COMPANIES THAT have adopted ABM have shifted their conventional success metrics from MQLs to more revenue-focused goals. Event planning software provider Social Tables is a prime example. The company has grown its opportunity pipeline by more than $500,000 per month and saw a 10% increase in deal size thanks to measuring the success of its ABM campaigns with a built-from-scratch formula.
Instead of measuring Social Tables’ ABM initiatives against metrics such as opportunities created, Ray Miller, Senior Marketing Operations Manager at Social Tables, and his team formulated a new equation to identify how ABM initiatives were impacting the company’s bottom line.
“We looked at it by account type — which means for us: ‘Is it a hotel? Is it a venue? Is it a corporation? Is it the production company or a planner?’” Miller said in an interview with ABM in Action. “We looked at each of them, and we gave each of those a value that we call ‘RevOpp,’ which is basically the revenue per opportunity produced historically for those account types.”
Once those accounts were evaluated, Social Tables identified different variables that impacted each RevOpp.
“What we found out about hotels and venues, which about 80% of our opportunities and revenue comes from, was that the size — specifically the square footage — of the actual meeting space was directly correlated to the amount of revenue produced,” said Miller.
“We’re able to see in real time how many opportunities we are creating, what that is worth in RevOpp and how much we have penetrated this portfolio.” Ray Miller, Social Tables
Miller and his team measured closed/won deals in Salesforce to identify how accounts of similar sizes impacted the company’s bottom line in the past. The company also used Infer, a predictive analytics and lead scoring tool, to help identify the number of employees in the account to help specify workflow rules in Salesforce. Miller noted the exercise helped uncover people in the account to enhance inbound initiatives.
“The number of employees is most important to identifying potential revenue,” said Miller.
ANALYSIS FUELS INSIGHT INTO FUTURE ABM CAMPAIGNS
Miller described one example of a large multinational hospitality company that recently became a Social Tables client. Based on his team’s analysis of venue sizes across more than 200 venues the client operates, they were able to assess that the account is worth about $300,000 in total RevOpp.
With that RevOpp number set as the goal for the account, Miller said that he and his team were “able to see in real time how many opportunities they were creating, what worth in RevOpp and how much we have penetrated this portfolio.”
Social Tables set a goal to reach 35% of the account’s RevOpp value by the end of the month, and they exceeded it. They are more than half-way (57%) through the account’s RevOpp value. “If we can pull off another campaign next month worth $150,000 in RevOpp value, then we’re in a good spot,” he said.
Miller said this clear view of account RevOpp values helps his team identify which accounts are the most strategic to the sales team and how much revenue [marketing] needs to send down funnel.
