With so much confusion and discussion about ABM, I started thinking about the question of how do you become the next success story. Success for me is about being brave enough to try things out and listening to others and seeing if you can apply it to your own challenges. I can’t help thinking that with all things in life, you have a right to enjoy (ABM) success, but with that comes a responsibility to share and help others. I love sailing and being on the water and I want my kids to grow up enjoying racing sailing dinghies. As a family our 2018 New Years’ resolution was no more plastic bottles we felt we had to do our bit for the damage being caused by them. It is a small gesture but my kids will decline a juice or water in a plastic bottle.

The picture you see is a model I want to share. I created it about 7 years ago when I realized our team were describing ABM in their own particular and individual way. The business was new to ABM so (before you lost the attention of the sales people) you needed to define it, describe WIIFT (what's in it for them), show measured outcomes and prove the impact. Does anyone know the attention span of a sales person when listening to a marketing person?! Not long.

This model is our higher belief – this is what drives all decisions, keeps us on track. This is a way of describing the approach we all need to take to ensure we behave in the right way to engage customers. For me, engagement is all about earning the right to have the conversation. To do that you have to follow the process: 

1. Do your research
2. Create a relevant message 
3. Start with a person and expand that relationship
4. Interact appropriately
5. Evolve the relationship

This is not an ABM execution model it is a customer engagement model that keeps us true to the essence of ABM. This is about attitudes that drive behaviour that delivers results.

We have put this to the test many times over the years. It has been an extremely useful tool to help us communicate successfully, to keep others onboard and really importantly to keep ourselves on track (we are all human and might at times get carried away with creating something we think our customers should like!)