1. What is ABM?

INTRODUCING ABM

Account-Based Marketing (ABM) is not just another marketing tactic—it's a fundamental strategic shift in how businesses approach potential customers.

Unlike traditional demand generation, which casts a wide net to attract as many leads as possible, ABM focuses narrowly on a select set of high-value accounts.

This section will demystify ABM by defining what it is and isn't, comparing it to traditional demand generation, and outlining the benefits and potential challenges of this strategic approach.

Traditional Demand Generation vs. ABM

While traditional demand generation casts a wide net, Account-Based Marketing focuses on precision, targeting only the accounts that matter most.

Demand Generation

Demand Generation, often seen as "traditional marketing", aims to drive awareness and interest for your products or services. Similar terms include Lead Generation or Person-Based Targeting, which involve identifying and nurturing potential individual buyers.

The typical process for demand generation involves:

Broad Lead Collection
Marketing tries to collect as many leads as possible, casting a wide net without stringent initial filters.
Lead Qualification
These leads go through a qualification process where Marketing identifies the 'good' ones—those who meet certain criteria.

Handoff to Sales
Marketing passes the qualified leads to Sales.
Sales Engagement
Sales further qualifies these leads, identifies opportunities, and works to close deals.

In this model, there's a clear division between Marketing and Sales. Marketing starts the process by generating and qualifying leads, Sales takes over to further qualify and close deals.

Account-Based Targeting

Account-Based Targeting is an evolved sub-category of traditional demand generation. While similar in process, it shifts the focus from individual leads to entire accounts.

The steps remain akin to person-based targeting but concentrate on targeting companies rather than individuals within those companies.

Note: Account-Based Targeting is not the same as Account-Based Marketing, which represents a more comprehensive strategic shift.

How ABM Differs Fundamentally

Account-Based Marketing is a different paradigm altogether. It turns the traditional demand generation approach on its head by focusing on quality over quantity and depth over breadth. Key distinctions of ABM include:

Selective Targeting from the Start

Instead of capturing as many leads as possible—even if most will never convert—ABM begins by identifying and focusing on the best-quality accounts right from the outset.

Unified Marketing and Sales Effort

Unlike the clear divide in traditional demand generation, ABM involves Marketing and Sales working together from the very beginning. They collaboratively decide which accounts to target and develop strategies to engage them.

Personalized Engagement

ABM emphasizes deep understanding of target accounts to deliver highly personalized messages and campaigns that address the unique needs and challenges of each account.

ABM: WHAT'S IN A WORD?

In reality, "Account-Based Marketing" could be more accurately named "Account-Based Marketing and Sales," as it demands close collaboration between both teams.

The “M” in ABM can be misleading—it’s much more than just marketing.

Terms like "ABX" (Account-Based Experience) or "ABM/S" (Account-Based Marketing and Sales) might better capture this approach, though they’re not as widely recognized.

For simplicity and familiarity, however, we’ll continue to refer to it as "ABM" throughout this guide.

Branding & Reputation, Demand Gen, and Sales Enablement

We tend to associate ABM activities with demand generation. But what about the other marketing functions, such as branding or sales enablement?

WHERE MARKETING FUNCTIONS MEET

In traditional, lead-centric engagement models, demand generation focused solely on producing leads, which were then handed off to sales.

Marketing’s role was often limited to supporting sales with sales enablement content. Meanwhile, branding was left to the marcom department and rarely integrated with other marketing efforts.

Account-Based Marketing (ABM), in its most strategic form, changes this approach entirely. ABM is not just about demand generation, activation, and capture—it also integrates branding, reputation building, and sales enablement into one cohesive strategy.

Where ABM stands apart is in its holistic approach, redefining the demand generation function and incorporating branding, reputation, and sales enablement into a unified strategy.

This alignment provides a seamless experience across functions, creating a more effective approach to driving engagement and delivering value to key accounts.

In this document, we’ll focus on account-based motions and how they can unify these traditionally siloed functions for a stronger, more strategic marketing approach.

The Benefits of ABM

Sales process

SHORTEN SALES CYCLES
When you nail your messaging in front of the right decision-makers from the right accounts and at the right times and places, you make it a lot easier for your buyers to engage and convert.

HIGHER WIN RATES
The easier your buyers can engage and convert, the higher the chances of landing a deal – especially when your prospect accounts have a tailored experience.

BIGGER DEAL SIZES
Focusing on high-value accounts allows you to create deeper relationships, leading to larger deals and more lucrative and tailored contracts.

Engagement process

PERSONALIZE AT SCALE
By focusing on a handful of quality accounts and leveraging advanced ABM tech, you not only improve your ability to hyper-personalize your marketing, but more so at scale.

OPTIMIZE DATA
If you don't have clean, comprehensive, and consolidated data, you might as well not have any data at all. ABM strategy helps you to better collect, organize, and optimize your data.

IMPROVE CX
Buyers are swamped with information every day; they're only paying attention to what feels the most relevant. ABM helps you deliver only the most tailored and meaningful experiences.

Organizational process

ALIGN TEAMS
ABM only works if your marketing and sales teams first agree on the key accounts they're going to target. This means that from the beginning, your teams are on the same page.

BETTER RESOURCE ALLOCATION
Efforts and resources are concentrated on accounts with the highest potential value, eliminating budget waste and maximizing ROI.

Potential Challenges of ABM

ABM promises focus and impact but comes with its own set of challenges.

1. Resource Intensive

Requires significant time and effort to research and personalize outreach for each account.

2. Scalability Issues

Personalization at scale can be challenging, especially for smaller organizations.

3. Measurement Complexity

Traditional marketing metrics may not accurately capture the success of ABM initiatives, necessitating new KPIs and measurement strategies.

Especially in early stages of a shift to ABM, organizations may benefit from additional support from an external partner to handle change management, provide additional resources and support with scalability and monitoring.

But by understanding what ABM is and isn't, organizations can make informed decisions about adopting this strategic approach.

ABM represents a shift from quantity to quality, from broad targeting to deep engagement, and from siloed departments to collaborative teams—all aimed at building stronger relationships with high-value accounts.