Demystifying Account-Based Marketing: What It Is and What It Means for You

Account-based marketing (ABM) is an important element of B2B marketing, but many people aren’t entirely clear on what it is and how it can help marketing and sales teams. To better understand this important topic, we hosted a lunch-and-learn session with Mimi Rosenheim, a B2B marketing leader and ABM expert.

“As we enter a down economy, it’s important that marketing is well aligned with sales,” she says in the session. “So a lot of people are starting to look at how to be more effective with their spend and offer. Account-based marketing can be a way of doing that.”

Here are a few highlights from the session.

How are ABM and demand gen different?

ABM and demand gen are both growth strategies, says Mimi, and one isn’t necessarily a subset of the other. Demand gen is a top-of-funnel marketing function focused on nurturing net new leads. ABM is a full-funnel strategy focused on a select group of target accounts that are representing significantly higher expansion or growth opportunities, with tailored marketing and sales support.

Here’s a run-down of the differences between them:

Demand Gen

• High-volume
• Individual- or people-oriented
• Focused on bringing in net new leads at the top of funnel

ABM

• Focused on quality over quantity
• Account-focused
• Can bring in new business, expand existing customers, and accelerate the deal cycle across the full funnel

How are sales and others involved in ABM?

Sales and marketing need to work together on ABM; together they figure out what the target account list should be based on multiple inputs. Those inputs include knowledge and insights about whether a company is not only part of an ideal customer profile but also what behaviors they’re doing on-site and off-site that might help determine whether they’re in the market. The accounts on the list should be getting ready to buy.

Some buying teams may have as many as 20 people, and these sales can be large and complex. Marketing can help ensure the whole buying team know what’s going on to ensure an efficient deal.

“Marketing teams can do a lot to support sales, so that we’re giving them the air cover as they’re out contacting their prospects,” Mimi says.

It’s also important to have leadership involved, as well as all staff in sales and marketing.

“Educating your own marketing team, your leadership, and sales personnel is a big part of account-based marketing because ABM requires organizational change,” she says. “Anybody who has gone through true AMB understands how complicated and challenging it can be.”

How to Use Marketing Forensics

Mimi talked about how she delves into marketing forensics to see patterns to exploit in ABM.

The first step is to go into the marketing platform you use, such as Salesforce, HubSpot, Demandbase, or an ABM platform, and copy out all the relevant information by hand.

“Sometimes I have a little timeline, and I write down some standard information on a sticky note: who it is, what the touch was, and what the date was,” she says. “I will then start to put those down on the piece of paper. You start to see these clusters, and you can tell a story. I’ll either take a picture of it or turn it into a slide.”

She recognizes that this is a slow and manual process, but just the same encourages marketing people to do it once a month or once a quarter depending on how many leads and deals they close. It can be illuminating to compare timelines to see how they differ and what factors may have made a difference.

“Pick a couple of deals that worked, that closed, and that you were really happy about; and pick a couple of deals that were lost,” she advises. “See if there are any differences there.”