Rev Up Your Sales Funnel: A Guide to Boosting Funnel Velocity in ABM

Time is scarce. Time is of essence. Businesses must be quick and efficient to stay ahead of competition in meeting prospects’ demands.

If you are looking to maximize revenue and accelerate target account conversions in your account-based marketing (ABM) strategy, funnel velocity is one of the most critical metrics of success.

In this guide, we'll show you how to rev up your sales funnel and boost funnel velocity for account based marketing.

We'll cover everything from understanding the ABM sales funnel to measuring key metrics and implementing best practices for success. 

By the end of this guide, you'll have the tools and techniques necessary to accelerate your funnel velocity.

Funnel Velocity or Sales Velocity? 

Funnel velocity is the speed at which accounts move through a sales funnel. Whatever name you call it by - funnel velocity or sales velocity - the idea is to move accounts from top of the funnel to the bottom of the funnel fast.

The faster the accounts move through the funnel, the higher the revenue you generate. 

Understanding ABM Sales Funnel

ABM sales funnel outlines the stages a target account goes through from initial engagement to final conversion. Unlike traditional sales funnels that focus on a large number of leads, the ABM sales funnel emphasizes a smaller, high-value set of target accounts. 

Remember, when we say target account, we mean target account leads - the individuals - who are part of that organization and part of the buying committee. 

There are typically four stages through which your targets proceed in the ABM sales funnel.

Identification 

In the first stage, you identify the target accounts you want to engage with. This needs a deep understanding of your ideal customer profile and core account selection criteria. Our post on building a target account list talks in detail about the eight criteria you must consider.

But just to recall, company size, geography, industries served, technographic data, and existing assets are some of the critical factors. 

Engagement 

After you have identified the target accounts, you need to engage with them through personalized outreach campaigns . Some of the most popular tactics employed at this stage include:

• warm email
• email marketing
• social media advertising
• account-based advertising

Knowledge of the psychographic profile of your targets can help move through this stage quickly.

Conversion 

In the third stage, you work to convert engaged accounts into qualified opportunities. Here you can employ multiple tactics such as:

•  account-based content marketing
• personalized sales outreach
• targeted events 

Again a knowledge of psychographic profile helps in personalizing outreach efforts.

Building 

In the final stage, you provide awesome customer experience, build upon your relationship with existing customers and drive revenue growth. Some quick and simple ways to do this are:

• upselling
• cross-selling
• loyalty programs

You must have noticed that personalization is the key to successful account-based marketing. Let’s explore what are the other tactics - besides personalization - to engage with target accounts effectively. But before that we need to understand the factors that affect funnel velocity.

Formula to Calculate Funnel Velocity

where,

no. of opportunities is the number of target accounts

It’s evident that to increase funnel velocity, you need to increase the number of target accounts, conversion rate or average deal size.

Alternatively, shortening the sales cycle can also accelerate funnel velocity.

How To Increase Funnel Velocity 

Here are some strategies for increasing funnel velocity of an ABM sales funnel:

Increasing number of target accounts 

Size of the target account list is a balancing act. Although the basic tenet of account based marketing is focusing on a smaller number of target accounts, having too small target lists can result in decreasing revenue. 

You can use tactics such as targeted advertising, multichannel personalized messaging and social media outreach to reach relevant and engaged target accounts.

Improving conversion rates

Conversion rate directly impacts revenue. For account based marketing, conversion rates depend on multiple factors such as creating the correct target account list, personalizing communication and removing all obstacles to making a purchase decision. 

Here are some strategies to improve conversion rates:

• Omnichannel outreach
• Going after engaged accounts
• Personalizing content and messaging
• Clear CTAs on each asset sent to prospects
• Track, analyze and refine campaigns continuously

Increasing average deal size

Increasing average deal size requires a deep understanding of customer’s pain points. Once you know what keeps them awake at night, you can use one or more of these tactics with success:

• Upselling 
• Cross-selling
• Add-on features
• Premium services
• Value-based pricing

Shortening sales cycle

B2B sales have long sales cycles. But there is no magic bullet for shortening the sales cycle. It must be a combination of multiple strategies implemented over a long period of time, even before you reach out to a target account. Some of the most effective strategies are:

• Providing social proof
• Qualifying leads effectively
• Incentivising quick decisions
• Inducing sense of urgency and scarcity
• Streamlining outreach and sales process
• Integrating effort by sales and marketing teams
• Using psychological profiling for each target account lead

Discover how Think ABM can optimize your sales funnel and boost revenue growth.

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9 Best Practices For Improving ABM Funnel Velocity

#1. Sales and marketing teams alignment

The ABM team reaching out to an account must comprise members from both sales and marketing teams. And they must be aligned on basic processes like scoring or lead qualification, outreach method, content to be shared, messaging to be used, etc. Each member should be willing to step in to provide a smooth buying experience. 

#2. Personalization at every step

Personalization is key to a successful ABM campaign and it can help engage with prospects, improve sales cycle length as well as increase deal size if done correctly. You should use data and insights at every step to personalize content and messaging.

#3. Streamlining sales process

Long and complex sales processes can be a significant bottleneck for funnel velocity. Always watch out for steps and processes that can be simplified, optimized or streamlined. 

#4. Focus on high-value accounts

Not all accounts are created equal, and some will have a more significant impact on the bottom line. Focusing on and converting high-value accounts automatically increases deal size and hence funnel velocity.

#5. Multi-channel engagement

You must reach out to the targets via the channel they prefer. If your prospect prefers email but you are trying to reach via call, your sales cycle will lengthen further. To be ready to meet customers where they want, you must be prepared with a cohesive and personalized multi-channel messaging.

#6. Continuously test and optimize

You cannot get any strategy right the first time. You must be willing to track campaigns, collect data around key metrics, analyze them using the latest AI/ML-enabled tools and apply the insights gained to optimize continuously.

#Leveraging technology

Using the latest tools and technologies to accelerate funnel velocity should be a no-brainer  for modern ABM teams. Besides the legacy tools for automation, CRM, email marketing etc., you must look at ways to use the latest tools such as intent algorithms, psychographic profiling, AI-enabled targeting and more. 

How Think ABM Can Boost Funnel Velocity

Boosting funnel velocity is critical to a successful ABM strategy. Increasing funnel velocity is an ongoing process of tracking, testing, measuring, and refining your approach. 

We at Think ABM have the latest AI tools that enable you to

• build highly engaged target account list using intent data
• use psychographic profiling to personalize outreach and messaging

When you partner with Think ABM you will close more deals with customers with high lifetime value faster, revving up funnel velocity.