“This strategy ain’t worth a dang unless you’re very clear on your ICP… and consequently, have targeted, on-point messaging.”
☝ This is the proverbial fine print on any piece of marketing advice we ever talk about or publish.
It means: you can have all other pieces of the ABM-puzzle right, but if you mess up on the ICP and messaging, the castle will crumble.
OK, but how do you get to the level of granularity necessary?
Just watch:
Everyone else segments like this:
– geography
– industry
– size/firmographics
– niche/sub-niche
Nothing wrong with these, they’re necessary steps in the process – but you can’t stop here.
Folks who have some experience know: this is where it starts getting exciting » they go deeper and study their best customers to uncover typical patterns in
– pain points,
– needs,
– wants,
– scenarios or maturity in the company’s growth stage or a relevant area
…and other factors that directly influence how they choose a solution from you or your competitor.
Then, what you do is combine all this information into stories… as in, business cases.
This☝ is a biggie, so it’s worth repeating:
Identify the business case/scenario that your best customers were in, when they chose your solution.
A few examples would help, I’m sure…:
– for a cybersecurity SaaS, we helped uncover the fact that they have an advantage with prospects who have an in-house solution, are looking to expand abroad… but haven’t switched to a 3rd party security solution yet.
– for a data analytics provider, we interviewed our way to the conclusion that prospects who have some data maturity and max 1-2 in-house people for the job are most ripe for their services and solutions.
– an agency client of ours in the enterprise growth sector found that their solution is best for companies who are stuck in the lead-generation practices, are switching to ABM, but don’t yet have a good grasp on their platforms and what it’s capable of.
These are all use cases that come from interviewing and analyzing your best clients.
BTW, best clients in our definition = companies whom you can do an awesome job for, with relatively little effort… and where you also have room to expand.
——- ps ——
You can find lucrative sub-niches based on prospects’ use-cases – and make your life soo much easier (and numbers prettier).
