4STORY Surveys

A Demandbase survey revealed that ABM can increase deal velocity by 7%, deal sizes by 26%, and close rates by 75%. ITSMA, a leading association for technology marketers, calls it “one of the hottest trends in B2B marketing…” Most analysts agree that ABM, executed correctly, can be vital to the success of almost any firm. According to ITSMA, executing correctly requires “tailoring campaigns” and content to “markets of one.” Dozens of excellent (albeit expensive) technologies and systems are now available to help you do this, but all of them are subject to “bad in equals bad out.” Some use advanced AI and prospect actions to personalize content, but all of them focus on what a prospect does and not on who they are. ABM or not, you’re still generating inquiries and not Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs). As such, based on research from SiriusDecisions, your average conversion rate is still less than 5%.

Leadership Account-Based Marketing Personalization™ (LAMP) solves this problem with a groundbreaking and inexpensive START WITH WHO ABM Survey system. This patent-pending approach has been proven effective across 5+ years, dozens of leading firms, and thousands of prospects and channel partners. Leveraging a decade of research, cutting-edge neuroscience, engaging leadership content, and unique storytelling, LAMP makes ordinary surveys obsolete.

“At the highest level, ABM is about reaching the right senior executives. You don’t maintain a conversation at this level with generic messages – or with slick content that signals ‘generic marketing.’” –Megan Heuer, VP and Group Director, SiriusDecisions

OLD SCHOOL SURVEYS

Some marketers believe that generic content—such as a research report from a leading analyst—will drive prospects to their doorstep and create ready-to-buy opportunities. Given documented dismal conversion rates, this premise is obviously not valid. Some believe that highly gated content, that requires detailed surveys, will drive prospects away. Research and field results proves just the opposite is true. Decision-maker prospects are reluctant to offer contact information unless they believe that the value of the content warrants such. Ungated or lightly gated content is perceived as having low value. Most importantly, research from Deloitte & Touche indicates that executives now want leadership-based content more than any other. For example, CIOs and CISOs are moving from technologists to strategists and want to improve their leadership skills. They will not complete a survey for a technology white paper, but will do so for a detailed leadership profile and best practice guide--especially one derived from an award-winning leadership book written by a New York Times bestselling author.

4STORY ABM SURVEYS

Visualize your current survey approach. Perhaps your content is ungated and you gain no information at all, or it’s light-gated and you collect a few sparse details. Regardless, you have no way to personalize your content on-the-fly. Your prospects are neither qualified or pre-sold. Moreover, your content is not that compelling or different from your competitors as they offer similar white papers and industry reports. How can you leapfrog your competition and offer compelling and engaging content that your target ABM prospects want?

 "Their use of neuroscience messaging, engagement surveys and social selling and profiling has made a huge impact." —VP Marketing, Logicalis 

To entice prospects to give you contact and detailed firmographics and profile information requires Level-4 content. Most firms offer only Level-1 (ungated) or Level-2 (light-gated) content and few offer Level-3 (moderately-gated). Level-1 through 3 cannot create MQLs, so what can? Consider an approach taken by a few leading firms that does the following:

• Provides a survey link that can be embedded on websites, emailed to prospects, or sent via LinkedIn messages
• Entices prospects with a detailed leadership profile and best practice guide that’s personalized
• Uses proven neuroscience to determine a prospect’s personality and messaging preferences
• Fully BANT qualifies a prospect based on predetermined and scored MQL criteria
• Adjusts survey questions and messaging on-the-fly based on the prospect’s profile
• Uses neuroscience and advanced storytelling to pre-sell prospects on solutions
• Entices prospects to complete the survey and schedule their own sales appointments via a web calendar
• Automatically sends prospects an email with their leadership profile and guide, as well as links to personalized content
• Automatically updates the CRM system with the prospect’s survey answers
• Automatically sends sales team a detailed prospect profile and sales messaging guide, along with links to just-in-time sales enablement tools based on the prospect’s profile

The last item above has been shown to increase closing rates by 75% and shorten sales cycles by 24%. Hubspot says that sales pros must be able to find the exact right sales enablement content within one minute. This is virtually impossible using a typical portal approach. Again, a few technologies hold the promise of offering this capability but they likely suffer from “bad in, bad out” syndrome. If you’re relying only on what a prospect does, such as downloading syndicated content or clicking on a web link, you’re not getting the full picture. These actions alone cannot create an MQL. If your current surveys fail to entice prospects to divulge more than surface-level details, they will produce Inquiries and not MQLs. These leads will require significant nurturing that will cost money and time. 

We all know that content is King, and enticing prospects to complete a BANT qualification survey requires content fit for a King or Queen. Using the same warmed-over Joker content is no longer adequate. The LAMP system does not require but complements almost any ABM or sales enablement system including Seismic, Hubspot, Demandbase, Engagio, Showpad, Highspot, Marcom Central, etc. It’s more than just a tool, it's a proven approach that integrates ABM Leadership Content, Appointment-Setting, and Sales Enablement Personalization. Included is a unique and powerful ABM messaging approach and leadership content that drives 3X the response rate, as well as advanced storytelling techniques and templates that shorten sales cycles. CLICK on the button to the right for more information.

“They engaged with, trained, and helped motivate dozens of our leading channel partners, executed several large social selling and lead nurturing programs to perfection, and leveraged cutting-edge neuroscience to dramatically improve lead conversion rates, shorten sales cycles, and increase our closing percentages.” 

—Director of Sales, HP

"...helped us increase results, stay within budgets, and support our campaign launches by evaluating, creating, managing, and optimizing our partner marketing assets.” 

—Director of Partner Marketing, SAP

"...has been a critical partner in my team’s success in driving Symantec sales transformation…provided us with insights, guidance, and high-quality solutions that enabled us to realize significant gains in our sales team’s ability to execute.” 

—Sr. Director of Global Enablement, Symantec

“…helped us build and implement a world-class lead nurturing program…helped ensure that the program resonated with our specific target prospects to achieve the best results possible.” —Product Marketing Director, NSFOCUS

“…an effective way for sales reps to improve their ability to captivate prospects and customers and close deals.” —VP Sales, Intermedia

The LAMP system and all related content is the trademark and copyright of 4STORY. All Rights Reserved. Patent Pending #62533391.