Account Mapping and Intelligence – A waste of time or worth the effort?

Do it right or pay the price.

In one of my earlier blog posts, I mentioned that the best list for any B2B marketer to acquire is not one that is bought but one that is built and carefully nurtured over time. A good list for B2B lead generation must have a solid foundation for building organizational history. Sounds logical and easy, doesn’t it? The reality is that small and larger companies alike are having real issues staying on course. In the absence of a well-defined and disciplined process to build and maintain their internal list, several organizations are pouring money down the drain.

In my humble opinion, the problem from a big corporation’s perspective is a fractured list ownership and a cumbersome process. In a smaller company, it is the unfortunate lack of patience to see things through. Different challenges but the same dismal results. The crux of the issue is heavy reliance on a purchased list. Needless to say, serious problems arise from marketing to a list of prospects you know nothing about. Where’s the so called “intelligence”?

With my years of lead generation experience I strongly advocate: Don’t waste money on account mapping if it is not part of a clearly outlined demand generation strategy.

List “Hygiene” is Critical

Another reason success with internal lists is often a hit and miss situation is that most companies do not have a data hygiene process at play. Many companies, big and small are constantly trying to play catch up with their leads database. It is not uncommon to see lead generation programs implemented on records that have not been touched in quite some time. Our experience at The ALEA Group tells us that once you pass the 6 months recency benchmark, the degradation factor for any list is very high. Marketing to a list that has not been touched in a year, for example, is really just throwing money to the wind. You have no idea where, if at all, your outreach efforts will carry.

Every internal list must have an ecosystem

Think of your internal list as having its own ecosystem – it is a living organism that needs to be fed, loved and nurtured. Notice that at no point do I mention which CRM tool or technology you should use to make this work. That is a philosophical and strategic decision that a company needs to make and live by. All I’m saying is, if you persist at the patchwork approach to account mapping, the inevitable results will be a bloated and ineffective internal list. You will face difficulties pulling data from the list. More importantly, you’ll have on your plate a “structural” marketing problem that won’t go away by simply pumping more money, resourced and/or new tools into the demand generation program.

I’d love to hear about your experience with account mapping. Leave me a comment.