When developing an outbound lead generation or lead nurturing campaign a key question to ask is whether the focus is going to be account-driven or contact-driven. We’ve found that there are some significant differences between how to approach, target, and ultimately measure success when comparing accounts to contacts.
As I noted in my previous blog post , there are several keys to consider when working at the account level that can help make campaigns successful. However, there are also several potential pitfalls that can affect the success of a campaign that should be considered as well:
Number of Viable Opportunities
It is important to know how Sales views opportunities within an account. For some companies who sell complex solutions that involve high-level decision makers, there may only be one person or a small team within a target account that handles decisions, so naturally there would only be one opportunity to be uncovered. For other companies who sell multiple solutions across LOBs and at various levels within the organization, there may be the ability to generate multiple opportunities within the same account for Sales. It is important that Marketing and Sales are aligned on this prior to launch of a campaign, so that Marketing doesn’t continue to waste $$$ targeting accounts that Sales already considers adequately penetrated.
Note: this can be especially important in results management and setting lead goal projections
Too Many Contacts to Target
Sometimes target lists can include a significant number of target contacts. Typically low cost touches like email can be used to target everyone, but with higher cost teleprospecting touches, it is important to prioritize within a contact list. Prior to launch of teleprospecting, we recommend paring down the target list to the ideal target titles and roles, to avoid wasting time targeting contacts that aren’t ideal fits for Sales. Also, email campaign results can help dictate who to prioritize with calling (i.e. targeting opens and click-thrus).
Disparate Data
Another key pitfall with targeting accounts can be disparate data. Depending on the data sources feeding a campaign, there may even be the challenge of keeping the name of the account normalized. We recommend assigning a unique identifier (i.e. Account ID) to help ensure that all contacts and opportunities are assigned to the correct account, so that once you begin your teleprospecting, your data is consolidated and easy to reference. CRM tools like SFDC can help automate this process.
While these certainly aren’t all of the pitfalls that can take place with Account-level targeting, hopefully these tips can enable you (and your teleprospecting team) to work smarter and faster while producing results that resonate with Sales.