Everyone in B2B marketing says ABM drives revenue. Do you agree?
Maybe you’ve experienced ABM success firsthand, or perhaps you’ve given up because it didn’t meet expectations. Some haven’t even started yet. If you belong to the last group of marketers, this one’s for you
(Bear with these statistics for a moment.)
According to a 2023 ITSMA study, 77% of ABM users saw revenue growth and 72% found ABM delivered a higher ROI than other types of marketing.
80% of marketers link ABM to improved customer lifetime value.
These statistics would make any marketer curious, and it’s natural to want to adopt a method that promises such results.
But what does it take to ride the ABM wave?
For those considering ABM, it can feel like a bold move, full of curiosity and fear—an unnerving combination. Marketers today are tasked with growth mandates, and while ABM is top of mind, fear of failure often outweighs FOMO. Let’s explore why.
Fear 1: Unrealistic Targets
What they say: ABM will make all your pipeline worries go away.
What it is: The pressure to deliver quick results with ABM is intense. Most CEOs and CROs expect rapid, measurable outcomes while adopting an account-based approach. This pressure will have you hustling to rush campaigns, run unplanned parallel motions, and create content that isn’t personalized. Definitely not the kind of story you want to tell your marketing community friends. You’d rather stick to the traditional funnel.
But does it have to be like this?
Our tip: Set realistic goals and expectations from the get-go. Don’t adopt ABM to meet short-term demand gen targets—it’s not built for that. Focus on bigger goals like customer lifetime value, larger deal sizes, and shorter sales cycles.
Fear 2: High investment and risk
What they say: ABM requires heavy investment.
What it is: If you research the average cost of running an ABM program, you will find a figure of around $350,000 annually. That’s a mighty big investment if you are a startup – say Series A or B company. Further, the research would tell you that if you are an enterprise marketing team, you need millions in budget to do ABM.
With such investment trends, any marketer would find it hard to decide on starting ABM. And most of the decision making would lean on how to prove value and ROI.
Does it really take so much investment to kickstart ABM?
Our tip: ABM programs can be optimized. With a laser focus on data, segments, insights, and messaging, you can start small and scale as you grow.
Fear 3: It’s time consuming
What they say: ABM is a tedious and time-consuming approach.
What it is: ABM is a targeted and personalized approach. It involves more steps, greater deliberation, and coordination across teams to find the right strategy. And you might not always get everything right the first time. Even when you start seeing success, you might have to revisit your strategy to find predictable success.
Does this mean marketing teams without the time and resources don’t adopt ABM?
Our tip: ABM is about building relationships, which takes time. But when you have a smaller team and are looking to punch above your weight, you need to prioritize accounts, segment smarter, and use AI to automate personalization. Outsource less strategic tasks like data research and content production to specialized agencies.
Fear 4: Too much shift in existing process
What they say: ABM requires a shift from the traditional marketing approach.
What it is: Moving to an account-based approach requires a significant shift in marketing and GTM processes. These shifts span across mindset, operations, metrics and team alignment around various areas of your GTM motions. These can seem like big tectonic shifts at first, but does it mean you can’t?
Our tip: Adapting your processes for the account-based approach doesn’t mean an upheaval. Start with an organizational alignment on building a mindset shift. And it starts with the leadership. This is why cross-functional alignment for ABM success extends beyond sales and marketing, and into customer success, product, and your C-level. Everyone in the organization has to buy into the idea of finding long-term success and increased customer lifetime value with it.
But don’t do ABM in silo
When you overcome these fears and start your ABM journey, remember: ABM can’t succeed as a standalone program.
For ABM to truly succeed, two things are absolutely necessary: embedding it into your core GTM strategy and expanding it. Most marketing teams fail at ABM because they restrict it to a standalone approach with its own data and processes. ABM needs to cut across all GTM initiatives including data, branding and content. What’s the challenge? Most marketing teams and processes are structured around channels, activities and metrics. To be truly successful at ABM, marketing teams need to reorganize around customers.
In addition to integrating ABM to your existing marketing processes, it must also be expanded beyond your high-value accounts. You need to apply the ABM approach to your mid-tier and growth accounts too. By tapping into these accounts early and nurturing them you can build opportunities for improving customer lifetime value. Over relying on a handful of top accounts to meet year-on-year revenue growth goals is not sustainable. You want to look at diversifying your customer base.
