Account Based Marketing Success with AI ICPs: Smarter Targeting for Modern Teams

Featured Speakers:-

Links and Resources

• What Is ICP Analytics? Definition, Benefits & Examples
• ICP Analytics: Complete Guide to Identifying, Targeting & Scaling Ideal Customers
• AI-Driven ICP Scoring Models Explained

Transcript

0:13
Hello ladies and gentlemen.

0:14
Welcome to another episode of AI Machines and Marketer show, and our today’s topic is account-based marketing success with AI ICP, smarter targeting for modern teams.

0:27
Well, it is clearly established that B2B market has evolved a lot.

0:32
Things have changed and grown at a very faster scale, but there are still teams which operate on the static ICPs which actually no longer defines or justifies the actual buying behaviour, market shifts, intense signal changes, and, most importantly, decision cycle turning more complex.

0:52
There is one thing that remains constant, and that is targeting.

0:56
Well, to understand better.

0:59
Our today’s discussion is based on how AI driven dynamic ICP is changing the face of account-based marketing.

1:07
We will also challenge some static or some conventional ICP convention modes where data force falls short, and we also will understand what it takes to make an ICP a standard or a trusted operating system for sales, marketing.

1:27
And revenue operations.

1:30
Well, I’m pleased to be joined by one of our seasoned speaker who brings strong hands-on experience in account-based marketing, data-driven growth, and AI power targeting.

1:42
Please welcome Mr.

1:43
Arpit Srivastava, vice president of Growth Marketing and analytics at Growth Natives.

1:48
Well, welcome, Arpit.

1:49
So Arpit, I think this is like, again, I would say a homecoming.

1:53
How are you feeling today?

1:54
Always feeling great.

1:56
It is always a great.

1:58
feeling to have, this kind of show and it’s this initiative definitely is helping the whole audience, so I’m really excited about it.

2:05
Definitely, definitely, and I think the best thing in the world is to enlighten the people around there and what you give as the answers that turns out to be the solution for so many.

2:16
So first of all, thank you so much for joining us today.

2:19
So are you ready?

2:20
Shall we start with our questions?

2:23
OK, so ladies and gentlemen, please be with us and bear us because something exciting, some good answers are on its way.

2:31
Well, my first question to you is, what do most go to marketer get confused or get wrong about ICP today?

2:41
Yeah, so, basically what’s happening is ICP traditionally has been more like a statics exercise, and somebody, the leadership team, they, they have a meeting, they decide that this is my software or this is my product or this is the category of service that we want to offer.

2:58
And let’s define, addressable market for this n, right, right.

3:01
And then they, they come up with some kind of combination of like we want to target B2B, we want to go after a company which is a range of let’s say $50 to $500 million and that becomes like a, a PowerPoint that the whole company adopts.

3:15
And then just because it cared for the top, no one questions it, and that’s where the problem becomes.

3:21
It becomes a de facto kind of a definition.

3:24
Which I think is wrong given things are changing so fast and for every business, the ICP needs to be more dynamic in nature and I think today we wanna cover some of the, nuances that are associated with and some of the benefits of just thinking about ICP in more dynamic context, right, right, right, as we say about the dynamic thing.

3:52
that’s my next question actually.

3:54
Why do so many ICP quietly become set and forget thing?

3:58
I mean, have you seen like they do this and even in the organisation that invest heavily in data and that drops like revenue operations.

4:06
So what is this like?

4:08
Can you throw a light on it?

4:09
Actually, the problem is.

4:11
There’s always resistance to change, right?

4:14
And then ICP definition is generally an exercise that is being carried by somebody in the boardwalk, right?

4:21
Somebody sitting on the top.

4:23
So that mandate comes in and team follows that and it becomes a de facto definition.

4:29
Nobody questions that.

4:31
So really what we really need is, people who actually own the data and have access to some of the customer analytics.

4:40
They should come forward.

4:41
And question the ICP definition that was probably somebody defined 5 years, 10 years back and still be followed.

4:50
So that’s where in fact we did a survey recently and then we asked like how many of you have actually revisited your ICP definition and that was a live webinar and it was, the, the results were very obvious that.

5:05
Nobody actually remember.

5:06
The majority of people were either have never revisited their ICP definition or have done maybe once, yeah, done a lot 2 or 3 years back and still they’re working on it.

5:17
Yes, yes, yes.

5:18
So they think that and in my view, if you start with an ICP definition which is static in nature, it’s more like a hypothesis, yeah, and you have to actually prove it.

5:29
So, there are like two schools of thoughts when we do any kind of market sizing or.

5:34
When we do time analysis, one is more like top-down approach where, you identify certain traits, of company that sort of fits.

5:48
The, the kind of software solution or services that you’re offering and then you think that they that that would be a boot market and that’s fine if I, if I talk about when we started the growth we also came up with some ICP definition and we thought that a mid-market company who have got good digital marketing budget are based out of US in the range of 5 to $500 million they could be a perfect match for us and that was we be very confident.

