We’re constantly surrounded by noise.
Whether online or offline, there’s always a buzzing of people who want a bit of our time.
How does a B2B company cut through the noise and reach a lead?
Not by using old prospecting strategies. Purchasing lead contact lists, making cold calls, sending mass emails -- these clog up a lead’s inbox and phone line.
You reach a lead by being creative.
Using B2B account-based marketing (ABM) and prospecting with an inbound marketing mindset helps your business stand out from the crowd.
Segmentation and personalization are vital to your ABM strategy. You’ll want to cut down that lead list and build relationships. Pro tip: You need a CRM.
(Yes. We actually said, “workwithable.” Its entry on Urban Dictionary ranks first on Google, so it may be legit …)
You can’t build an effective ABM strategy by targeting everyone. You need to focus on the prospects who are most likely to provide major ROI.
Use B2B buyer personas or ideal buyer profiles to break down your list.
(Need help building a buyer persona? We have a guide for you.)
For example -- protocol 80’s ideal buyer persona might be:
Our ABM list would only include those who fit these criteria.
Continue to break down your prospecting list using a variety of other factors. For example -- when we do our research, we may find p80 especially loves companies within 2 hours of us. We’d then research who the point of contact is for our target business, perhaps a director of marketing or a C-suite executive.
While there are a lot of tools available, we love the old standby Excel (or Google Sheets). This spreadsheet program filters and sorts data so you can efficiently find the information you need. You can then take that data and import it into HubSpot’s intuitive ABM tool. This allows you to organize the targeted companies by a variety of different aspects, like:
When in the discovery phase of building your prospecting list, LinkedIn is your friend. Most businesses are on this social media platform. You can snoop a business’s profile and identify points of contact.
ZoomInfo is another useful source of information for B2B contact data. It provides a high volume of potential target companies and their contacts. You can export that data to HubSpot.
No. Next question.
Oh, you want to know why?
A CRM (customer relationship management) system holds and tracks important data. You can certainly use an Excel spreadsheet to manually record and sort outreach attempts, who opened or responded to emails, or who the important players are at a company. But it won’t be efficient.
If serious about prospecting, a CRM is a must.
Do you want to take your ABM and prospecting to the next level? Get a jump on your competition by creatively cutting through the noise.
Doing this stuff shows you care about making a relationship and that you do your research.
Some CRMs have third-party services you can use to automate your offline touchpoints. Say you had an introductory call with a lead and they were receptive to hearing
about your business. Logging that information into your C
RM can trigger the third-party tool to remind you to send out your offline offering.
Legacy cold calling takes something away from a lead or prospect you want to connect with -- their time, and possibly their voicemail and email inbox space. You take from them, but do you actually provide any value in return?
Modern prospecting gives leads something for their time. Maybe it’s a resource or trinket, but you’re giving them something they didn’t have before at each touchpoint. It’s more of a give-and-take relationship.
Legacy sales reps may be stuck in outdated habits. It can be hard to teach an
old dog new tricks. The learning curve can be very steep.
However, this can be mitigated by software and training that helps a salesperson see the value of using new tools and strategies. Show how much time can be saved by using templates and easily storing contacts in a CRM.
The subject line is what gets a prospect to open the email, but the content gets you the reply, clicks, or conversions.
However, if your subject line can’t convince the recipient to open the email, the content is moot.
Want to increase your open rate? Here are a few tips:
Personalization tokens are the bare minimum. Almost everyone uses them. They’re nice but expected.
Stand out by getting personal! This begins with your list segmentation.
Let’s say you segment by industry. You sort out your automotive leads and target those who produce a specific type of part. You may have only 15 contacts on this list, but they all share similar pain points. You can talk directly to their needs in a way that you couldn’t to a larger group.
Consider asking them questions where you have common ground. Spend some time on their LinkedIn profile. You may find some nuggets that would make great talking points.
Rely on as much data as can when you’re prospecting. Data can tell you about lead behavior:
The more data you have about lead behavior, the more information sales can use in prospecting and ABM projects.
We can affirm this.
Holly McCully, an inbound marketing consultant and niche inbound strategy expert) uses From You Flowers to surprise her loved ones on special occasions. Let’s say she ordered flowers for someone’s birthday last Dec. 10. She’ll get an email this Dec. 8 that reminds her that she should order flowers for that person’s birthday again. From You Flowers logged Holly’s information and used it for new sales. The email triggers some guilt, and Holly orders the flowers.
That’s the importance of a CRM. The more information you have, the more you can target and personalize every touchpoint.
“Brute-force” selling is a thing of the past. Modern prospecting involves building relationships. If somebody is not ready to have relationships, there is no use pushing it. Modern prospecting is:
You have to approach prospecting with a genuine sense of wanting to solve your lead’s problem.
Who doesn’t fear rejection? It’s a part of prospecting that no one likes. You are part of the buzzing noise that is demanding someone’s time.
Find ways to make prospecting less painful:
You have to understand that even in the best scenario, you’re probably not going to get through as many calls as you would on your own. Call volume is a typical sales KPI, so be aware of this. You can make up for the quantity with quality. Make sure you do the work to get the results you want. Send that personalized video or handwritten letter.
Also, be sure to partner with someone you can jive with. It’s no fun to work with someone who is hypercritical and not helpful.
Prospecting is like being a baseball pitcher -- you can win or lose the game all by yourself. You need to learn to overcome that fear. Own the fear, own that you don’t like it, and take care of yourself when rejection comes. If someone hangs up on you, put the phone down and take time to process what happened.
While some businesses had a tough 2020, others thrived. They did this by adapting to the new situation and pushing through. Agility and adapting are necessary.
Evaluate what works and what doesn’t. Be as objective as you can. This is not the time for emotions. If something doesn’t work, either adapt your approach or do something different.
We get this a lot from new clients, so you’re not alone. Data is important, but you may not have a lot to go on when you’re starting out.
The next best resource? Your sales team!
Ask them what type of content they think would help the sales process. When they’re on the first call with a lead, they may get the same five questions they’ve heard 1,000 times before. These questions can become topics for helpful content!
To succeed at B2B ABM, you need a CRM! Alphabet soup aside, try small, targeted lists of real prospects that could be a good fit for you. Focus on them. Be diligent about using approaches that break through the noise. Personalize your touchpoints with leads.
Finally, make sure to have open and honest conversations with your sales team about what’s realistic before launching into prospecting or an ABM strategy.
Still have questions about your online marketing strategy? Perhaps it’s time to audit what’s going well and what isn’t. We have a resource for you:
For a deeper dive into the topic, watch the video version of this article above. Josh Curcio, COO and partner at protocol 80 (and self-proclaimed HubSpot expert), and Holly McCully, inbound marketing consultant at p80 (and niche inbound strategy expert), explore the difference between the old way of prospecting and the inbound way.
Special guest Trygve Olsen, director of business development at Bizzyweb -- and one of the best prospectors Josh has ever met -- gives some prospecting advice.