If you’re doing ABM, you probably know what your ideal customer looks like. But do you have any idea what your own vendor profile is?
Being a B2B marketing consultant is a privileged position. I get to see so many more businesses from the inside than most people do. Sometimes that means:
- Witnessing genuinely exciting new technology long before others do
- Working with super diverse skillsets, from visionary developers to incredible salespeople and brave founders
- Getting a real-world overview of “best-practice” marketing strategies and how well they do in the real world.
It can also mean
- A surprising number of tech companies trying to “create their own category” TM
- Yet another chaotic agency (and I can tell you that “each dysfunctional agency is dysfunctional in its own way”)
- A steady flux of vague briefs with fluffy goals
But by far the most unusual quirk of this job is that I sometimes work on ABM programmes that target the same account as a different ABM programme I’ve worked on. So I don’t just work for a lot of different Bs – I often help them sell 2 a small group of other Bs.
For instance: during a recent call, my (new) client X seemed surprised that I knew so much about the ABM account Y they were trying to sell to. I had researched Y for a different ABM project last year and knew how they were structured and what some of their priorities are. To be honest, X actually seemed a bit annoyed that I had worked for another tech company that tried to sell to Y. I believe they felt that I’d worked for the competition. I hadn’t – my other client had a completely different product, and besides, I’m under NDA on all my projects. Anyway, X didn’t seem to see this advance knowledge as a a bonus – even though it meant I already knew the target account well and wouldn’t need long to research them. Maybe they simply hadn’t really thought about it much before.
There aren’t that many ABM-worthy accounts
But this really shouldn’t have come as a surprise. Think about it: The Microsofts of this world, the Verizons, Nestles, DHLs, Allianzes, BMWs – there are a few gigantic multinational enterprises out there that of course everybody is trying to sell to. (In fact, sometimes they’re trying to sell to each other). They’re huge, they’re mature, global, and complex. And they need to constantly spend money – and not just on enterprise tech – to keep the ship going. Of course others are after that money, too. And just like you, these other B2B tech vendors are going to target at the very minimum:
- A specific department – or several (i.e. the primary users of the solution)
- IT (because they’re going to have to integrate it)
- Key people in the C-Suite (so they’ll find and sign off the budget – i.e. probably the CIO, and CFO)
- (and most will fruitlessly attempt to get through to the CEO, too)
…and ABM targets are bored with this stuff
Understandably, these businesses are really tired of being sold to. As a consequence of being big-ass corporations, they’re being pitched to 24/7. And unfortunately, a lot of the pitches sound exactly the same (I know because my privileged position as a B2B tech marketing strategist means I get to see a lot of them):
- The value propositions are bland. They often aim high – e.g. they might revolve around abstract concepts like ‘digital transformation’ and ‘customer experience’, but never specify how they deliver these things. That makes the message fluffy, irrelevant, and less than credible (I wrote about the importance of getting messaging altitude and laddering right in this recent post)
- They lead with non-differentiating messages, such as ‘our product can be customised’ and ‘we deliver superb user experiences’. Don’t get me wrong, these can be great differentiators – but only later on, when they’ve already bought. They’re not great for marketing, because they’re messages everybody can claim, which have to be experienced to be believed. If they’re actually true about your product, then they’re customer retention features, rather than lead conversion ones. Your targets will see them in literally every vendor’s marketing collateral that lands on their desk and believe me, it makes their eyes glaze over.
- They beat their own drum instead of focusing on their target’s priorities. Too many ABM propositions still talk mostly about the vendor and don’t craft a value proposition that aligns with their prospect’s business goals (even though they often do the hard work of identifying these!). It leaves the target account having to figure out the value to their business themselves (and who’s got the time, brainspace and motivation for that?).
- Their creative and collateral are weak. I recently advised a client from the English-speaking world who was trying to break into the German market. They showed me the German website and collateral they’d created. Everything was entirely machine-translated and sounded clunky. What signal is that going to send to your new market? Exactly. It says: “we couldn’t be bothered to invest any money. We’re making you do all the work figuring out who we are. And if this doesn’t work we won’t stick around here.”
How to develop a vendor brand that stands out
And frankly, given that if they end up buying from you, they’ll be paying you rather handsome sums, and often on a subscription basis (i.e. recurring revenue, ka-ching!), these businesses can rightfully expect marketing that tries a little harder. This is true whether you’re doing one-to-one ABM or just plain old marketing to a specific customer segment. I would argue that your customisation effort should be proportional to the potential return you’re expecting. Or in other words:
If it’s going to be valuable to you, it’ll have to cost you something.
And by that I don’t necessarily mean glossy campaigns or airtime or expensive spokespeople. What I mean is making a real effort to be relevant. How can vendors do this? By doing quite a few things, actually, and none of them are rocket science:
- Do your research. Talk to the SMEs in your own company. Find (former) employees of your target account or industry in your network. If you can’t speak to an actual insider in person (do try, though. Can somebody introduce you?), read up on your target account’s strategy, their values and priorities – the bigger the account, the more likely you are to find annual reports, mission statements, CEO presentations, interviews. This is where leaders talk about the big issues for their businesses, and ideally your solution is relevant to that (even if it’s in a small way. If you acknowledge that and credibly show how you can help, it’ll be appreciated)
- Make a note of the language they use. This is such a simple trick, but it’s highly effective. Adapt your message by aligning to the way they speak. (Note: this doesn’t mean making things up.) But if, for instance, you use the term “sustainability” in your messaging, and their annual report talks about “ESG”, it makes sense to adapt to the way they think and talk about these things internally. Obvs this is easier in one-to-one ABM programmes, where you can fully focus on a single account. But it also works for industry campaigns where you can tap into domain-specific language and demonstrate that you understand your prospects’ world.
- Complete the Venn diagram. Once you’ve listened and learned as much as possible, be very honest with yourself and probe your value proposition for something your target audience really cares about. Find that sweet spot between what you can offer and what they need. It’s fine if you can’t help with everything. Be open about that. Don’t fall into the overclaim trap. Be as specific as possible. Nobody believes that a single vendor will deliver “Digital Transformation”. Stick to your guns. Name the precise problem you solve, and how you do it.
- Respect their intellect and time. Prepare for the skeptical questions any discerning buyer will ask and have answers, proof points, case studies and testimonials ready for them. If you don’t have any of these things yet, work up a confident (but not utopian) projection of ROI (think beyond just money: time saved, employee experience, customer retention etc can all be dimensions of ROI relevant). Sometimes you may have to make assumptions (e.g. about their tech setup, or size of their problem). Usually, as long as you flag that they’re assumptions, buyers are fine with that. But: be ready to pivot.
Ultimately, in my experience, being a great vendor comes down to showing you’re respectful and invested: doing the hard work for your prospects, making your message as relevant, compelling and easy to understand as possible, empathising with their position, and helping them apply the due diligence that their business expects of them.
Even better if you do it with wit and verve. But in B2B tech, wit and verve alone won’t save you if you’re trying to cut through to the smart, busy, inundated buyers everybody’s trying to reach.
(This post is partially inspired by a person, who, when I recommended a messaging exercise to sharpen their painfully generic value proposition, told me that wouldn’t be necessary: the company already had one, it was all there on paper. And if I really needed to tweak it, which they doubted, to do it based on some desk research, and not rock any boats. After all, their customers and SMEs were too important to speak to some random marketing lady. I hope the fact that they “deliver Digital Transformation”, “strive for excellence” and “tailor their services to customer needs” strikes a chord with their audience.)
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