6:17
But what he realise as the get the market.

6:20
We found that agencies could be a great threat.

6:24
Right, right.

6:24
Obviously you have to start from somewhere, but as you get more signals from market.

6:29
Add your own customer data that should be the driving point of your ICP definitions as an insight we got early on that agencies could be a great fit was based on actual market signals.

6:42
But if you think, from more, bigger perspective or bigger companies like say who are having, let’s say 5 to 5000 customers, you know, sifting on a gold mine of data.

6:55
There is just somebody has to drill down and identify those patterns and then surface that to the leadership and then question that.

7:05
De facto ICB definition.

7:06
Look, a lot has to 5 years.

7:08
Let’s reuse it.

7:09
That’s how I think.

7:10
It can be a question and can be made more like a constructive discussion organisation, yeah, and actually this is somehow you also answered my the next question like ICP should be based on evidences, not assumptions.

7:25
So can you throw more light on that we talk about the evidences that actually looks in practise.

7:31
Yeah.

7:32
So like I said, your customer data is going to give you a lot of insights.

7:38
So what we need to find out is who are my customers who are actually not just a good but great customers, customers that are driving growth, who are highly profitable, definitely right?

7:53
Just because you were able to close something and you got revenue, it’s not a sufficient condition, right?

8:01
So some of the very basic, I would say growth criterias could be.

8:07
Did that customer bought at least 2 or 3 types because first type can be coincidence right second can be that maybe they liked it and they’re still evaluated very easily, right?

8:20
And likewise did they bought multiple products.

8:23
What is their adoption score?

8:26
Are they really utilising you or not, whatever, whatever you’re offering.

8:32
Some of those insights and then.

8:35
What is the customer lifetime value in general, right, higher this customer lifetime value, that is a signal that those are your growth levers, growth factors.

8:45
So you, you need to come up with a framework and then some of those, data points would be customer lifetime value that they purchase multiple products, how.

8:58
how was the sales side pitch?

9:00
It did it took 12 months versus 6 months.

9:03
Like, that means that sales efficiency could be one matress you can track.

9:08
And when you lump this all together, you have now identified certain accounts that were having these signals, right?

9:17
And in, in our experience, what we have noticed is that generally 20 to 30% of your accounts will be driving.

9:25
80 to 90% of your debt.

9:27
So that becomes like a real evidence for you because now you’re talking about a revenue-based.

9:34
Or revenue backed the ICP versus some hypothesis or some assumption or actually it came from a hippo popularised highly paid person subpoena, right?

9:45
So I think that’s how we should start considering the whole ICP definition and that’s the starting point, right so.

9:55
So my team says that they try to make ICP more data driven.

10:00
What is the most mistake, a common mistake, I would say, that they, that this seems to make?

10:06
So, I think the biggest challenge, even for the mature, organisation is that they stick to the just revenue metrics, and we just talked about there are plenty of other factors and signals that we need to consider, and then a lot of it actually exists in UCS OCI and some of that exists in your marketing automation too.

10:27
And then, you, you have purchased so many tools, around, the product adoption.

10:33
data enrichment, so there are plenty of data set.

10:36
It’s just a matter of utilising them in the right way.

10:40
So, we talked about the broad factors and then.

10:45
Then you apply those growth factors and create a structure of the ICP in terms of now let’s define within those growth factors, whatever companies that 40, 30% of companies that were driving 90% of revenue have came in, what are their traits and what are the combination of those traits in terms of the employee count, the revenue range, whether it’s B2B, what’s the GO, what’s the industry, what is the sub-industry.

11:12
What is the combination where you have a good chunk of accounts that are meeting the growth factors and that becomes your base for the ICP definition which is not revenue backed but is actually backed by growth factors, the profitability, get long term view, the adoption to the tool, everything is being considered and now you know what are the traits.

11:35
So that’s where with that definition you can come up with some kind of a rule-based scoring model.

11:42
traditionally it was again more like a hypothesis.

11:46
Now it is backed by it, so that is a step one where you have defined an ICP which is backed by growth factors and you have a score that is telling you how close this company is exactly when it comes to analysing those growth factors.

12:03
Then the second aspect is, beyond these there could be a lot of other, I would say factors and signals that manually if you’re trying to analyse, you might.

12:17
O see that and over there PAI comes into the picture.

12:21
So AI driven scoring again will help you surface some of those signals that were not there.

12:28
And, and then a third, area could be more like a similarity score where you know these are my growth companies and now you’re able to do some kind of a look alike modelling and identify similar companies that you can go after right so now you have the, the static.

12:49
ICP score, which is backed by some of the growth factors.

12:52
You’ve got AI score, you’ve got similarity score, and if you could clamp these three together and create a hybrid score, that is going to be very powerful and highly data because you have combine all the aspects possible.

13:06
You’re trying to utilise all the data that is lying in your CRM system and other systems that he passes to you, right.

