Last week two B2B CMOs told me “we're not ready for ABM”. There’s a lot of confusion about what ABM is, so let’s keep it simple: ❌ ABM not a tool ❌ ABM is not a GTM solution ❌ ABM doesn’t have to be expensive ❌ ABM is not only for large companies with high-ticket clients 👉 ABM is a strategy for prioritizing and segmenting accounts. Let's agree that B2B means marketing and selling to companies. This means you need to know who those companies are. It doesn't matter if you're going for a broad market or a niche. Account lists will help you to: ▪️ Align Sales & Marketing ▪️ Clarify targeting and messaging ▪️ Prove marketing’s impact on deals and revenue ▪️ Split marketing investment between account segments ▪️ Make your content more personalised, valuable and relevant Stop vaguely defining your audience as "Swedish IT companies". Instead, focus your marketing on the ACCOUNTS you'd love to win in the next 2-3 years. There's no such thing as being "ready" for ABM. You can't be too small to be reaching the right people with the right message. Start working with account segments, and your marketing will gain traction and clarity. Forrester research predicts that the future of B2B marketing is a mix of ABM and demand gen. I think we're already there. #b2bmarketing #demandgeneration #abm
I think your'e wrong and over simplifying which is even more dangerous than overcomplicating. Sure, lists will help, but lists was something sales were doing probably since the 50's. Do tou think have lists is new to marketers?
I always ask my clients for company lists to use for Linkedin marketing, yet it seems that sales has a hard time producing them. I wonder why that is?
Did my master thesis on ABM some years ago. There has to be a 1:1 connection with sales for ABM to succeed. If marketing does ABM and sales handles every customer as equal, ABM will most likely fail. If a company is already used segmenting customers and has dedicated key account management in place, then it all of a sudden makes a lot more sense to extend this way of working to marketing. Marketing and sales people/teams can then successfully zoom in on the same (potential) customers. It is a mindshift though. You are not looking for more leads. You are looking for more share of wallet within your existing customer base.
Oh, there's absolutely such a thing as not being ready for ABM. You mentioned Forrester. They have an ABM readiness audit, and I'd bet most companies aren't ready. Of course, this also depends on how you define ABM. If it's just a list of key accounts that gets called ABM then almost everyone is already doing it.
Every campaign needs to be an ABM campaign. Period. Remember this *scary* research? https://www.marketingweek.com/the-circles-of-doom-quantifying-the-misalignment-of-b2b-marketing-and-sales/
Fully agree on everything 👆, and may I also add: ➡️ improve channel orchestration (reduce waste in spent) ➡️ improve resource allocation (not only alignment) ➡️ improve the understanding of which account you actually should invest in based on value (€) (too much pray and spray)
i think part of what is difficult for management in these companies when thinking about ABM is that it requires them to choose, to focus, to narrow down the list. That can be quite a scary thing for companies to do, especially if until that point a broad approach worked for them in the past. I wish that when they felt this fear that they took into consideration the ROI of focusing, because in B2B its not about volume its about the deals you are able to close, and you are more likely to do that if you have a strategy that sets you up for success to do it!
ABM + Demand Gen = B2B marketing in 2024. 👆 it seems not too many people get it yet. The first thing I did when joining my current company was to delete the ABM acronym from all presentations. To me it’s obvious and the default WoW for B2B.
🙌 this is crucial if you can almost count your ICP - you do it granularly - using a sniper gun vs a tank, and sales enablement/marketing should align what you're after
B2B Marketing Consultant & Fractional CMO | FCIM DipM Chartered Marketer | Ceramicist
8moABM isn't a strategy. It's a tactic. Its also depends. Some companies will be panicking because they see other people doing ABM and will want a piece of the action. Other companies will be doing marketing that doesnt involve ABM and doing very well. Ultimately, you're marketing strategy will determine your best approach. The answer is not always ABM.