HOW SALESFORCE SUCCESSFULLY IMPLEMENTED SCALED AND STRATEGIC ABE Salesforce, the cloud-based customer Cary, director of account-based relationship management solution marketing, described the effort: “To company, has been an early ABE get going, we had to engage directly leader. Four years ago, it launched a with the sales and service teams; it scaled ABE program with a one-to-few was almost like a group therapy approach and has successfully expand- session. The key was aligning with the ed it with a one-to-one strategic ABE account executives. We needed to program over the past year. break down some walls there.” The company initially targeted 300 To support ABE, Salesforce uses accounts. Brianna Dinsmore, senior corporate marketing centers of excel- director of account-based marketing, lence, which provide scale and exper- explained: “We started with a one-to- tise for email and nurture marketing, few approach to make the business data and analytics, technology, case to get executive buy-in for the creative, and industry and product program. So, showing the approach marketing, which have been instru- could work at scale was important.” mental in launching and expanding ABE. Salesforce has benefited from a Salesforce began by focusing on un- unified culture, which emphasizes the derserved accounts in manufacturing integration of marketing, sales, and subindustries. Marketers aligned with services. The teams have worked the subindustry sectors to understand closely together from inception, using customer needs better so campaigns personalized actions in key channels, could be personalized for target ac- such as events, to drive the cadence counts in each. The approach focused and messaging to turn customers into on events, an area of strength for evangelists. Salesforce. The company targeted senior executives in high-priority Salesforce has navigated the complex- accounts and created event experienc- ities of running multiple ABE pro- es personalized to their needs. grams in a large matrixed organiza- tion. Its scaled ABE initiative In 2019, Salesforce expanded its ABE increased unique visitors to Sales- program to include one-to-one force.com by 212% and close rates by engagement with its largest accounts. 15%. In addition, it attained 100% ABE For instance, the company targeted 35 account coverage with high-value high-potential retail and consumer engagement (marketing activations or sector accounts for hyper-personalized responses with statistically significant marketing that included account- impacts on revenue). Salesforce’s specific next-best actions and custom- strategic ABE program, though more ized content. Marketing works closely recent, has increased pipeline with sales and service to orchestrate generation by 45% year-over-year and activities across touchpoints, using average deal size by 53% year-over- digital engagement that is connected year from the top 15 retail and to offline sales engagement. Lindsay consumer industry accounts. 6 Moving Beyond ABM to Account-Based Engagement