ABM UnwrappedThe inside track on ABM from B2B marketing leaders – plus practical tools to kick-start your programme.

ABM is a hot topic, but what do we really mean when we talk about account-based marketing? One thing’s for sure: senior marketers have been doing ABM for a long time, even if they haven’t called it by that name.

I wanted to ‘unwrap’ ABM in Australia; going beyond the statistics to understand the reality for marketers on the ground. The Marketing Practice spoke in depth to senior marketing leaders in the region to uncover what ABM really means for them, how to get business buy-in, how to demonstrate value, what success looks like, pitfalls to avoid, and thoughts on Australia’s level of ABM maturity.

The second half of this document contains our ABM toolkit, so that once you’re fired up with inspiration from our interview insights, you can hit the ground running with your own programme.

I hope you find ABM Unwrapped useful and I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Mari Kauppinen Managing Director The Marketing Practice

“Demand gen is fishing with a net. ABM is fishing with a spear. It’s an outside-in approach that treats a customer, account or persona as a market of one. Everything you do is insight-led.” Kate Power, Head of ABM APJ, ServiceNow

“In ABM, we’re creating the magic of marketing at the level of direct, personal interaction. It’s where all the art and science of marketing comes together into something tangible, measurable and ultimately, memorable.”Tracy Gawthorne, MD of Marketing and Communications, Accenture

Behind the shiny stats and case studies, what’s the reality of ABM in Australia today? We conducted in-depth interviews with leading B2B marketers running ABM programmes to find out.

ABM Interviews

Getting hold of practical tools and frameworks to run your ABM programme can be hard. We’ve got you covered with our ABM Toolkit.

ABM ToolkitPart II

Part I

Behind the shiny stats and case studies, what’s the reality of ABM in Australia today? We conducted in-depth interviews with leading B2B marketers running ABM programmes to find out.

ABM Interviews

It all starts with insight

At its core, ABM is about marketing to individual accounts or groups of accounts: understanding their challenges and pain points, and providing the right information, assets and messaging to address their needs.

It’s about having an intrinsic understanding of your customer. As one marketing leader we spoke to put it, “Without that you don’t have the opportunity – you don’t even know where the opportunity is!” However, when you’re able generate insights into an account, you can go deep into that organisation, aligning your propositions to its pain points.

Marrying up the client needs with what you can offer is a no-brainer, as far as this particular marketing leader is concerned. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy. To truly understand an account, there’s a lot of background research required. You don’t have to do it all yourself, one leader we spoke to advises. “Work out what you do and don’t have. If you don’t have the marketing resource to do it, then go get an agency to be your partner.”

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“You must have an understanding of what ABM is. If you don’t have that and you want a million-dollar account, get an agency who does have an understanding of ABM. Not someone who can target them with a bunch of EDMs – you need an agency who can marry those pieces together.”Alex Kelly, Head of Cloud Marketing, IBM

“Everything you send to the customer is insight-led – together with an element of personalisation.

You want to ensure you understand as much as you can about each organisation before you talk to them. Then when you do talk to them, they can see what you know, and importantly they can provide the missing parts.Kerry Scotland, Head of Marketing, APAC, Verizon

Line up the right team

There’s an African saying that it takes a village to raise a child. Well, according to our interviewees, it takes an entire organisation to do ABM properly.

When done right, ABM allows marketing to integrate effectively with the sales organisation. And it becomes exponentially easier when it’s driven by senior leadership, and particularly senior sales leaders.

One interviewee explains how their sales team are: “totally on board, entrenched, so much so that really it’s their programme! And that’s brilliant. We’re totally joined at the hip. That’s a really, really important thing to demonstrate to all stakeholders that there’s no us and them, me and you – it’s just us. We are in it together. We are driving the same outcomes.”

That’s what happens when ABM is used well: it creates its own momentum. At the mature end of the spectrum our interviewees have dedicated teams within their marketing functions with specific skills, assigned to specific accounts. They also have structures and common templates for everything from measurement to sharing good practice, channel consideration and investment. The marketing lead on each account brings in whatever specialism is needed at the right time: such as channel, content and creative expertise.

In the early days, it may be hard to get sales buy-in. “This is a massive change-management process,” one marketer explains, “and change has to be driven from all angles.” “Bringing in a programme that has ‘marketing’ in the title isn’t an easy job,” adds another. That’s why some marketers start off by changing the name, simply to get easier buy-in. But it doesn’t work if only marketing owns ABM. “There’s no ABM programme, to my mind, that’s separate from sales,” comments one interviewee.

