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7 Effective Tactics for Account Based Sales

Jamie Shanks
Jamie Shanks

Account based sales show great promise. Like any sales methodology, however, there are many different tactics for account based sales.

Is your tech stack optimized? Find out by downloading the account-based  checklist, which outlines the 6 tools your team needs to drive results.

With the right tactics, sales professionals can create better revenue growth and increase their conversion rates. Instead of using a trial-and-error strategy, adopt some of these seven tactics. They’ll help you achieve success with ABS.

1. Create a Contextualized Message

Today’s buying cycle is much longer, and the process is complicated by the number of decision-makers in any business purchase decision. On average, more than five people are involved in any purchase. Although most buyers engage with a sales person around 60 percent of the way through the buying process, your sales representatives encounter prospects at every stage of the buying cycle.

When sales professionals reach out, they must deliver a contextualized message. A generic sales email is unlikely to move the conversation ahead. Your sales teams should demonstrate a deeper understanding of the challenges facing the prospect.

How can you create a contextualized message? Research is the first step. Publicly available information is an excellent resource, and new tools allow you to automate to gain real-time insight.

2. Diversified Cadence

Have you considered how sales professionals in your organization deliver their messages? The telephone and email are tried and true, but your competitors also use them for their sales activities.

Try diversifying delivery in order to get through. Once the conversation has been started, it can be moved to more traditional avenues.

Click here to view an example video.

3. Social Account Selection and Proximity

Sales professionals should review their social media accounts and those of their prospects. This is necessary to determine a sales person’s social proximity to the decision-maker. Are they directly connected? Your sales people and decision-makers may be indirectly connected through others.

The closer a sales professional is to the contact, the easier it is to connect. Monitor job changes and title changes, as these could indicate a change in social proximity.

4. Don’t Cancel Your LinkedIn Sales Navigator!

Adopting LinkedIn Navigator and making effective use of it is another account based sales tactic. Most sales professionals already know the importance of effective tools to their success with any sales methodology.

LinkedIn Navigator not only allows you to automate notifications about job changes, but it also allows you to save your leads and accounts. Another use is locating people with commonalties on LinkedIn. People who have more in common are likely to cluster together, which is one way of expanding lead opportunities.

5. Build a Sales Development Team

Another important ABS tactic is to focus on the sales team you build in your organization. Developing the sales development team is an important step to take toward achieving account based sales success.

Sales leaders with extended onboarding periods have higher success rates with ABS. An average of 1.3 years of ABS experience is required for a sales professional to be truly adept.

Most SDRs move on after about the same time, however, so it’s important to provide proper compensation. Ensure your sales people have appropriate promotion paths available to them as well.

6. Establish a Routine

Effective account based sales teams have established a daily routine they execute every day. These routines take around 40 to 60 minutes, and they boost sales professionals’ success. This routine focuses on finding, engaging, and educating.

The routine also allows sales representatives to continue developing and expanding their relationships.

7. Leverage Social Effectively in ABS

The core of successful account based selling is still social selling. Insights selling, referral selling, and trigger selling are all effective social selling tactics to incorporate into your ABS methodology.

Remember to leverage the tools you have at hand and the power of social selling to drive account based selling in your organization. These seven tactics are effective, but they require a thorough understanding of both social selling and relationship building to truly drive success.

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