Marketing đź’— Sales
Account-based strategies became popular in the past decade with the advent of account-based marketing (ABM). More recently, the concept has expanded beyond marketing to the point where you will also hear terms like Account-Based Experience (ABX), Account-Based GTM, Account-Based Sales (ABS), or simply Account-Based. The idea underscoring this family of concepts is to focus your critical resources on a set of target accounts to deliver high-touch, highly relevant experiences.
Trouble in Paradise?
However, in practice, the Account-Based approach doesn’t always reach across departments to form a perfectly executed team strategy. In many cases, Marketers and Salespeople are not working together, and Marketers are pouring their time and investment into a sophisticated ABM strategy, only to have the personalized, thoughtful customer experience break down once the leads get passed to Sales.
A Harvard Business Review study found sales-marketing misalignment is estimated to cost businesses more than $1 trillion each year and 90% of sales and marketing professionals report misalignment in terms of strategy, process, culture and content in their organizations. Â
AI can help Align Marketing and Sales
So, what can we do about this issue? AI can turbocharge your account-based strategies in ABS (sales) to deliver high impact, personalized, and differentiated experiences that pick up right where Marketing left off. Let's dive into how AI complements popular ABM platforms like 6sense, RollWorks, and Demandbase.
What do ABM Platforms Offer?
ABM platforms address 2 key elements of Account-Based. The first is account selection based on 1st party “engagement data” and 3rd party “intent data” that tells you when an account has visited your website or searched for solutions like yours. The second is audience engagement through targeted, account-specific marketing campaigns such as display advertising, social, email, and direct mail.
How can AI Assistants complement ABM?
AI assistants like rule5 perform important tasks that are highly complementary to ABM in several critical ways. This includes signal monitoring, automated account and buyer research, personalization through value messaging, and automating repetitive tasks.
Propensity Signals: ABM intent signals are a solid start, but they can be misleading or even late. For example, just because someone searched for, say “generative AI” doesn't mean they are looking to buy an AI assistant. Or maybe they already chose one and they’re looking for column fodder in the RFP (ouch, I hate when that happens!).  Propensity signals arm the Sales team with timely, relevant insights like leadership changes, M&A events, new product launches, and new initiatives.  These signals enrich customer engagement and can be a leading indicator of opportunity long before an intent signal appears.
Automated Account Research: You might hear something like this: ABM is about focusing 80% of your resources on the top 20% of your accounts. That means you better pick the right accounts, and you better know those accounts inside and out. This is where AI comes in. Building upon propensity signals, AI-driven research tells you about your accounts’ strategic priorities, strategic initiatives, business challenges, decision makers, financial performance, and more. This way, you can know which target accounts to focus on with deep insights supporting your decisions.
Generative Value Messaging: Research alone isn’t enough; you have to know what to do with it to get optimal results. Here again is where AI is a game changer.  Generative AI synthesizes deep account insights with your own marketing content to deliver messages that are highly personalized and contextualized. This not only applies to emails, but to every type of GTM message. It includes your value proposition, white papers, and even podcasts. We have one customer who wrote a book and when they send that book to a customer, rule5 writes a message that points to where the book covers topics that are relevant to the customer and why.
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Show me the numbers
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A Match Made in Heaven?
Account-based Marketing and Account-based Sales, when powered by AI, create a seamless continuum in the pursuit of high-value accounts. While ABM lays the groundwork by engaging target accounts with personalized marketing campaigns, ABS picks up where ABM leaves off, extending the personalized experience into the sales process. This transition is seamless, with AI providing the insights and automation needed to ensure that the sales team can quickly pick up the conversation, maintaining the momentum and deepening the engagement. This continuity ensures that the target accounts experience a cohesive journey from the first marketing touchpoint through to the sales engagement, fostering trust and paving the way for a successful sale and lifetime customer relationship.
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