VMWare had to build capabilities from scratch to support the new program. It built a new stack that was more attuned to the needs of the ABE program and created new technology and data teams that worked closely with the corporate digital team. These teams now serve as an innovation hub that rolls out key learnings to the rest of the company. Thanks to its ABE efforts, VMWare’s cloud business has seen deal velocity improve from 12 to 18 months to 6 to 9 months, on average, while the close rate for the ABE deals is three times that of other deals. Transform to integrate across functions. For most companies, implementing an ABE program turns into a transformation of the marketing, sales, and service functions. It demands bridging organizational silos, adopting new ways of working together, building new capabilities, and managing large-scale change initiatives. Implementing ABE can prove to be extremely challenging, particularly across a large, matrixed organization. Thomson Reuters, the Toronto-headquartered global business services company, had to approach ABE with a sense of urgency in the case of its legal division. A very high proportion of its subscription-based business required negotiating periodic re- newals with large buyers. So the company decided to launch an ABE program, the For most companies, initial focus of which was retention and upselling. implementing ABE turns into a Almost immediately, Thomson Reuters figured out that the customer experience transformation of across marketing, sales, and client management played a major part in renewal de- marketing, sales, and cisions, and that addressing cross-functional fragmentation was critical. Jillian Gart- service. ner, Thomson Reuter’s director of account-based marketing for the legal division, described the company’s approach: “Including the client management organization was an absolutely critical element of our program for both one-to-one and one-to- few. The client management group had important account intelligence and relation- ships that were critical to our success. For us, connecting across organizational di- vides started at the top. Our marketing leadership team worked closely with the sales and client management leadership to gain buy-in for the program at the high- est levels.” The program became successful over time, getting positive customer feedback and having a large impact on the business’s bottom line. Thomson Reuters expanded its initial efforts to cover additional products and loca- tions, using its early successes to build the business case to expand the program. It found that it could scale more effectively by utilizing centralized capabilities to man- age data and technology and grouping similar accounts into segments to personalize on a one-to-few basis. Consequently, Thomson Reuters has been able to dramatically increase renewals and consistently grow revenues at above-market rates. BE holds enormous promise for B2B companies. Those that don’t invest in Abuilding ABE programs risk falling behind rivals, providing subpar experiences for their best customers, and missing opportunities they may not even be aware of. There’s no excuse for not getting going with a pilot right away, although scaling an ABE program to include a larger number of accounts spanning geographic areas, customer segments, and product categories will require careful planning, commit- ted execution, and large-scale change management. Boston Consulting Group 17