Sales prospecting isn’t easy. The vast majority of the time that you send emails or pick up the phone you lack essential context to fuel powerful outreach. When a B2B sales team wants to fill the sales pipeline their traditional approach involves emailing, sending InMail, and picking up the phone to dial random or scraped lists of people. Often, you spend most of your energy trying to engage with people who are neither a decision maker nor ready to buy.
According to HubSpot’s Sales Statistics for 2019, more than 40% of sales people say the number one challenge for them is prospecting. This is hardly surprising considering the challenges facing sales organizations:
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You are getting screened-out. Implementation of GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) in 2018 significantly affects your sales team. North American companies are adopting these measures across a global market.
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Most resist making a connection with a sales person. Buyers are looking for a more customized and personalized buying experience.
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The information is already in the buyers hands. Potential customers have ready access to information about products and services, raising expectations of sellers.
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B2B presents a complex buying process. In mid to large size companies, there are multiple stakeholders and decision makers involved in the early stages of the buying process. This adds complexity and lengthens the sales cycle.
These challenges and many other factors are leading businesses to revisit their sales strategies; moving away from traditional lead generation towards “Account Based Selling” (also known as Targeted Prospecting) for larger, more complex sales.
So, starting with the basics …. what’s the difference between traditional lead generation and Account Based Selling (ABS)? At a very high level, the ABS approach moves away from “one-size-fits-all”, mass messaging and moves toward a more personalized and specific interaction targeting a limited list or targeted companies. Sales teams do early research to find the right prospect organizations and understand the problems their product or services will solve before ever picking up the phone or meeting prospects at a conference – establishing trust and value early in the relations
The road to transitioning to ABS for prospecting can be bumpy, even when your sales team is open and ready to embrace it. What makes the move to ABS worthwhile?
The value is significant. When effectively implemented, ABS can:
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Yield up to 75% higher average contract value.
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Achieve best in class results – high performing sales teams are 2.8 times more likely to use a personalized approach to selling.
Account Based Selling is not a new concept. Advances in technology, a more collaborative approach to targeted selling and a single view of customer and sales activity data can bring new momentum to penetrating your chosen market.
You can evolve your lead generation process and build relationships to sell to people that actually want to hear from you. Ready to talk with us? We are ready to help. Contact us at [email protected]
