Social Listening a Key Strategic Imperative of ABM
A key strategic imperative of Account Based Marketing (ABM) is gaining insights about the intent of executives and decision makers within the prospect company. Knowing the intent of the key leaders in a company can help you formulate your sales strategy relative to that account, personalize your discussion and build long lasting trusted relationships.
How do you gain insights about the intent of the buyers and influencers? By following them on social media networks i.e. Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and monitoring mentions about them in the news. This is not an easy task. It requires a lot of research. For example finding out who the leaders and decision makers are and then following and tracking them on multiple channels takes valuable time away from direct selling activities. As such this valuable research is frequently ignored. According to CSO Insights reports:
88% of sales leaders believe they have missed opportunities due to information overload”.
This personal information is extremely valuable to B2B sales reps seeking information on when to make a pitch to the company and what to highlight within their pitch.
Insights and Knowledge About Your Accounts is Your Key Differentiation
In B2B sales, 360 degree intelligence about your customers and the people driving the industry is your key competitive advantage.
“The sales executives who know their customers better than the customer knows themselves is the one who will win the deal” says Usman Sheikh Founder and CEO of xiQ a next generation, cognitive sales and marketing platform that enables ABM.
xiQ allows users to find what executives are posting and what is being said about them on social media and news. So what’s the big deal about xiQ? With xiQ you don’t have to search for, track and follow these key executives. xiQ has already done the heavy lifting. All you need to do is subscribe to a company and xiQ provides all the social buzz, news and profiles of the executives who are calling the shots. xiQ has eliminated search from the B2B sales cycle. You focus on engaging with prospective clients equipped with a strong understanding of their business. This is your unique differentiation.
xiQ allows you to flex your newly acquired social capital and get much more personal with your buyers and influencers. Instead of initiating contact with prospective clients with a sales pitch, xiQ provides personal insights that help you form stable and long lasting relationships. It demonstrates that you genuinely care for your prospects by sharing information that they really care about.
xiQ enables Account Based Marketing by creating personalized engagements with your prospects. The more interactive you are with your prospects the more it helps you it establish a solid and lasting relationship.
xiQ’s integrated Account-Based Marketing platform, powered by IBM Watson, provides account teams with a single solution for real-time account intelligence, curated content for personalized engagement, access to multi-channel communications and dashboards that monitor customer engagement. xiQ enables ABM teams with orchestrated content to hyper-personalize customer engagement. Want to learn more about how xiQ enables ABM? Check out the xiQ website for more relevant details.
About The Author
Usman Sheikh
Founder and CEO
xiQ, Inc.
Usman Sheikh is the Founder and CEO of xiQ, Inc. Prior to founding xiQ, Usman was a Vice President with SAP, SE where he had first-hand experience with ABM and B2B Sales. Usman has worked in over 40 countries and lived in Singapore, Germany, and the United States. Currently, he resides in the Silicon Valley, San Francisco Bay Area.