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What’s that saying – ‘You only get one chance to make a first impression?’ How many of us have had subpar sales experiences recently? That interaction with a salesperson can be the reason you do or don’t move forward! And unfortunately, many have negative perceptions and are skeptical about sales reps.

Give this song by the Lowest of the Low a listen with me as we see what the experts are saying this week:

Why Account-Based Experience (ABX) Matters

If you’ve been keeping up with our What Do B2B Marketers Do Now? (WDBMD) blog/webinar series, then you should know by now that I love Account-Based Marketing (ABM). As more of our customers leverage ABM in their go-to-market strategies, I find that they need reminding of how essential customer experience is in their account engagement!

ABX is a strategy that uses data and insights to orchestrate relevant, trusted Marketing and Sales actions throughout the B2B customer lifecycle. Aside from avoiding those nasty sales stereotypes (cue back to this week’s song), why is trust so important? Demandbase outlines five reasons why customer-centric thinking is critical for ABM success!

  • The experience is the key driver of revenue, retention and satisfaction.
  • ABX sells to the account, not the lead.
  • ABX explicitly brings all revenue teams into the account-based world.
  • It’s about reaching buying teams when they want to engage, not when they don’t.
  • You work with modern buyers on their terms, and always based on trust.

Sometimes you’ll find that everybody’s so caught up in their ABM strategy, systems, and processes that they forget about the most important thing – the customer experience! ABX doesn’t invalidate ABM strategies – it simply takes best practices learned from ABM and codifies them under the more expansive principle of customer experience. Put your pedal down to the floor and get started!

Messaging and the Art of Repetition

There are three ways to end a song:

  • Cold End – abrupt, defined, very clear the song is over.
  • Last Chord – one final note that’s allowed to naturally fade away.
  • Fade-out – the chorus or another catchy part of the song gets quieter and quieter into nothingness.

(Note: I have a variation to the last chord technique called the ‘trash can ending:’ basically, play that last chord as loud and as long as possible with as much noise as you can – think, car chase scene in a movie where one car ends up barreling into a pile of trash cans. 😊)

So why did the fade-out become such a popular way to end a song? According to Alan Cross, the fade-out started in the 1950s, thanks to modern recording techniques and equipment. By fading out at the end of the song, performers didn’t have to come up with an ending! Plus – it was a great way to emphasize the chorus or hook of the song. By repeating the hook as the song ended, the hope was that the song would be burned into the listener’s brain. Or it could simply be more pragmatic – the fade-out allowed producers to end songs early, making them the ideal length for radio play.

As usual, I ask: How does this impact B2B?

As sales or marketing professionals, messaging is something we live and breathe. Depending on your audience, the medium/channel, and the message – the impression you want to leave with your clients can vary. Do you want your message to be that of a fast, aggressive punk rock song – with a cold end? Or do you want to fade out gracefully and leave that message in your prospect’s brain through all of that repetition?

Remember – repetition works. Repetition works.

Whatever your choice, make sure you are consistent with your brand voice, and that your senses – and your messaging – aren’t all disjointed.

As always, don’t hesitate to call me to brainstorm or just say hello. (And remember – repetition works!)

Looking forward,
Rick

Rick Endrulat, President | ricke@v-causeway.com | www.linkedin.com/in/rickendrulat