Account-Based Marketing For Dummies

Chapter 2

Making the Case for Account-Based Marketing

IN THIS CHAPTER

Demonstrating a need for account-based marketing

Rethinking your marketing strategies

Turning leads into opportunities

Linking marketing to the overall customer experience

Account-based marketing provides a strategy for B2B companies that want to grow revenue by focusing on the best-fit prospects and customers. The key metric is revenue. For too long, the B2B marketing industry has considered lead generation the primary metric. B2B marketing teams worked hard to pour leads into the top of the funnel for sales. Now that you want to start with account-based marketing, you have to sell the executives at your company on the idea that you aren’t focusing on leads. Enticing the stakeholders in your company to agree to focus on accounts, not leads, can be a very daunting task.

The C-level executives have always used leads to determine whether the B2B marketing team is successful. The job of the marketing team is to create opportunities for sales; this was accomplished by generating leads. But the most important metric for your company is revenue. By focusing on accounts, not leads, your company can both grow revenue from new sales and generate additional revenue from existing customers.

This chapter covers how account-based marketing can transform your B2B marketing and sales organization. I show where your company can gain the most value from account-based marketing by investing your resources in strategic accounts. ...