Since it was first coined over 20 years ago, account-based marketing (ABM) has been increasingly at the forefront of marketers’ minds. Once seen as a niche subject, it’s now hard to find a marketer that isn’t – in some capacity – doing (or at least thinking about) ABM. So, the question is: how can we evolve ABM from a siloed strategy reserved for one or two accounts, and into marketers’ number one route revenue? Perhaps just as importantly, is that something marketers even want or see value in?
That’s what we sought to find out in our latest B2B Marketing roundtable, in association with our agency partner, MOI.
Speaking to me after the session, Julie Wisdom, SVP Strategy, MOI, commented: “ABM is a core offering of our agency, and it’s always interesting to hear from an intimate group of marketing leaders actively involved in ABM in their own organisations. One thing worth noting that was discussed, as ABM continues to mature, is the opportunity it provides to get to the top table with customers. One of the biggest challenges identified is driving change management within customer businesses — this is what gets you to the senior level conversations every sales and exec team wants. And it often has little to do with the product you’re selling. It’s about the outcomes created for the customer’s business, and it’s one of the most powerful use cases for ABM we see today.”
Conducted under Chatham House rules, this roundtable provided a safe space for marketing leaders to:
- Have an open and honest discussion about where ABM sits in their organisation currently.
- Discuss the appetite for ABM in the wider business.
- How marketers are looking to get internal stakeholders to buy into ABM.
- The challenges marketers face trying to scale ABM.
In this blog, we’ll reveal the key themes that emerged from this session.
ABM must not be watered down…
It goes without saying that a room of 10 people is not a statistically robust source of data. However, it’s interesting to note that the majority of participants in the room felt that ‘true’ ABM is when you’re focusing your energy and time into winning new or repeat business from a handful of strategically important accounts. It is not – they argued – about trying to tailor your content and campaigns to everyone on your account list. In other words, they argued, one-to-many ABM is not ABM at all. In the words of one participant: “One-to-many ABM is just demand generation.”
Taking this a step further, many participants in the room felt that the very concept of one-to-many (or programmatic) ABM is something that martech vendors are pushing, but that isn’t necessarily useful or applicable to their own marketing strategies. As one participant put it: “Let the vendors have ABM [as a terminology]! Let’s just get on with smart marketing.”
In that sense, those in attendance felt that ABM was of critical strategic importance, but that it should not be the number one route to market. Rather, it should retain its special strategic status, used for the crème de la crème of accounts.
…But ABM principles should be applied to all marketing!
On the flipside, however, our participants felt that the principles of ABM should be applied to all marketing. Confused?
What we mean by this, is that the personalisation and ‘right time, right place’ approach that was mastered through ABM, should now be applied to all marketing. Essentially, this should now be considered ‘business as usual’.
So, whilst those at the roundtable didn’t necessarily think ABM should be considered your number one route to market, the principles of an account-based approach – i.e. a much more tailored, personalised approach – should form the backbone of all of your marketing.
Long story short: those at our roundtable felt we should keep ABM as a hyper-targeted approach for top accounts, and that it shouldn’t be watered down, but that our demand generation should be levelled up using ABM principles, so that it’s working as effectively as possible. Whether or not you call the latter demand generation or one-to-many ABM depends on your business’ internal definition, but that’s the overriding sense we got from this session.
Sales teams are fully bought into ABM
Not too long ago, it felt like B2B marketers were banging their heads against a wall, trying to demonstrate to their sales teams how powerful ABM can be, and why it’s worth doing. In this session, however, it felt like salespeople now get it. In fact, rather than dismissing ABM as a mere buzzword, many of our roundtable participants actually said that their main challenge in scaling ABM was actually keeping up with the demand from the sales team to add new accounts to the ABM list!
Circling back to what we said earlier, the implicit challenge for marketers will be in ensuring that ABM isn’t watered down in the process, devolving into mere demand generation. Although personalised demand generation will continue to be important, it’s critical – our participants argued – that ‘true’ ABM is protected.
Technology helps, but marketers still need to put in the work
The majority of participants in this roundtable worked at large corporates, but one individual worked at a small company of around just 10 people. Responsible for doing all of the ABM, this individual initially voiced the fact that she didn’t have access to all of the technology that others in the room may have, and that her approach was quite manual.
Doing desk research on people’s interests and views, and learning as much about them as possible was key for her approach to ABM. Resoundingly, the response from those in the room from large corporates was that this was the same for them. Yes, they have may have greater budgets to work with, but even they don’t have perfectly streamlined tech stacks that perfectly automate ABM. Across the board, it’s clear that putting in the work to understand more about exactly who we’re selling to, is critical for ABM.
Can technology help us do that? Absolutely. But make no mistake – ABM is still a time-heavy investment, regardless of your budget.
Commitment to the process is key
ABM certainly works, and there is now a huge body of evidence around how and why. However, it’s also true that demonstrating the impact of ABM in your own business can take a long-time, given the lengthy sales cycles that are common in B2B organisations. Therefore, selecting accounts for ABM and then committing to the process – our participants argued – is absolutely critical. Expecting to see results overnight will only lead to disappointment.
Taking this a step further, our participants argued that ABM can’t simply be ‘switched on’ at a late stage in the sales cycle when there is intent to purchase. Ultimately, with only a small percentage of target accounts being in market for your goods or services at any given time, trying to ‘switch on’ ABM at the moment of intent is not going to be enough. Being there throughout all stages of the funnel (from awareness onwards) is critical if ABM is going to deliver the value it promises.
Final thoughts?
We set out this roundtable to discuss the following question: “how can we transition ABM from a silo and into marketers’ number one route to revenue?”
For some organisations, using an ABM-centric approach may very well work as a number one route to revenue. However, for this room of marketing leaders, it was clear that it’s just not that simple. Whilst our participants all advocated the power of ABM, they felt that it should not become the centrepiece of their strategies.
Rather, they felt that ABM was most powerful when used in its purest form (i.e. not at an enormous, technology-fuelled scale), but that the principles of ABM should now be considered in all non-ABM specific work. Ultimately, bringing it back to what one participant said in the session: “Let’s just get on with smart marketing.”
