How To Define and Develop an ABM Approach To Drive Business Objectives?

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In this episode, Daniel Marty talks about how to define and develop an Account-Based Marketing (ABM) approach to drive business objectives. He shares his thoughts and approaches to aligning sales and marketing, data-driven practices, defining and defending Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs), and developing ABM KPI measurements.

About the Guest

Daniel Marty has spent the majority of his career in the B2B space, leveraging diverse experiences in leading teams in marketing, sales, and operations. He is currently VP of the Demand Marketing Center at ADP. Over the last decade, he has helped lead company culture shifts for stronger alignment by implementing digital and lead management strategies in targeting, scoring, and nurturing campaigns, ABM, and sales development for driving increased efficiency, effectiveness, and revenue performance.

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Key takeaways

You must have both sales and marketing involved, and in, ABM is no different; that’s more pronounced. Having sales and marketing in agreement on things such as definitions, timing, activation of channels, etc., help to establish a mutual goal.
When you leverage data to understand cycles of behavior, you can tailor your efforts to the best approach to ABM for your company.
When developing an ICP, make sure your business goals are aligned and look at data. You can look at win/loss analyses, lead rejection analyses, digital activity, etc. Beyond the data, one of the key things is establishing a process with sales to review it.
Focus on measuring KPIs from the standpoint of progression of accounts, just as sales do.

Quotes

“You can think of the 80 different scenarios, but maybe start with the two.”

Highlights from the episode

How do you approach creating collaboration and alignment between marketing and sales?

One of the first things you want to look at is how sales and marketing are involved in the same initiatives. You have to have both involved, and ABM is no different; it’s more pronounced in ABM. Having sales and marketing in agreement on things such as definitions, timing, activation of channels, etc., help to establish a mutual goal. Where I see alignment die is when sales or marketing becomes territorial with their duties. If your marketing or sales team is very territorial, you may have to pitch ABM to them and just try it out, noting where it would benefit them and their buyers.

How do you leverage data-driven practices to establish an ABM approach?

Data is an incredibly critical factor, and there’s so much intelligence we can gain with digital marketing. Using data to identify your audience, their behaviors, and how they perform over time makes a difference in terms of forming an approach to ABM. When you understand that cycle of behavior, you can tailor your efforts in that direction. You’ll be able to figure out how long it takes and how much investment you need to put in to channel your efforts.

What’s the best way to define an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and defend it?

You definitely need data to make your ICP defendable. You also need to listen to your gut to make sure it’s the right approach. When developing an ICP, make sure your business goals are aligned and look at data. You can look at win/loss analyses, lead rejection analyses, digital activity, etc. Beyond the data, one of the key things is establishing a process with sales to review it. Sales can provide valuable ground-level intelligence, but be careful if they’re territorial.

What advice do you have for designing a program to orchestrate marketing and sales channels?

Establishing the ICP is a critical milestone, and developing the go-to-market approach, the channels, and the orchestration is the next big step. Again, this is where data can help. My key advice is to start somewhere and build from there. Build one path and one experience, then if you find an important audience (maybe one with no, low, or high engagement), fine-tune and personalize your experience for them. Then build more paths.

How do you approach developing ABM KPI measurements?

Sales are naturally account-based and their success is measured based on how each of those accounts has progressed to a sale. It’s simple from that standpoint. As marketers, we make it more complicated because we look at channel conversions, campaign influence, lead generation, etc. My approach is looking at how we align ABM and measurement in a way that’s like sales. Focusing on measuring from the standpoint of the progression of accounts is extremely important. If I see minimal activity, significant account activity, and progression to the actual sales process, those are all different stages. If you see progress, that makes a difference.