Boost Your ABM Success: The Power of a Centralized Target Account List

• Is your marketing team building one-off siloed segments across your MarTech tools?
• Are your ABM campaigns not delivering the performance you need?
• Do your sales partners need help to focus on (or just ignoring ) ABM leads?

Given all the belt-tightening going on with the B2B SaaS space resulting in an increased focus on efficiencies and doing more with less, we've seen a ton of chatter on LinkedIn the past year about the importance and value of knowing your ideal customer profiles (ICPs). We're in full alignment with the strategic value that an ICP can provide a SaaS GTM team, but too often, we see posts that discuss ICPs in superficial and theoretical ways. I'd like to introduce you to a new and better way to operationalize your ICP to maximize your ABM and ABX efforts: take ownership of your target account list in your CRM.Before we get into the significant benefits of doing this, let's look at where we are and how we got here. ‍

Current situation: Marketers use their MarTech tools to define and manage segments For a good reason, marketers often build their segments using martech tools rather than centralizing their target account lists in their CRM. Let's review the top 3 reasons marketers have been building segments in their MarTech tools vs. centralizing their segmentation and target account lists (TALs) in their CRM:  

1. MarTech tools are built for marketers; CRMs are not. These tools are often more user-friendly and designed for marketers, providing intuitive interfaces for building and managing segments.
2. Access to advanced segmentation capabilities built for marketing. MarTech tools allow marketers to create highly specific and dynamic segments based on a wide variety of criteria, such as behavior, engagement, demographics, and firmographics.
3. Integrated within the action systems marketers use. MarTech platforms enable marketers to execute and optimize marketing campaigns directly providing a simpler and efficient way to execute campaigns.

Challenges with that approachInconsistent and uncoordinated targeting that is inefficient and near impossible to measure The reasons above are hard to argue with. Before I share the new and better way, let's dig into the unintentional negative consequences and challenges MarTech system segmentation creates. Here's another top 3 significant issues associated with using different MarTech tools for ICP segmentation and target account lists:

1. MarTech segmentation filters are inconsistent and rely on various data enrichment providers and attributes. This results in inconsistent and even worse inaccurate segments that lead to wasted marketing spend and inefficient campaigns that are challenging to map to content to and enable sales to close.
2. Uncoordinated, inefficient cross-channel marketing campaigns and GTM with sales. Disconnected segments can lead to disjointed campaigns, where different channels might target the same audience with inconsistent messaging or reach unintended audiences outside of your ICP. This can lead to your sales team losing confidence in your leads, wasted marketing spend, and underperforming campaigns.
3. Siloed segmentation makes marketing performance measurement way harder. When segments and campaigns are managed in different MarTech tools, measuring overall performance and making data-driven decisions on how your ICP vs non-ICP cohorts are performing becomes extremely challenging.  

You might be thinking that the answer must be that your ABM platform is the best way of building your ICP segments, but that's not the case. We're huge fans of the leading ABM platforms (6Sense & Demandbase) and the value they provide in helping reach in-market accounts showing intent. But ABM platforms aren't designed to do the heavy lifting and deep analytics work to surface your ICPs based on fundamental customer metrics like customer lifetime value, retention rates, average deal size, etc. That's where a customer intelligence platform like AlignICP comes in, or if you're well-resourced with BI and RevOps experts who are afforded the time and resources, you can take that on in-house (good luck as we've been there, and that's why we've started AlignICP). The Solution: ICPs are based on Profile-Based DataHere's a simple overview of a 3-step approach to a better and wiser way to build out your ICP-based target account lists that will help drive GTM alignment:

1. Analyze your customer data using ML and calculated customer metrics to discover your best-performing ICP segments (pro tip: focus on profile data and not behavioral data*)
2. Use those discovered, verified ICP segments with look-alike models to find target prospect accounts that map to your target ICP segments.
3. Add those new (deduplicated) accounts to your CRM to create your owned and centralized target account list in your CRM

* Note, when building out your ICPs for ABM, it's important to distinguish between your ideal customer profiles (ICPs) profile data and their behavioral data. While both provide a lot of value, profile-based data offers essential foundational insights into who your customers are and their potential value. In contrast, behavioral data provides real-time engagement and intent signals, allowing for precise targeting and effective marketing strategies.

• Profile-Based Data: identifies broader categorical characteristics and value
• Behavioral Data: serves to help narrow your MarTech platform targeting, helping to prioritize leads who are not just a good fit but also showing active buying signals

Combining profile-based data-driven ICPs with behavioral data (intent and engagement) from your ABM platform can next-level the efficiency, effectiveness, and performance of your ABM campaigns. This synergy is truly 1 + 1 = 3, and it will enhance your customer acquisition, engagement, and retention metrics, driving overall business growth. Your focus for developing your ICPs should be on profile-based attributes and important customer metrics: customer lifetime value (CLV), customer acquisition costs (CAC), etc.) combined with relevant firmographics and technographic attributes;  can and should go beyond "won" sales analysis and customer interviews. Behavioral data can and should be added within your MarTech tools as they add value to your ICP data by allowing you to narrow your targeting, say in an ABM tool based on "intent" and who is "in market" or in your MAP who is demonstrating engagement Why this is the best approach for building your ABM TALBy centralizing and owning your ICP segmentation and target account list in your CRM, you can take strategic ownership of your company's GTM programs and campaigns. Here are some final thoughts capturing the benefits centralizing your target account list in your CRM will bring to you and your team:

1. Increase your focus on your target ICPs and increase marketing spend efficiency
2. Improved trust and alignment with your sales partners by focusing on the same target account lists
3. Avoid duplicate and inconsistent segmentation efforts across your MarTech stack
4. Streamlines resource allocation and reduces redundancy
5. Better prioritize content planning and development tied to high-value ICP segments you're intentionally targeting  

Hit the "Schedule a Demo" link in the top navigation to learn more about how we can help you elevate your ABM game!