Lead Generation vs. Account-Based Marketing

Lead generation is a strategy that has been used in the B2B sector for years. In recent years, Account-Based Marketing has also emerged as a successful strategy. Both strategies are highly effective in the B2B manufacturing industry, but when is the best time to use each one?

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Platform model

To determine which strategy is best for you, the Mercuri platform model is an ideal tool for analyzing where your opportunities lie. The platform model was originally designed to help you analyze how to plan your sales activities so that you can achieve your sales targets.

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The model has three areas you can focus on: existing customers (customer platform), following up on quotes and re-engaging lost customers (work platform), and, finally, developing new markets (market platform). To perform the analysis properly, you’ll need data—for example, from your CRM or ERP system.

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Customer Portal

When looking at the customer segment, you examine the revenue and potential revenue you can generate from existing customers. Based on these two metrics, you can classify these customers into D, C, B, A, and Key Accounts. Once classified, it’s interesting to see how your customer group is broken down and where the potential lies. This raises questions such as: How will you ensure that B customers grow into A customers? And perhaps even grow further into Key Accounts.

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Work Platform

An important part of meeting your sales target is the quote process and winning back lost customers. You can generate a lot of leads who request quotes, but if those quotes don’t convert into orders, they’re of no use to you. The same goes for your lost customers. Acquiring new customers takes a lot of time, money, and energy. By ensuring that customers continue to buy from you, you can save time and money. There will always be some natural attrition in your customer base, and that’s okay.

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Marketplace

Developing new markets is actually self-explanatory. You start by focusing on the products or services you offer and look for potential customers or target audiences that are a good fit for you in new markets (such as Germany) or new application areas outside the industries you already serve. If you want to be successful, focus on one or two new markets.

How do you plan to link marketing strategy to sales activities?

So what’s the connection to marketing? The analysis identifies the areas you want to focus on with your sales activities. These activities could certainly benefit from marketing support. And that’s where the connection to lead generation and account-based marketing comes in.

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Lead Generation in the B2B Market

At TMC Media, we often use lead generation strategies to penetrate a new market or region (the market development phase). This is a numbers game, where the goal is to get your message across to the largest possible—yet targeted—audience. One way to do this is by using LinkedIn Campaign Manager. This tool allows you to deliver a tailored message to a selected target audience in order to generate downloads or drive traffic to your website, thereby filling your sales funnel. When you first start generating leads, you (often) don’t yet know the company names, potential, or contact persons. As the campaign progresses, you’ll try to gather this information and pass it on to Sales so they can get to work.

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Account-Based Marketing in the B2B Market

ABM is one-on-one marketing. It involves working directly with a company or a business unit within a company that has the potential to increase sales. These promising companies are identified through the analysis of your customer segmentation. In this process, relevance and establishing a connection with the right contacts are crucial. One tool that can help with this is HubSpot, combined with LinkedIn Sales Navigator. You want to deliver the message to the right person at the right time, so you can help them overcome their challenges or support them in their work.

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You could also use ABM to target lost customers—those who are valuable in terms of revenue but haven’t made a purchase in a while. You’ll want to reconnect with them to prevent them from buying from a competitor. By communicating periodically and maintaining contact with multiple points of contact, you can prevent customers from leaving you.

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Quotation Process

In this regard, it is important that the customer has received all the necessary information to make an informed decision during the quotation process. Ultimately, this is the positive outcome of your marketing and sales activities, which are based on your strategy.

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Conclusion

In short, lead generation is used to develop new markets and sales territories, while account-based marketing is used to drive sales with customers who show potential. What’s important for both is that you’re relevant and time your efforts right.

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Would you like to streamline your sales activities to help you meet your targets? Contact us using the form or send me an email

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