s e s s e c o Personalizing the r M p B III 7 A t e r a h executive conversation P T At the highest level, ABM is about reaching the right senior executives. You don’t maintain a conversation A personalized email: at this level with generic messages — or with slick This excerpt shows how a salesperson created a compelling, personalized content that signals ‘generic marketing.’ Data from story by taking the extra step of showing how their technology could specifically McKinsey & Company shows that personalization help the target company (in this case, Starbucks). Based on this email, reduces acquisition costs by as much as 50% and the company was able to set up a meeting with the CEO, Howard Schultz. increases revenues by up to 15%. Even if the ideas aren’t 100% right, they show you’re thinking about their Instead, your ABM programs will include business in an intelligent way. personalized emails, reports and content that use everything you know about the company to prove you understand their most pressing challenges. …share some ideas I had on how Starbucks could leverage : • Seeing a relevant article and popping it in the mail • Mobile app distribution — reduce friction by allowing your website with a post-it note pointing out its relevance is visitors to download your mobile app by texting the download link a quick way to establish contact and credibility. to their phone. We intelligently detect whether a phone is on iOS • For account-expansion, a great piece of content or Android OS and send them to the right app store. might be a case study showing how another • Picture message a coupon to your customers on their birthday. division or group within the same company is Why tell them how good a frap will be when you can show them using your solution. the gooey ribbons of caramel? • Mentioning your connection to the prospect • New VIP service: text your order in to your local Starbucks. is a strong opener for ABM conversations. Get your favorite thirst quencher sooner. “Bob Apollo mentioned you in a conversation • Picture message Starbucks coupons w/QR codes to your friends about XYZ yesterday…” on special occasions. These messages are most powerful when they • Leverage geo-location services to MMS special deals to consumers come on behalf of your executives. This kind of when they are in close vicinity to a Starbucks. executive-level interaction will often out-perform … your more automated marketing (even when the latter is personalized). 64