What is Account-Based Selling (ABS)?

By Michelle Voznyuk, Marketing Specialist at Heinz Marketing

By now, you’ve probably heard of Account-Based Marketing. ABM is a method that flips the traditional funnel upside-down, marketing to a list of targeted accounts rather than generating demand of individual leads.

But What is Account-Based Selling? 

The concept of ABS is really no different than ABM. They both fall under the umbrella of account-based models, with ABS specifically focused on sales activities and involvement.

Account-Based Selling (also known as Account-Based Sales) is a highly effective strategy, because it allows for sales teams to get more personalized in their approach to prospecting. Rather than cold-calling a random list of prospects that may not be in-market, have purchasing power, or fit your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), sales teams can go after a smaller subset of accounts that are more likely to respond with interest.

Benefits of Account-Based Selling

As mentioned above, ABS allows you to better personalize your outreach. Tools like 6sense can be helpful in identifying key accounts, as well as providing teams with intent data to show which actions are being taken and determine where accounts are at in their buying journey. This then gives sales insight into what kinds of resources they can use based on real-time buyer behavior to help the prospect move towards a purchase. Delivering specific, curated content at each stage provides real value for prospects and strengthens the relationship with the seller.

How to know if ABS is right for you

You’ll want to base your decision on the types/sizes of accounts you’re targeting, as well as your budget. Account-Based Selling is highly effective when working with medium or enterprise accounts, because it’s much harder to get your foot in the door. But incorporating these new tactics and AI-driven platforms can be pricey. If you’re focused on smaller companies, traditional methods that cast a wider net may be more cost-effective in the end.

But it’s also important to note that it doesn’t have to be either, or. Creating a mix of both account-based and demand generation tactics can be incredibly impactful in developing an effective sales and marketing strategy.

I hope you found this information helpful as you consider implementing an account-based model in your organization.

Interested, but not sure how to get started? Reach out to our team.