Shifting from ABM to ABX: The Key to B2B Client Acquisition Strategies

For years, account-based marketing (ABM) has been the clear winner for many B2B marketers and organizations, driving revenue impact and pipeline results. When companies have compared their strategies, 87% have said that they receive a higher ROI from sourced leads via ABM.

While ABM as a strategy has been effective for B2B companies, there is a missing component that creates missed growth opportunities: the lack of focus on individuals and customer success.

“The big flaw in account-based marketing from a tech/automation standpoint: today, it primarily starts with targeting companies. Last time I checked, ‘companies’ don’t buy anything; people do.” – Scott Vaughan, CMO of Integrate

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Why ABM Isn’t Enough

When done correctly, ABM provides a better ROI, more effective long-term growth strategies, and increases revenue while increasing visibility into your sales cycle. ABM also produces bigger deal sizes, with 25% of marketers reporting deals are often 50% larger when an ABM strategy is used. While ABM has improved the relationship between sales and marketing, there are still significant silos, and customer success is routinely not involved in ABM sales and marketing conversations.

ABM’s focus on marketing and sales is a decisive first step, but it falls short of its promise if we fail to integrate the essential thing in the revenue continuum. Namely, the customer experience. If there is little communication between teams and the customer’s point of view, the potential of ABM will be unrealized.

By evolving from ABM into ABX (Account-based Experience), companies can use current strengths, optimize them with experience, and create a better growth and sales process.

The Customer Experience: ABX

If organizations have a phenomenal process for sales and marketing but a lackluster customer experience, their hard work is not fully realized.

By combining these three components, we can create a better system to increase sales and improve our offerings.

The experience hinges on customer success. What are you most passionate about with your product or service? What areas do they feel need improvement or are not meeting their needs? If these answers are not known or addressed, then an ABM strategy will not reach its full potential.

By implementing an evolved strategy, the ABX, we can communicate these important areas into creating a more rounded and effective strategy.

This is best done through integrations through applications and training. As the process combines marketing, sales, and customer experience, companies will grow their organization through active measures.

Why is ABX an essential need for companies? Let’s say a business only followed ABM. Their marketing attracted the right people, their sales offered phenomenal service and onboarding, but then, the customer experience did not meet expectations or promises. This leak in the boat affects your reputation, stunts long-term growth, and lacks the opportunity for product improvement.

When We Put People First

When Tony Hsieh created Zappos, he pioneered the online storefront. At that time, the idea of selling shoes without someone trying them on in person was crazy. But his solution was providing over-the-top customer service.

He knew people hesitated to buy shoes online through research, so he made sure people could try them on and return them without a question if they didn’t fit right (revolutionary at that time). His team would spend countless hours talking to customers on the phones, making sure to give them a memorable experience.

This built his company to become one of the most successful retailers and eventually led to Amazon’s purchase. When Hsieh tragically died at the end of 2020, the world lamented his death and shared the impact he made on their lives. He put customers first and created a powerful brand legacy with it.

Today, we can use this retail example in our B2B process.

By integrating an effective ABX strategy, companies can create a strong value proposition, continuously engage with their customers, and improve their offerings.

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Making the Jump

Fortunately, companies already using ABM can adapt to ABX through an intentional strategy and transition. It first starts by re-training your organization and team. Through a shift in mindset and company DNA, you build the foundation to implement ABX.

Add customer experience into the forefront of sales and marketing. This requires your team to think in the context of customer satisfaction and making sure what they are promising goes to fruition.

Once the team thinks in terms of ABX, the next step is creating the infrastructure to make integration possible. By utilizing the right tools, you can fully optimize your ABX strategy.

Tools You Can Use Today

Marketo offers an all-in-one solution that starts from marketing to onboarding and customer experience. With its CRM integrations, analytics dashboard, marketing, and sales tools, it empowers your business to establish a powerful ABX strategy. You continue to engage with customers along the entire life cycle.

Sendoso closes the gap from virtual to personal. They help strengthen your experience and relationships through personalized gifts and virtual experiences to help you make clients happy and increase your revenue.

Terminus makes it possible to shift from ABM to ABX. This is also an all-in-one solution using multiple channels and integrations to highly target your customers and engage with them. You can also check out Folloze for another great option.

6sense measures your engagement and uses AI, ML, and big data to improve your strategy. You can discover habits, behaviors, and other facets of the customer experience to strengthen your ABX approach.

Adobe now has tools where you can measure the engagement level and analytics of your digital content. This helps you analyze what customers are interested in and what their shifting needs are.

Use these tools to make the transition to ABX. By placing everything in one centralized place, you can measure and track your sales, marketing, and customer experience efforts.

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Account-Based Experience Means Growth

As we continue to see evolving marketing strategies, ABX is rising and proving itself to be the future of B2B SaaS revenue strategies. Using an evolved version of ABM, we can fully integrate an excellent campaign design with an emphasis on customer experience early and often that ensures the delivery of a timely and personalized experience of products and solutions that lead to sales and retention.