The adoption of Account-Based Marketing has grown exponentially over recent years and shows no signs of slowing down. ABM brings with it many benefits, with perhaps the key benefit being the alignment between marketing and sales. The nature of ABM brings both teams together with one function in particular often forgotten about in relation to the success of your ABM programme, the Sales Development Representative.
To understand the role that SDR teams play in an Account-Based Marketing world is to know that they directly assist in the acceleration and maximisation of results. SDRs are seen to play a pivotal role in ABM, allowing companies to generate strong, qualified leads. The numbers are awe-inspiring with a reported 91% of marketers using ABM having recorded increased deal size by over 50%! (Televerde, 2022) So, you decide to join the party. You might’ve thought of the perfect ABM campaign, with a killer call to action and eye-catching graphics. And it might be paying off too - leads are coming in hot in the pipeline! But when it comes to outreach, many marketers enter uncharted waters and don’t deliver on the follow up phase.
The key to executing an effective ABM programme includes follow up and this lies within the SDR role. They are the glue holding your sales and marketing departments together, ensuring harmony and alignment across the board!
With a mix of in-house knowledge and secondary research, we have picked 3 reasons why you should be utilising SDR follow up to maximise those leads:
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Marketing attribution
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SDRs generate leads!
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Marketing Attribution
Reporting on how sales have been directly impacted by marketing is something that sales development is instrumental in. If marketers deploy sales development as part of their strategy, they can then directly attribute it to the success of the programme. So despite your campaign strategy potentially being totally correct, if you can’t demonstrate to the C-Suite that you’re having a direct impact on the bottom line, then it hasn’t worked. Sales Development solves this.
SDRs Generate Leads!
Sure, those digital ads are getting the form fills but what about those other leads that need following up on? The ultimate goal of any ABM campaign is to generate leads and increase pipeline value. The longer you wait to make contact with a lead, the less likely you are to convert said lead - and with time being of the essence, it’s no wonder SDR follow up is so vital to the success of any campaign.
I caught up with our Operations Director, Holly Spooner who says “SDRs are on the front lines gathering real-time insights into your target market. That feedback and insight can inform marketing messaging and increase your pipeline value”.
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As a marketer, you're judged on the volume and quality of pipeline you're generating. Whilst it's important to leverage paid media to generate MQLs, turning those MQLs into SQLs will have a direct impact on the perceived value of your ABM, and therefore, unlock further budget to scale your programme. Following up with a lead within 5 minutes after initial contact makes it 9x more likely to convert them (insidesales.com, 2019), so without SDRs, the likelihood of making contact with a lead (in time, nonetheless) more so than just collecting form fills, decreases exponentially.
Account-Based Marketing is one of the most effective strategies for B2B sales. That’s why 87% of marketers using ABM strategies say it outperforms every other type of marketing investment. When it’s done right you can see results like: 99% higher account engagement, 36% higher customer retention rates, and an 80% improved win rate (Pamela Bump, Hubspot, 2021). But without SDR follow up, the number of lead conversions can decrease by 9x.
SDRs play an important role in an ABM approach and, if implemented successfully, can accelerate results and pipeline generation when aligned to the overall sales and marketing strategy. Don’t forget to follow up!