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“Does it take a whole team to make it work? Yes. A cross-functional team to get different perspectives. You need them all to be totally bought-in, contributing, and accountable.”Kerry Scotland, Head of Marketing, APAC, Verizon

Be realistic about time to value

When it comes to proving ABM’s value, one marketer tells us, “It’s a marathon, not a sprint. To get to the ideal state you have to start slowly, build your team and resources. If you want to expand, part of that is proving the concept and taking the sales team on a journey.”

A good way of building ABM success is by starting with a pilot. All the senior marketers we interviewed took this approach. But even with a pilot, one interviewee cautions that “responsibility and governance should come in as early as possible within a programme, in terms of measurement and expectations”. Not having this in place sooner set one respondent’s programme back by three months.

The very nature of ABM requires everyone involved to buy in to the process and sometimes this takes time, as well as patience. One marketer shared that “Some of the team are very, very supportive. But there are still people who are very protective.”

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“Having the right people in a workshop – not just sales and marketing, but other functions – is critical. Add diversity cross-functionally, don’t operate in a silo and you’ll be amazed at what comes out of that. In our company, everyone’s here for the customer. If they’re successful, we’re successful.”Kate Power, Head of ABM APJ, ServiceNow

Get set for success

When ABM works, it really works, according to our interviewees. “I’ve been asked to do an ABM workshop for our business partners,” explains one, while another tells us that their executive team recently said, in a mid-year checkpoint, “I need more of that account stuff!”. What particularly excites our senior marketers is when their teams generate demand for the ABM service internally.

One leader we spoke to at a mature ABM organisation told us they embed a specifically trained marketer within an account leadership team. This marketer, “brings creativity, differentiation on content and channels, and starts discussions with the leadership group in territories they may not have gone into before. They bridge gaps and join dots.” It’s critical, according to our interviewee, for marketing to have a seat at the account table and grow the account together, rather than growing an ABM programme, specifically. “It’s not the ABM programme that delivers the results. It’s the team.”

When ABM has been shown to work, salespeople want a piece of it. “The thing about ABM is it’s a strategic model to bring out the best opportunities and to make it easier for our sales teams to make that penetration,” says one interviewee.

When the value of ABM is shown, the scarcity principle comes into effect. The essentially competitive nature of salespeople can kick in – and that can increase demand for ABM, as well as the perceived value of the service. But marketers have to work hard to make sure they’re not overwhelmed! “You don’t just give that ‘service to sales’ to every account,” says one leader. “It has to meet certain criteria.” Another agrees: “Not every priority client receives ABM – we definitely want them to be on the A-list but we won’t do a plan for it. It comes down to business priority.”

It’s worth the effort to get buy-in. “When an account is onboarded you have to get them to buy into it. When they’re bought in, they recognise the value,” says a respondent. “Once that has happened, beautiful things happen. ABM for us is no longer just a single team. It’s a mind shift in how we go to market. ABM is a joint partnership.”

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“When you have everyone focused on an account, it can bring a clarity that allows you to get out of your own way and focus on the client.”Tracy Gawthorne, MD of Marketing and Communications, Accenture

ABM lessons learned

We all want ABM to work brilliantly, “but it’s a hard sell,” says one interviewee. “You have to showcase value. Use the relevant language for that individual. Flash up the big logos. They will say, ‘I want that’. It creates the element of FOMO (fear-of-missing-out).” It’s also important to remain focused. “ABM goals must always be aligned to strategic sales goals and complement what sales teams have already got.”

The same marketing leader also believes that it’s important to partner wisely. “Agency support is really important. You can’t do everything in house.”

Remember that ABM is not a silver bullet. “It’s one of the ways we go to market,” says one marketing leader. “That doesn’t mean you drop everything else.” Another agrees, and reminds us that while ABM is about speaking differently to each account, it’s important not to re-invent the wheel. “We don’t consider ABM programmes to be absolutely unique across 20 different accounts. There’s part of the ABM programme that is very tailored. But there’s a whole funnel of marketing activity that they need to draw into as well. The full marketing mix, when explored and integrated together, makes a world of difference!”

