ITSMA’s State of ABM report showed that only 1/3 of ABM organizations are seeing significant business improvement. Yet previous research shows – and intuitively we all agree – that ABM works. So where is the breakdown occurring?

At Personal ABM, we believe that ABM’s definition and direction have gotten diluted. ABM has always been about focusing on the accounts that can provide maximum lifetime value – getting new key accounts to revenue and existing accounts to greater revenue. But the term “ABM” has become synonymous with the technology that enables it (6Sense, Demandbase, Terminus, etc.), which is wrongly seen as a silver bullet. Companies are treating ABM as “marketing as usual” with shiny new tools. In this quick podcast episode, Kristina Jaramillo shows how this diluted definition is creating challenges for sales and marketing teams that are looking to go upmarket and drive larger deals faster as ABM tech does not ABM’s purpose.

When You Listen to This ABM Done Right Podcast with Kristina Jaramillo, You Will Hear…

• How ABM tech does not help you go upmarket. You will learn why a channel sales tech firm was challenged to penetrate the 60% of the market that is stuck in status quo and why the firm consistently lost multi-year, 6-figure-per-year deals to Salesforce and other major players. You will see how they didn’t change sales and marketing motions and interactions to teach for differentiation with content and messaging that shows the impact that competitor-specific gaps would have on the target accounts. They weren’t changing the sales and marketing conversation. They weren’t going beyond building a pipeline, and they used ABM to reach as many prospects as possible within their ICP vs. making a real impact on the complete buyer’s journey and customer lifecycle so they can go upmarket, drive stage progression, accelerate sales cycle time, increase deal sizes and improve profitability. You’ll also learn why a cybersecurity and managed detection response firm targeting organizations using Microsoft Defender 365 was only getting $65K accounts into the pipeline with their 1:few and 1:many programs vs. $125K to $250K deals.

• How ABM driven by ABM tech will not fix stage progression challenges. You will learn why a fintech firm serving mid-market banks, as well as national institutions like Wells only saw a stage 1 to close rate of 5%. And why after losing most of their opportunities right from the beginning, they lost more than half the deals that did progress to stage 3. You will see how they relied on technology to put out content and messaging to targeted accounts, but they didn’t change sales motions, sales processes, and conversations so they can improve their win rates. They didn’t think about how they should be changing the prospect experience.

• How ABM tech will not help you with “stuck” accounts. You will learn why a large conversational AI company with deal sizes of $500K+ was challenged with stage progression after sales engagement. You will see that their Demandbase campaigns created demand and built a pipeline. But there was no follow-through. There was no account-based enablement and strategy to ensure wins.

• How ABM Driven by ABM Tech and Demand Gen Alone Will Not Fix Long Sales Cycles. You will learn why an AI tech firm was still challenged to close deals with MasterCard and Walmart after 14 months of conversations. You will see how they did not use ABM to influence both selling conversations and the internal conversations that sales were not privy to.

• How ABM tech will not help you protect at-risk accounts. You will see how a supply chain firm almost lost their P&G account that made up at least 30% of their revenue as they were having the wrong interactions and conversations.

Here Are Some Additional Related ABM Resources:

CMO Alliance Podcast – Think Before You Buy Your ABM Tech – In this podcast, Kristina Jaramillo shares with Will Whitman why ABM became synonymous with ABM tech, why that is a problem, and how to get started with ABM strategies that will set you up for future success and the importance of starting off “tech-free” (at the beginning, at least).

CMO Alliance Article – How Many CMOs Are Getting ABM Wrong by Making It All About ABM Tech – In this article on the CMO Alliance blog, Kristina Jaramillo shares how ABM and the ABM tech stack should be viewed, how the ABM tech stack is not “fit” for ABM’s purpose and how CMOs can better leverage their ABM tech stack.

MarketingProfs Article – Why ABM Should Be Supported – Not Driven – By ABM Tech and Demand Gen – In this article, Kristina Jaramillo shares how marketing should not be distracted by ABM tech and why demand gen teams should not be leading the charge when it comes to ABM.