In February 2024, we hosted a webinar where I discussed the current state and future of Account-Based marketing with another of our experts, Jani Hovila. We shared four future predictions that you can take into account when transforming your ABM approach to the next level. Read the blog and gather my main takeaways from the webinar.
According to our research in 2022, more than 50 % of the B2B organizations in the complex sales environment planned to implement ABM in 2023. Based on my experience, the pace has been slightly slower but almost every B2B organization in a complex sales environment has at least considered starting ABM.
“There is rarely a B2B organization operating in a complex sales environment that has not even considered ABM."
- Jani Hovila, Managing Director, Mavenfirst
We executed our first ABM engagements for our customers in 2016. Since then, ABM as a term and approach has become more and more popular among B2B marketing organizations working in a complex sales environment. ABM is also relatively well recognized among sales and business in our target audience.
ABM capabilities grow among B2B marketers continually. Today we see less and less inbound-like ABM where generic tactics and messages are targeted to a narrowed target audience. Account-based personalization and targeted approach are taken into consideration better than before.
On a Nordic scale, differences are based on the organizations, not on the regions or countries. For some organizations ABM is a business as usual and they run programs very successfully. Some are still considering how to kickstart ABM. ABM may be held back by, for example, the cooperation between sales and marketing. Collaboration is seen as an obstacle for ABM. But could it be a way to tighten the alignment with sales and marketing? Another typical reason for negative experiences is that first pilots haven’t provided desired outcomes since they have been tactical approaches by marketing without alignment with sales.
Based on the current state of ABM and the conversations with marketing teams and executives of our target audience, my recommendation is to focus on these four areas when developing ABM:
1. Make sure you have resources for ABM.
ABM is not about what but how you do things. Once the plan is ready and filled with customer understanding, don’t forget to implement it to the campaigns and actions. If the personalization is lacking and understanding of the target audience isn’t visible in marketing actions, don’t expect to make a huge impact.
ABM resources cover budget as well. However, ABM doesn’t automatically increase media budget, for example. When the target audience is very focused and small, media budgets are usually much smaller than when targeting a wider audience.
Invest in ABM technologies carefully. Most of the technologies are most suitable for programmatic 1:Many ABM. ABM isn’t a technology but technology provides many benefits in different parts of the approach. A good baseline is to have CRM and marketing automation system in place. If technologies are your thing, I recommend you to read Gartner Magic Quadrant for Account-Based Marketing Platforms 2023.
2. Build sales and marketing alignment and a clear operating model.
This helps you make sure the honeymoon with sales continues to the execution phase. All the relevant stakeholders understand their and each others’ roles and responsibilities in achieving the ABM targets. One concrete way is to document how sales handles the contacts that have shown interest towards your messages.
3. Make sure you have required knowledge and capabilities for ABM.
ABM requires knowledge and capabilities that is difficult to get only by reading a couple blog articles and watching a webinar. Still, a skilled and motivated marketing professional has all the tools to succeed in ABM. In addition to strong knowledge of marketing, ABM requires understanding of sales and good project management skills.
Great way to develop your ABM capabilities and knowledge is through training or coaching. You get to conduct different case practices and mirror the ABM theory to your organization’s environment. To ensure a smooth kickstart in ABM, I recommend to utilize ABM professionals or advisory companies in your first programs. With their experience, sparring and joint cooperation you have a partner that guides you to the right direction and helps you avoid the most common mistakes when starting ABM first time.
4. Document and systematize the most important operating models and best practices for ABM.
It's not worth learning everything the hard way. Document the best practices and smooth operating models to the most important phases such as account selection and reporting. Do you have a consensus on the criteria and process for account selection? Or is it purely based on hopes and feelings? Does your organization have a documented process for reporting ABM success?
This phase is especially helpful when you plan to scale ABM to other businesses, teams or regions. It doesn’t make sense to keep all information about ABM in the hands of one person.
I predict that in the coming years, we’re going to see especially the following trends in ABM.
ABM-specific roles increase also in the Nordics and ABM operating models become more widespread. New technologies and AI support ABM increasingly. ABM will face a little pushback in many organizations if the first pilots haven’t provided the desired results.
As ABM becomes more and more business as usual, organizations will allocate a bigger amount of their marketing budgets to it. I predict that in the coming years more than 50 % of marketing budgets in B2B organizations will be allocated to ABM programs.
Sales aims to take ownership of ABM as a customer management tool. I recommend you to keep ABM in the hands of marketing as it is a great way to prove marketing business impact. Leads were a good start, but ABM brings marketing even closer to sales' mission, goals and success. Therefore, marketing must lead ABM from budget to execution.
Do you and your team have all the tools you need to succeed in your ABM journey? Explore our ABM services and see if there’s something you would like to discuss with us.