the right event to attend. Usually, this involves having at least one in-house marketer with a great understanding of your products and brand. The better your targeting the better the prospects. Events can help you honestly connect with your target audience and often be the first touch with new customers. And if you really don’t have the budget to invest, there are many smaller events that are comparatively inexpensive and struggling to come back post pandemic so I highly recommend doing some research here.

A Final Point About Picking the Right Investors

Right now, it’s no secret that raising fundings is hard. VCs do not want to invest in business that aren’t growing. And if they are investing in an idea, it’s usually because they have somehow proved themselves in the space.

However, that doesn’t mean small companies should cave for bad deals and investors who provide nothing more than a check. Many startups have found the first 10, 50, or even 100 paying customers through a VC network. This can be critical to proving customer value, identifying your core value proposition, narrowing ICPs, and developing a strategy to find 1000 customers. Sometimes, all you need is a sandbox.

Ultimately, the best customers come from strong relationships and true value driven through great products. Having good investors, who help you develop these connections and test your hypotheses is critical for any early stage, growing startup. Patience and dedication to your product is key as chasing these investors will not work.

Concluding Remarks

Every companies ABM strategy will be different, but in general I think if you follow the steps above you’ll have a solid program off the ground that you can hand off to an experienced marketer. And before you invest heavily in ads or some other channel – consider ABM.