Growing relationships with priority accounts

Your most important sales opportunities may depend on people beyond your usual contacts. To move those accounts forward, you need to give the right people a clear reason to engage and judge progress by more than campaign activity.

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Progress depends on reaching influential people with an account-specific proposition

Growing a priority account relationship involves addressing a particular business challenge or opportunity, rather than promoting the same offer to a broad market. Existing contacts and repeated sales meetings may not be enough if you have not reached the people with the most influence. The starting point is collaboration between sales and marketing: combine sales teams' account knowledge with marketing's ability to develop targeted creative work. Use the account's requirements to shape the proposition, whether you need to regain momentum, make your message more relevant or support a significant sales opportunity. Judge progress through movement in those opportunities, not engagement alone.

For IBM, The Frameworks developed the value proposition and creative concept for IBM Garage, a space where IBM experts and client leaders work together to solve specific business challenges. The campaign needed to distinguish the offer from rival innovation hubs while making its value tangible to prospective clients. The concept, "Where it happens", focused on the space and the change it could enable. An interactive physical book and browser-based virtual reality experiences brought prospective clients into the Garage environment. This combination of physical and digital content drew in new and existing audiences, supported by a proposition that resonated with its target audience. The campaign recorded twice the average IBM page engagement rate and $62 million in lead progression over five months.

Sources: IBM Garage: Account-Based Marketing Campaign, Understanding ABM in five steps

How The Frameworks helps

Growing priority account relationships

You need to advance relationships within priority accounts and build support for specific sales opportunities. The Frameworks focuses on the requirements and influential people within each account, rather than treating it as part of a broad audience. It works with your marketing and sales teams to understand where relationships have stalled, map the stakeholders who matter to the opportunity and shape creative work around the account's needs. That gives both teams a shared basis for communications beyond their existing contacts.

The Frameworks delivers targeted campaigns, tailored physical and digital content, and sales toolkits that help you explain the offer within each account. Messaging and design connect the offer to that account's requirements, including when you need to build internal support for a new service. You get materials your teams can use to engage additional stakeholders and support internal advocates, with measurable lead progression helping you distinguish movement in the relationship from campaign activity alone.

Let’s talk about growing your priority account relationships 

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