ABM Strategy You Can Steal

If you've ever wanted to build an ABM strategy but weren't quite sure how here's a strategy you can steal. At our recent ABM-A-THON, Alisson Gibbs and Amanda Palmarchuk went over a strategy that generated over 5 million dollars in 5 months.

Before building your own ABM program, it's essential to identify your objectives. The clearer the goal, the more effective the plan!

Ask yourself:

Are you in a niche B2B industry?
Are you trying to close a select number of accounts?
Would closing a few accounts result in massive revenue growth?

If you answered yes to any of these, ABM is likely your answer.

Before you launch your pilot campaign, it's imperative to get aligned internally. One of the most effective pieces to any given ABM strategy is the focused efforts from marketing and sales.

When each team is functioning with a common objective, you only see heightened results.

Internal Alignment

If you want to know how to get aligned, it starts with having all the information. For common objectives that most businesses are trying to achieve, we will be talking about account scoring, orchestration, and account list.

When jumping in, one of the most important things you can do for your new ABM strategy is "account scoring." This can help you identify where to focus your efforts, and any information gathered will only bring you closer to finding and connecting with your ICP (ideal client profile).

Account Scoring Factors

Demographic
Firmographic
Behavioral

So, within account scoring, we took a look at the demographic, firmographic, and behavioral components of each individual account so that everyone we're spending resources and time trying to reach falls as close to our target audience and ICP as possible.

Next is orchestration, so things like how does the data sync back and forth between all of your technology and is it benefiting the sales process.

Orchestration

Data Sync
Account Stages
Expedited Sales Process

For example, if you have a marketing automation platform and a CRM, how is that data being analyzed and shared? Making sure that the marketing team has the information that they need from sales and that sales have what they need from marketing is imperative.

So we need to spend some time making sure that all of that is communicating smoothly back and forth so that you can achieve better reporting and better alignment with how your teams are functioning together. Better data leads to better results.

And finally, the account list.

Account List

ICP Filtering Criteria
Alignment with Sales

To build your target account list, many use a data enrichment platform and put in their ICP to populate all of the potential accounts they could close. Many will add in intent data to further focus their efforts on those actively searching for viable solutions similar to their products.

You may already have some pieces to this identified, but the above processes will help you continue to refine this list to find better results.

Take advantage of the data you collect, the problems you are able to solve, and the accounts you have the highest impact with. Start hand-picking your future prospects based on what you learn and watch everything fall into place.

Building the Framework

On top of internal alignment, identifying, and analyzing data, building a strong framework for your ABM strategy is how you produce the most effective results in the long term.

Nine times out of ten, the most effective way to do this is to have that clear and communicated objective. Once you have that established, all of the moving pieces find their place, and you start to see the fruits of your efforts.

Once you know your objective, you can better understand where you need to be and what you need to produce to achieve success.

Once you have things like your target audience figured out, you can take it a step further by identifying problems within your industry you can solve.

If you produce content for your ABM strategy based on these pain points, you're going to build trust and engagement with more and more people who fit your ICP, and with a little bit of refining along the way, open yourself up to more opportunities.

In summary: