A Short Guide to ABM Engagement, Part 3: Sales Development
This guide explores common challenges organizations face in their ABM (Account-Based Marketing) journey. Part 1 covers Sales, Part 2 focuses on Marketing, and Part 3 addresses Sales Development.
Identify and Pursue Target Account Entry Points
As your Marketing team gets better at engaging targeted ABM accounts, it’s crucial to ensure your Sales Development (SDR) team is ready to build on that momentum. To do so, you’ll need to equip them with new strategies to nurture interest rather than risk damaging or ignoring early-stage engagement.
Sales Development should be trained to recognize opportunities and engage in ways that complement marketing’s efforts. Adjusting KPIs and providing structured guidance can help prevent SDRs from disqualifying entire accounts based on a single, unpromising interaction. Remember, ABM success begins with identifying relevant buying centers. Instead of targeting top executives directly, focus on the practitioners who are the true innovators within the buying center. These are the people who will champion new solutions and are essential to moving an account forward.
Any engagement with an account, even a small one, adds value to the relationship. Your SDRs need to understand this and avoid undoing progress through an overly aggressive or misinformed outreach strategy.
Address Gaps in Sales Development Performance
Identifying the root causes of underperformance in Sales Development is complex. If your organization hasn’t fully optimized the SDR function, it can be hard to see where improvements are needed. Many Sales Development teams fall short of their quotas. In fact, a large number of teams report hitting less than 70% of their targets, with very few exceeding 90%. These challenges often stem from issues like unclear reporting structures, misaligned performance metrics, and inefficient list-building processes.
As you evolve your ABM program, it’s important to address these foundational problems. Without a strong, well-supported Sales Development function, it becomes a barrier to your ABM success rather than a key driver.
Leverage Intent Data to Improve SDR Interactions
As you address infrastructure and process gaps, don’t overlook the importance of what’s happening at the frontlines—how SDRs are actually engaging with potential buyers. These team members have a narrow window to make a positive impression, so it’s essential to equip them with the best available sales intelligence.
Real intent data can significantly improve the quality of SDR outreach. When SDRs are armed with deep insights into their prospects’ interests and behaviors, they can tailor their approach more effectively. By using intent data, SDRs can prioritize the most promising leads and engage in more meaningful conversations, avoiding the pitfalls of generic outreach.
Training is essential here. Even with the best tools, SDRs need ongoing support to ensure they are using the data effectively. Whether through phone calls, emails, or other forms of communication, ensuring SDRs know how to leverage insights will lead to higher-quality interactions and better conversion rates.
Empowering Sales Teams with Intent Data
While experienced sales professionals often bring a wealth of expertise and successful strategies to the table, they can be slow to embrace new tools and technologies. Intent data, which shows a prospect’s likelihood to make a purchase, can be a game-changer when used effectively. However, it’s not enough to simply provide this data; sales teams must be supported in how to use it to its full potential.
Sales teams can use intent data to accelerate deals, prioritize opportunities, and refine their outreach strategies. Whether your ABM focus is on cross-selling, upselling, or new customer acquisition, leveraging intent data can help sellers close deals more efficiently and build stronger relationships with accounts. With the right support and training, intent data can become one of your most powerful sales tools.
How We Can Help
At Marketing Vogue, we specialize in delivering cutting-edge insights into tech buyers’ behaviors and intentions. By leveraging our robust intent data, we help organizations tackle their most pressing go-to-market challenges. From strategic advice to executional support, we work with tech companies from start to finish—helping you move from concept to close.
Ready to take your ABM strategy to the next level? Let’s talk.
