Kristina Jaramillo and Eric Gruber - (the hosts of the ABM Done Right Podcast) have mentioned many times that ABM is not really about accounts. It's about the human buyers in the accounts you want to win, protect and expand. This is why we need to stop thinking about campaigns and think about the moments we're creating along the buyer's journey and customer lifecycle. We have to think about the interactions we're having, including our social interactions.
In this episode of the ABM Done Right Podcast, Kristina speaks to Justin Fordham (Head of ABM for 360Learning) about how to take a more humanized approach to LinkedIn to build relationships across target organizations.
Some of the key points from this podcast is:
1. Narrow the team's focus as many companies are throwing all ICP accounts at BDRs, which is impossible to scale without templatizing - and templatizing removes the personal relevance and authenticity that's needed to make connections.
2. It's on leadership to train BDRs and sales teams how they should think about humanizing the sales approach on social platforms like LinkedIn -- and many are not doing this as it's all about scripts, templates and getting things out fast that does not work in enterprise sales.
3. There is limited segmentation and a lack of relevance and intention on social platforms (from LinkedIn profiles, to content to messaging) to target accounts that show buyers how sales and marketing understands their specific needs, challenges, gaps, strategic priorities, and customers. Too many teams just scratch the surface - they are not getting industry, company, rank, personal, customer relevance and connecting the dots.
4. Teams need to use LinkedIn to build relationships across organizations and create a buying consensus. This includes leading with insights learned from other interactions and having social content that is written specifically for target accounts so you can influence internal conversations that many sales and marketing teams are losing.