Account based revenue strategy (ABR) has been a buzzword in the sales world, yet few people understand it or use it properly. Trish Bertuzzi, interviewed by John Golden, explores the ways that using ABR can help, or hurt, your organization.
This expert sales interview on ABR includes:
- Defining account based revenue strategy
- The first steps a company should take when introducing ABR
- The importance of proper account selection
- How ABR is an organizational strategy
What is account based revenue strategy?
“In reality, it’s a lot of hard work,” said Trish Bertuzzi. Companies go to market in different ways. For those companies that are doing enterprise selling, or selling large ticket items where there is a decision committee, they have to figure out a new way to reinvent themselves. “They have to get between the huge wall that buyers have put between themselves and potential sellers,” said Bertuzzi. This idea originated with account-based marketing but has since expanded to include more than just marketing. Account based revenue allows companies to look at the bigger picture. It’s not just about tactics; it’s about what you do actually to drive revenue from a very specific set of accounts.
First steps to AMR:
The first thing you should do is figure out if it’s even right for you. The first question to ask yourself is: Where do you want your revenue to come from? Once you figure that out, you can decide what strategy, or strategies, will work best to help you achieve your goal. If you say you want all your income to come from the enterprise, ABR is likely for you. If you say you want 50% to come from the SMB and mid-market, and 50% to come from enterprise selling, you might need two strategies.
The Importance of Account Selection:
Once you have identified that ABR is the right strategy for you, you must select the appropriate kinds of accounts. Often, people are a little shy on understanding is how to choose the proper accounts for them to go after, and end up making poor choices. “You can’t just randomly select people to add to the list of leads, it should be very scientific, data-rich decision making,” said Bertuzzi. There are predictive technologies, buyer intent data, and other information available to help facilitate account selection and secure the best possible accounts for your company to go after.
An Organizational Strategy
ABR is an organizational strategy; it’s not a sales strategy. To make this strategy happen, there are several steps. It begins with an organizational readiness workshop to ensure the leadership team shares the same vision and goals and expectations around what this is going to mean. It requires significant investment, so you want to make sure that your leadership is on the same page. From there, you can do marketing readiness workshops, sales readiness workshops. “You want to make sure your entire organization understands the why, of why we’re going to do this, and the how, of how we’re going to do this,” said Bertuzzi.
For more steps on ABR, and a deeper understanding of if it’s the right method for your company, watch the entire expert sales interview.
About Our Host
John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.
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