ABM Wins Big for Facility Service Provider

After 40 years in business, a national facility management franchisor had more than 5,000 satisfied customers and nearly 2,000 independent service providers. OpenWorks was evolving from a janitorial service provider into a facility management company offering a variety of services to customers in industries including entertainment venues, healthcare, distribution, education, transportation, and commercial office buildings. With new capabilities, the company was now able to pursue and service larger customers with more complex needs. However, many of these large companies made facility decisions at a local or regional level, which was largely price-driven.

Many of these larger prospect organizations had decentralized decision-making, and entrenched providers. Decision-making was often pushed down to facility managers and there was no strategic relevance to move the decision higher. OpenWorks, therefore, had to approach sales from both an industry, and regional perspective.

One of the advantages of working with OpenWorks was the consistency of performance across multi-location businesses. However, too often they were competing with small mom-and-pop cleaning businesses on a location-by-location basis. The company needed a way to communicate with executive-level decision makers to grow existing accounts and create a strategic advantage when pursuing new ones.

From an ICP perspective, the company focused on industries, company sizes, and numbers of locations instead of where there was a competitive advantage and value proposition. This targeting criteria led the sales team to pursue local decision makers that had a need for clean facilities, but did not have a strategic priority that is central to their core operation.

Looking at the highest value accounts and customers won back from a competitor, we learned that other janitorial providers took a blanket approach to their services by treating all locations the same. For customers with mission critical operations in healthcare, food distribution, entertainment, and others, the lower cost providers placed them in risk of regulatory shutdowns, patient illness, and visitor dissatisfaction.

I decided to start differentiating OpenWorks by developing industry-level messaging based on a Challenger Sale approach. Each industry was unique, so we interviewed stakeholders including internal SMEs and customers. We gathered information through industry customer case studies, probing to determine how improper service management creates risk to their operations and profitability.

For each industry including Healthcare, Transportation & Warehousing, Food Manufacturing, Entertainment Venues, and Residential Property, we created a dedicated webpage with content that educated target personas on risks and benefits of facility management. Content included blogs, case studies, videos, and micro-content on topics like customer satisfaction, health risk liability, regulatory compliance, occupancy rates, and employee retention.

After creating a messaging framework for each industry, we started with a one-to-few approach with a target account list. We developed sales sequences using the content we produced and trained sales staff on the messaging approach. We then incorporated this industry-specific messaging on the company website, social media strategy, and targeted advertising. 

After launching industry ABM campaigns, we worked with sales to identify enterprise accounts and prospects with strategic priorities. We developed one-to-one ABM campaigns specific to the needs of each account, whether that was acquisition, growth, or retention. For current customers, the strategy included regional location growth concurrent with corporate consolidation messaging. We developed content that spoke directly to the needs uncovered through account research and interviews, and worked with sales AEs on outreach plans. Marketing also conducted direct outreach to invite target accounts as guests on the company podcast.

The company was not using a dedicated ABM technology application like 6Sense, Demandbase, or Terminus. So instead, we configured HubSpot with ABM reporting for visibility into multi-touch attribution, contact-level engagement and account-level scoring. In addition, we augmented this account level information with Intent data provided by ZoomInfo. 

The strategic shift to an Account-Based Marketing (ABM) approach proved to be transformative for the facility management company. By creating industry-specific content and personalized outreach strategies, the company successfully navigated the complexities of decentralized decision-making and entrenched competitors.

The messaging was no longer just about cleaning and the lowest cost provider. It was tied to strategic priorities and mission critical activities. The integration of comprehensive marketing tools and data-driven insights facilitated a more targeted and effective engagement with both existing and prospective clients.

After running these programs for a month, the company experienced immediate engagement, evidenced by increased email opens, clicks, and content downloads. As sales conducted outreach based on marketing-developed sequences, they improved their contact rate and added new opportunities to the funnel. Accounts that had previously gone dark were now contacting the company to discuss strategic priorities and problems they could help solve.

This focused and consultative approach not only rejuvenated dormant accounts but also positioned the company as a thought leader in the facility management industry. The transition from transactional interactions to strategic partnerships underscored the company’s ability to meet the sophisticated needs of larger clients, ultimately fostering long-term growth and cementing its reputation as an innovative industry leader.