Many marketing professionals use an Account Based Marketing (ABM) approach to the prospecting process. Under this approach, an organization’s prospecting gets sorted and addressed first. Next, prospecting triggers must be addressed, and then a query is made about the prospects’ most valuable interactions with the organization.

“The intent is to clear out old contacts and bring in prospects who are more compelling,” said Michele Lopez, group leader for integrated digital marketing, digital talent acquisition and analytics at Foundation for Enterprise Value (FEG). “You put together a new list. And then it’s time to ask: Who are they and what’s the most common contact?”

Sounds logical and intuitive, but there are likely areas that are worthy of your attention before you hit the send button. A good CRM system can help you tackle this upfront. Inbound techniques are often viewed as more expensive, but not necessarily so.

According to Edward Sarhood, global associate director of marketing solutions and opportunities at Swisher Hygiene, “Since many software applications offer such tools, it doesn’t mean that we’re going to shell out cash to implement an inbound method.”

The performance of B2B companies that have adopted inbound strategies is best studied using an OnDemand approach. Then, users can get an appreciation of how B2B marketers are improving results for both prospects and clients.

“To achieve top-line growth and lift margin, we turn up the inbound heat,” said Derek Paglia, marketing group manager of cloud CRM at EZ Corporation. “If we know the prospect has an employer profile or LinkedIn profile, we send a social invitation. We ensure that they are already up to date on our news. Lastly, we ask them for details about their prior relationship with our firm.”

The end result is the right questions from the right people and a rising customer base, Paglia said.

For more on which approaches work best and which missteps might be avoided, explore Building More Attractively by starting the interactive tool here.