13:13
Well, that’s, that’s a good connection, well explained.

13:18
So Arpit, how do leaders know whether the ICP is or the ICP model is actually credible and not just analytically sophisticated?

13:28
Yeah, that’s, that’s a great question, and it’s very important to understand this that, no matter how new I understand how sophisticated we become in our tech stacked with analytics.

13:40
Trust is the biggest currency and and in order to create that trust, you need an evidence, and evidence that is backed by the W thing that we’re just talking about where those growth factors are leading to the companies, the logos that is making your company profitable, and those are not just the random customers.

14:02
Those are customers that you really want to have, and that will define growth, right.

14:07
So if you get proof in front of your board that, look, this ICP definition is backed by.

14:13
The companies that are our existing customers who are dragging 90% of your levy, and these are the factors that define them.

14:24
Everyone will listen, and in adoption and trust generally happen on its own.

14:29
Basically it’s act like a goodwill, yes.

14:32
So once an organisation adopts this approach, how does it changes day to day decision making for CMOs, CROs, or revenue operations leaders?

14:44
Yeah, so basically, when we, when we started off, we talked about really deriving the growth factors and redefining the ICP, right?

14:54
Now you have an evidence-based ICP.

14:56
And you know those criterias now we can start applying those scores and factors to your prospect accounts, right?

15:05
So from a marketing perspective, now you know like why you want to go after out of, let’s say your 100,000 companies marketing database, you want to go after 2500 companies only because you know they have potential to drive at least 70-80% of growth, right?

15:22
That becomes your step one.

15:24
And then as you.

15:26
are aware about their trades, their growth factors, some of the pharmographics, technographics, the integrations, all those aspects.

15:35
Your ability to personalise those campaigns again would be far more speed, right, right now, coming from the sales perspective, because you have some good context about these accounts, CS team is now confident because all the revenue team.

15:51
Whether it’s marketing, sales, or account management, they are standard with that hybrid score that you talked about.

15:59
So everyone is pretty aligned now.

16:01
The conversations that they have, the kind of collaterals that marketing team will share with the sales.

16:06
Everything will come into one synergy, and that’s where the power will kick in, and you will be able to solve, and you will, you’ll be able to close faster.

16:16
You will be able to personalise and give better experience.

16:20
So all in all it’s a win in that situation.

16:22
Well, so that’s brings me to the last question of the today’s chat so pit.

16:27
So tell me one thing, if a leading team or a leadership team wanted to take one concrete step tomorrow.

16:34
And well that’s a hypothetical question though, what should they do first to preserve test their current ICP?

16:42
Yeah, that’s a great question, I think.

16:45
The starting problem is always a problem.

16:48
Definitely it’s true for light.

16:49
It’s true for ICP as well, definitely.

16:52
So the first thing everyone has to do is to.

16:56
The audit of the current state of the data, understand where you are because we talked about a lot of things, but if your underlying CRM data has some issues, there are lull values, it’s not harmonised.

17:11
There, there are missing information.

17:14
It’s not well enriched.

17:15
It has steal information.

17:17
It does not have right personas.

17:20
Then how come the insight the AI will help you, right?

17:24
The first step is to ensure that you do the audit, you understand the current state of data, you know what needs to be enriched, and you ensure that data is up to speed and it’s actually accurate, right?

17:36
And then the second step would be.

17:40
Don’t start with your prospect.

17:42
Database, start with your customer.

17:44
I think in the, in the beginning I mentioned.

17:47
That if you have, let’s say 500 to 5000 customers, you’re already sitting on a gold mine of data.

17:54
The customers should redefine the ICP.

17:57
What were the signals that actually led to those?

18:02
Shorter year cycle, higher customer lifetime value, multiple products sold, right, all those things will matter.

18:11
And so you, you define those customers and identify those top 20-30% of accounts define the trades and growth factors, define the ICP again and from there you then apply it for your prospect list.

18:30
The problem is that you always start with your prospects.

18:34
Everyone wants that, that great list that they can send.

18:37
He has to, and then it, it should automatically convert on magically closed pasta, and that doesn’t happen, so you need to do some homework and those two points.

18:47
The Thera audit.

18:49
And then the customer intelligence, those two will be, the, the, the foundation there definitely basically it’s like one thing that you should be in consideration and keeping things aligned for the better results.

19:04
Well, thank you so much, Arpit, for joining us today.

19:07
Hope this conversation turns out to be fruitful to our audience.

19:11
Well, that’s the wrap for our today’s conversation on how static ICPs sabotize this pipeline, whereas on the other hand, AI-driven dynamic ICP helps you target the right audience and at the right time.

19:25
So ladies and gentlemen.

19:26
If you are still operating on the firmographics or large to your assumptions, well, let me tell you, you are not only losing the sales, but in fact you are losing urgency, accuracy, and the real reason behind who is the actual buyer.

19:42
Well, that’s all for today.

19:43
Meet you in the next episode.

19:44
Till then, keep learning, keep evolving.

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