Blog / Crawl, walk, run: A staggered approach to ABM

It’s common for marketers to face resistance when pivoting to ABM. We’ve experienced it ourselves, particularly inside some of our client’s operations. What we’ve found works to drive alignment around this approach is managing expectations and getting internal buy-in to build a strong foundation on which to systematically change for the better at scale

But it can also help to start small. This is what we like to call the crawl, walk, run approach. Have you already tried to implement ABM in your organisation, but faced a lot of opposition? Let’s take a step back together: small changes will be more effective in the long run.

Here’s what we’ve done as an agency to drive incremental ABM success internally: Help your sales team and internal stakeholders understand that ABM can be as simple as using what you already have: client lists and a telephone. Do you have some sort of CRM system or email tool? Trust us, this is all you’ll need in your arsenal as you slowly start setting up ABM for success inside your business.

Our proposed crawl, walk, run approach can vary, depending on your organisation’s starting point. We’ve put together a top-level example of a small team looking to attain ABM excellence with a set account list and limited resources to start.

Crawl before you walk

We’ve noticed that very few marketers have worked in sales, and very few salespeople have ever done marketing. Yet, both roles are crucial for driving revenue. The ABM approach is about getting your two teams collaborating to reach the right accounts, on the right platform, at the right time. Or, to summarise: It’s marketing giving sales what they need to close the deal.

So, here are some questions we recommend you ask your sales team:

• What is their ideal customer profile?
• What do they need from marketing to reach this customer or account
• What level of personalisation is required to reach these accounts?
• Can it be done using the current tools available inside your business?

Next, we’ve found that it helps to start with the client list you have, and the technology you’ve invested in, and put 90% of your effort into making the content right for your target accounts. (As an aside, you’ll also get brownie points from the finance and content teams for repurposing existing resources, adding to overall business buy-in)

Taking The Next Step: Walking

In this stage, marketing and sales are starting to find their groove. You’re reaching accounts and beginning to see results in the pipeline. You’re ready to expand your ABM efforts. You’re ready to take the next step.

Here’s what we suggest when you start walking: revise your content and look at escalating it. What does the data indicate about the engagement from your current accounts? Is it worth expanding your marketing mix to include webinars, live events and even content syndication? Leverage the content learnings you’ve obtained to this point to take you to the next level.

Ready To Run

First a disclaimer: in our experience, some business are never be ready to run with ABM. That’s because, depending on the size of your business and goals, you might find that walking feeds the pipeline perfectly and manages costs while positively impacting revenue.

For businesses that do move to running, you’ll find investing in the right tech stack here crucial. At this stage, you may be targeting accounts at scale, which means you’ll need the right tools to do personalisation and distribution while still talking to the right audience and addressing their pain points.

For some, this may mean expanding their account target list which will shift your strategy into programmatic ABM and will entail segmenting and clustering your target accounts to achieve their goals and reach your audience with the right solutions to drive conversions. For others, it may mean the introduction of personalisation on landing pages and creatives.

Start small, grow slow

ABM can be overwhelming and it can go wrong if you start big too fast. So, take our advice: start with what you have and grow from there. This can be as simple as the marketing team assisting the sales team in generating vertical-specific content to be distributed via email. Managing expectations, working together and using what you have can set you on the road to ABM success in the long run.