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Account Based Selling empowers reps to invest the time and energy needed to create meaningful content for their targeted accounts. Successful sellers use this newfound empowerment to tailor messaging that results in action. Unfortunately, too many sellers used canned / boilerplate content focused on the achievements of their own company that they never see any results.  Try these three ideas to break the ice on your next demand generation campaign.

1. Acknowledge the Buying Committee. Nothing shows that you have done your homework more than switching the generic line, “If you aren’t the most suitable person then please connect me with someone who is’ to “I would like to schedule 15 minutes to discuss Account Based Selling. I am also scheduling time with Jane Dixon to get her input as well”.  Try this approach and then copy the other members of the buying committee as well.
2. Align with Triggering Events. Using the News to align your company’s deliverables to the stated goals of your buyer is a sure-fire way to get noticed. Companies make the news because they want to – i.e. a press release promoting a new product, market, or partnership – or they don’t – such as a law suit or poor earnings. Either way, by positioning your solution to help promote a stated initiative or mitigate unwelcome news, you will quickly get noticed.
3. Reference Customer Success Stories. Buyers are busy people that have been given the responsibility to make financial decisions because it’s their name on the line.  Make it easy for them to take a meeting with you by giving them relevant use cases by industry, company size, and location. 92% of Buyers stated in a recent SAP survey that they want this type of information to help them make a decision.

Using any of these tricks will improve the performance of your demand generation campaigns but using all THREE will show the best results. Here is an example of what that would look like.

Hi John,

As the VP of Sales at Tellio, I am looking to get 15 minutes of your time to discuss improving seller results through Account Based Selling tools.  If this doesn’t fall under you directly, perhaps you could forward me to Jane Dixon in Sales Operations. 

I recently saw where Tellio has a new product line helping HR professionals, complimenting your already strong presence with Finance.  RampedUp has helped similar companies in the Human Resources space such as Ceridian and Workday by improving seller productivity by 27%. How? We provided company, customer, and contact details all inside of the account record in Salesforce.com.  Now sellers don’t have to search for time-consuming sales data outside of their CRM. 

Again, if you are free for 15 minutes next Tuesday afternoon then I can share in greater detail.  

First and Foremost, What is GDPR?

The GDPR protects most European citizens from unwanted electronic solicitation. The law attempts to put the onus on the advertiser or company to gather the express consent of the consumer to receive their solicitation.  A couple of highlights of the law taking effect May 25. 2018.

• Penalties Under GDPR organizations in breach of the regulation can be fined up to 4% of annual global turnover or €20 Million (whichever is greater).
• Consent Consent must be clear and distinguishable from other matters and provided in an intelligible and easily accessible form, using clear and plain language. It must be as easy to withdraw consent as it is to give it.​
• Right to be Forgotten Also known as Data Erasure, the right to be forgotten entitles the data subject to have the data controller erase his/her personal data, cease further dissemination of the data, and potentially have third parties halt processing of the data.
• Data Portability GDPR introduces data portability – the right for a data subject to receive the personal data concerning them, which they have previously provided in a ‘commonly use and machine readable format‘ and have the right to transmit that data to another controller.

Sales people will need to follow the letter of the law when soliciting European citizens but there are some nuances that make selling and marketing different pursuits.

• Picking up the phone and calling a business doesn’t fall under GDPR – so it is back to smiling and dialing in EMEA. Many customers are taking different measures like calling or event based approaches. Maybe direct dials will help.
• The law protects consumers, not employees per-se.  This means a consumer’s opted-in consent follows them to their next employer so staying in touch with your old customers is a must.
• The law also doesn’t protect non European citizens employed by European companies.  As an example, if you are an American citizen of Volkswagen living in Tennessee then you are not subject to the law.

If you are unsure who inside of your database are subject to this new law, RampedUp offers an  Account-Based Readiness Report revealing the contacts that need opted in consent.  Please be mindful that consent cannot be sold from a data vendor to customer – so the responsibility of gaining consent is on you.

Sales Tech – The advent of tools like Outreach.io have automated demand generation to the point of absurdity and our buyers are the ones pushing back. Robo Dialers and Automated Emails have put up a wall of resistance that is hard to overcome with traditional techniques.  The result, silence.

GDPR – As of May 25, 2018 – the game is changed.  Companies must obtain the opted-in consent to email buyers in most European countries.  Canada has CASL with many of the same concepts of limiting solicitations.  This is certainly a blow back to the above statement that it is just too easy to blast a batch of emails.

LinkedIn – It was bound to happen, Microsoft has its fingerprints all over LinkedIn.  I receive just as many unsolicited InMails as I do Emails that are trying to be authentic, but I have a trick.  I put my first initial in my name (M.) that is captured in a bulk send as M. Scott for my first name.

Artificial Intelligence – AI presents itself in sales in the form of automated web chat, emails, or voice mails.  One of our clients has created an AI for sales management – so it isn’t just the front lines.  If your job can be done by a robot – then you need to focus on the piece that cannot as this functionality grows.

Outsourcing – When I receive calls from what I think is San Francisco, Boston, or New York I get a excited (415 / 617 / 212 area codes) However, when I hear a delay and someone from a what sounds like an obvious call center asks if M. Scott is available I realize I have been duped. My guard is obviously up for the next call.

Too Much Information – Sales people provide demonstration, pricing, use cases, and competitive differentiation as a value-add in the sales process. Today – almost all of this can be found online.  Just search YouTube for a product demo, the website for customer and pricing data, and G2 Crowd for competitive details.