Account based prospecting (ABP)

Account based prospecting (ABP) is a B2B marketing and sales plan that involves finding, activating, and nurturing target accounts and gaining their trust.

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Samantha Spiro
Samantha has over seven years of experience as both a content manager and editor. Bringing contact info to life is the name of her game. Some might say she’s a bit ‘SaaS-y.’

Account based prospecting (ABP) identifies and captures the attention of important decision-makers with detailed communication and specific messaging. It smoothes out sales cycles, increases conversion rates, and builds valuable business relationships.

The different lead generation approaches allow ABP to focus on quality, not quantity. This strategy empowers sales teams to achieve their goals for a more productive workflow. It also ensures the needs of the addresses are respected, which is an important overlay.


The numbers don’t lie when it comes to ABP

Looking at the latest data on Account-Based Prospecting, we’ve noticed some fascinating patterns emerging:

 

  1. The most striking discovery? Teams that engage multiple stakeholders early – specifically 6.8 decision-makers simultaneously – are seeing dramatically better results than the traditional approach of targeting 2-3 contacts. 
  2. Here’s something you probably haven’t seen before: Companies running dedicated account research teams (not just general sales research, but account-specific deep dives) are achieving 286% higher ROI on their prospecting efforts. We’re talking about teams that spend 3-4 hours researching each account before making any contact.
  3. One of our favorite findings from recent field studies: Morning outreach between 7-9 AM local time pulls in 47% higher engagement rates than afternoon attempts. But here’s the kicker – this only works when you’re matching the prospect’s local time zone, not yours.

     

Expertise, short and sweet 

Michael Kilcullen

VP of Marketing @ Wiza 

Account based prospecting should never be put into the category of a fancy sales trick. By honing in on the right accounts, our sales teams skip the fluff and serve up insights that hit you between the eyes.


This expertise indicates that ABP
targets aligned accounts, personalization, and relationship-tending.

 

Successful use cases of ABP

 

Who wouldn’t want cross-functional teams that collaborate for the good of better prospecting?

Schneider Electric would agree as they used ABP to organize outreach for more profound, measurable results from priority accounts. They consolidated intent, audience, firmographic, and technographic data to identify decision-makers and built personalized campaigns that appealed to ‘nucleus needs.’


With Madison Logic’s LinkedIn integration, Schneider Electric improved its multi-channel reporting with dynamic messaging triggers that change based on the stage of their buyer’s funnel.

 

This ABP strategy seemed to work as a 21% revenue increase from target accounts, shorter sales cycles, and higher pipeline velocity were achieved.


Common ABP obstacles

Access to correct data, decision-maker engagement, and outreach scalability are common challenges in account based prospecting. It’s tough to get in front of busy executives, and building customized messaging for each account takes a lot of time.

Alignment may be lacking internally across teams, and accounts may not indicate immediate buying intent. A much longer sales cycle could make tracking payoffs challenging. On top of that, gatekeepers and competitive noise rain down on the market further. Resources also become so short that they strongly constrain efforts to core accounts.

So, how do we overcome this? The best means include reliable data, intent signals, and scalable frameworks that decrease effort without eliminating overall focus.

Top tips to tick off for ABP

  • Incorporate buyer behavior insights.
  • Explore vertical-specific pain points.
  • Monitor and refine your approach based on response data.

 

Author

  • Samantha has over seven years of experience as both a content manager and editor. Bringing contact info to life is the name of her game. Some might say she's a bit 'SaaS-y.'

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