And, as in most great marketing, one interviewee remarks that it’s important to be brave. “I think having the courage to experiment on what works is important. It doesn’t always work out. You can keep trying to convince teams but, rather, go with those teams who are open, creative and willing to try it.” It’s much better to have tried and learned, than to sit back and create the perfect model before executing.

And what makes a great ABM marketer? “There’s a huge degree of stakeholder inclusion, it requires the ability to think laterally across organisations, functions and how the client works. At the heart of it is a deep-seated passion to build relationships. It’s not for everyone,” says one leader, “but it is for every B2B organisation to find what works for them and to experiment.”

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“I think that most B2B marketing organisations either have an ABM programme in place, or are actively looking.”Kerry Scotland, Head of Marketing, APAC, Verizon

ABM in Australia

How does ABM in Australia compare in maturity to other geographies? Some of the leaders we spoke to noted that the calibre and knowledge of ABM marketing candidates has improved significantly over the last few years. They point out that many more candidates are now able to share real-life experience of having worked with ABM, rather than having to apply other skills or experience. But are we mature? Most believe the answer is “not yet”.

Our interviewee says, “We’re certainly getting there, if we’re not there already. I see so much talk about ABM and I see a lot of organisations employing ABM roles. There’s a lot of focus, and people are investing more into making ABM work.” But there are questions over whether what they’re doing is true ABM. “I think that it’s the latest buzzword. People say they’re doing ABM, but I don’t think it’s really, truly sophisticated ABM.”

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“I think that we are emerging. We’re embarking on it. I don’t think it’s in its infancy – there is increasing interest. ABM is definitely the buzz, but there needs to be more education and people need to see a way forward with it.”Alex Kelly, Head of Cloud Marketing, IBM

Please note, some marketers interviewed preferred not to be directly quoted in this report.

Getting hold of practical tools and frameworks to run your ABM programme can be hard. We’ve got you covered with our ABM Toolkit.

ABM Toolkit

The Martech Stack Framework

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Before you embark on an ABM programme or pilot, it’s useful to capture the tools, systems and tech you have available in-house. We wouldn’t advise making any major investments in new technology platforms for ABM from day one, but by knowing what’s already available, and mapping it to your ABM plan, you can optimise current technology spend. Mapping your platforms like this can also provide clarity on which stakeholders in your business you need to involve. It also helps you intelligently identify gaps and areas for future investment once you’ve proved the value of the initial programme.

The customervalue wheel

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A great early stage activity in setting up your ABM programme is to make sure you’ve identified all the teams within your business which could add value to your programme, and ultimately to the end customer or prospect. You may find when you start off that dedicated ABM resource is hard to come by, so how you collaborate with other teams and use their expertise will be key.

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Strategic vision and counsel.

Understanding business value.

Deep solutions expertise.

Technical platform guidance.

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The account selection survey

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This tool helps you capture what good looks like when it comes to the best targets for ABM and balance. It allows you to compare data points such as: priority account nominations from Sales; what the data tells you (revenue, CLV, high engagement score); and some of the ‘softer’ but crucially important (and often forgotten) indicators of a good fit account.

The account kick-off agenda

Agenda

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Your kick-off calls will vary depending on whether you’re working on 1:1, 1:few or 1: many ABM. This agenda is aimed at a 1:1 programme but can offer a rough structure for other types of programme and perhaps act as a checklist to ensure you’ve covered off the main topics.

ABM Overview (20min)

Account Discussion (35min)

Next steps and close (5min)

• Introductions• ABM program overview• Example deliverables

• Account history (customer or prospect)• Relationship and network (any customer advocates?)• Vision, goals and outcomes for the account• Use cases you feel would have the biggest impact• Key messages• Opportunity size

• Account onboarding steps

5 reasons pilot ABM programmes fail (and how to avoid them)

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Whether you’re exploring the feasibility of an ABM approach or have just started your pilot, wouldn’t it be nice to know what other organisations have experienced, so you can learn from their mistakes?

Based on learnings from a variety of ABM programmes around the world, we’ve identified the top five reasons pilots fail and strategies to make sure your programme doesn’t fall into the same trap.

Click on a topic to find out more.

ABM metrics cheatsheet

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It can be hard to know where to start when setting up your ABM KPIs. This cheatsheet offers suggestions and benchmarks along a continuum for measuring both short term quick wins and longer term business impact.

If you’d like to know more...

Managing DirectorThe Marketing Practice

Mari Kauppinen

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