We live in an era of experience economy where Customer experience triumphs over price and product - it is the new brand currency and a competitive differentiator. People buy experiences, not products. Therefore, optimizing their experiences at every touchpoint is paramount, even before prospects become customers.
Account-based thinking helps organizations to look outward-in - as opposed to inward-out - and focus on customer-centricity. Account-based Sales was the beginning, then came Account-based Marketing (ABM), and the next logical convergence is to what is called Account-based Experience (ABX).
Account-based Sales was about segmenting and organizing customers as Accounts to control the sales interactions and better serve them.
In the Account-based Marketing approach, the focus was to bring the Sales and Marketing alignment throughout the funnel and provide a unified buying experience for customers. In the last couple of years, ABM has become a mainstream GTM strategy in B2B. Organizations across the spectrum are adopting it for benefits like improved ROI and faster deal closure. In fact, ABM is touted to produce the highest impact on B2B businesses in the years to come.
Extending the functional alignment that started in ABM further and including Success, Support, and Operations functions into the ambit is the core of Account-based Experience. ABX is the method to control all of the company's touch-points to offer a super personalized end-to-end customer experience - from pre to post-acquisition engagements.
There are numerous stories about multi-million deals falling through the crack or being delayed because one decision-maker had a sub-par experience when dealing with a vendor's brand as a consumer. Therefore, it's no longer about a specific function in an organization - Sales or Marketing - doing its job right. If the entire customer touch-points are not optimized for experience, the engagement won't be lasting and is bound to fail.
In B2C, customers expect a consistent brand experience regardless of which function or channel they interact with. This expectation has spilled over to B2B too in recent times. As millennials become buyers themselves or act as influencers, this phenomenon is going to accelerate rapidly. Account-based Experience management is a new way forward in B2B for this changing trend. ABX provides the building block to manage this shift in customer behavior.
Break the data silos for a single view of the customer
ABX is simply a new way to identify, engage with, and deliver consistent experiences to buying teams and their users. It requires a deep and real-time understanding of their target accounts and their audiences. Start with a rich, always-on target account profile, integrated with all your channels (Email, Web, Mobile, Advertising, Call centers, and Direct mail) and across Systems (CRM, Marketing, Sales, Support, Partner, Finance, and Operation).
Align People and Processes for an omnichannel experience
ABX is not a tool; it's a culture that requires a fundamental shift in developing a customer-first attitude across the organization. Drive the point that customer experience today is a shared goal for all functions. Identify KPIs that reflect the shared responsibility.
You must know who you are targeting and what stage of the sales funnel they are. Deliver an experience with content personalized for their roles and goals. Increase your chances of getting your prospect's attention by better understanding them with data and using it to do deeper segmentation.
Use AI-powered tools to personalize the interactions at scale and turn engagements into Sales and deliver better ROI.
Account-based experience is a highly personalized, coordinated, and consistent conversation you have with your target accounts on an ongoing basis. It should be designed to build lasting relationships with your Accounts and turn them into evangelists - From awareness to advocacy and beyond.
Make Experience Your Business! Remember, like ABM, ABX is a long-term organization-wide strategy.
