Weekly ABM/ABX Insights - ABM in Turbulent Times: How Smart GTM Teams Are Turning Uncertainty Into Pipeline

Edition #35 | Published April 28, 2025

Tariffs are rising, sales cycles are stretching, and buyer behavior is fragmenting faster than most GTM teams can react. But resilient organizations are reinventing how they execute ABM, use GenAI internationally, and rethink go-to-market fundamentals.

In this week's edition, we dig into how the best teams are evolving their ICP strategies, building ABM motions and GTM systems that are designed to adapt and thrive in uncertain markets.

🚀 The Pulse: Must-Know Industry News

Forrester B2B Summit Recap: Rethink Buyer Networks and ABM Execution

One of my favorite takeaways from this year’s Forrester is that buyers are complex networks. The average B2B deal now includes ~13 internal stakeholders and 12 external influencers according to Forrester. Keynote speakers also urged marketers to move beyond MQLs and shift toward group-based buying signals. Beyond this, roughly 90% of tech buyers consult AI tools during research, making AI literacy and unified data critical for personalizing across all network members​. 

Relevant reading: Buying group augmentation

DemandScience is Consolidating Personalization at Scale. 

Their recent acquisitions bring Bound (for AI-powered website personalization) and DemandJump (for search-behavior content strategy) into one platform, letting GTM teams turn anonymous visitors into high-intent account signals. In a budget-tight environment, precision matters more than volume.

Relevant reading: AI driven personalization for better ROI in ABM

Demandbase Unveils Marketplace to Make ABX Composable and Agile 

Demandbase launched an in-platform Marketplace and Developer Portal in April to help GTM teams unify their tech stacks. The Marketplace provides a centralized hub with 110+ certified integrations (including new TechTarget, Workato, and Adobe Real-Time Customer Data) to plug directly into account-based workflows. 

Relevant reading: ABM on a Budget? Yes you can.

Salesloft Rolls Out GenAI Agents for Email + Chat

Spring brings two AI-driven GTM agents: The Email Personalization Agent (writing human-sounding, account-specific emails using brief-level insights), and, The Chat Agent (Delivers intelligent, conversational experiences for site visitors, routing qualified leads directly to sales for conversational ABM).  With velocity declining and SDR headcount frozen, Salesloft’s new agents aim to automate the repeatable process to make it more efficient. 

Seismic x ZoomInfo: AI Copilot Drives 54% Rep Productivity Gains

In a recent case study, Seismic reported using ZoomInfo’s AI-powered Copilot across its sales organization to surface account insights and tailor outreach. The integration identified or influenced 39% of Seismic’s active sales pipeline through AI signals, and sales reps became 54% more productive on average​. More teams are using GenAI to cut response time and eliminate generic outreach. 

🎙 Voices of Influence: Insights from Industry Icons

CMOs Tackle Trade Turbulence and Pipeline Decline (from Pavilion C-Level Roundtable Recap)

Tariff volatility has pushed U.S. trade-weighted average rates above 27%, causing deal velocity to plummet (down from 43% to 29%) and triggering procurement freezes across verticals. 

Pavillion’s executive roundtable laid out the key strategic GTM plays for executives to navigate the new tariff landscape. I find those following strategies highly relevant to account-based GTM, and would recommend reading the elaborated strategies on Pavilion C-Level Roundtable Recap.

1. Rebalance ICPs based on at-risk verticals and identify the second prioritized ICP. 

2. Focus on Anticipator and Translator rep personas over classic Challenger models.

3. Apply GenAI internally to build enablement playbooks and coaching frameworks.

4. Get surgical with pricing to improve ACV and defend margin.

🔥 What’s Trending: Hot Picks This Week

• According to Bain & Company, Marketing now has a new middleman - AI agents. It is now the first touch for many buyers. Expect more "zero-click" journeys as AI engines summarize, compare, and shortlist products before your site even loads.

• Reddit Answers (Beta): AI that pulls Reddit user insights into digestible summaries. Think of it as GenAI powered by real conversations from Reddit users, a new signal source for audience insights.

🔦 Case Study: BlueBotics's Multi-Layer ABM Strategy and Campaign Success

A hybrid ABM play from BlueBotics (an ANT navigation tech) combined one-to-many digital tactics with one-to-few personalization to drive real results:

• 400 target accounts identified; 12 received deep personalization.

• $4.5M+ in pipeline; $1M closed-won.

• 160 new relationships and wins with Michelin, ABB, Toyota Forklift. 

  
  

Our key takeaways: Scale and depth aren’t mutually exclusive, consider a multi-layered ABM strategy to combine personalization / depth with scale for a well balanced reach and account engagement. 

🛠 Martech Spotlight: Cool Tools & Innovations

• Clay + Gong AI Integration: Use AI to mine Gong call transcripts and push key signals into automated workflows, finally putting unstructured conversation data to work.

• Claude x Google Workspace: Claude can now access your Gmail, Calendar, and Docs to prep emails and meetings with personalized AI support. Marketer’s productivity matters! 

  
  

📚 Knowledge Vault: Must-Read Resources

• How Learn how early stage startups are building resilience in uncertain economic environments using AI in GTM playbook.

• Fixing ABM’s fatal flaws with Jay Saling, Demand Gen Lead @ Pipe was such a killer event last week. Worth watching! 

• 2025 Database Strategy Report: 66% of marketers say data quality is a top-3 GTM priority.

  
  

⚡ Execution Tips & Tricks for ABM Success 

• Build a Dynamic ICP: Start at 10:55 for real-world examples that outperform static segmentation.

• Analysing your LinkedIn Ads performance without the pain of manually pulling performance data into LLMs? Recently the industry has coalesced around the possibility to allow you to connect an LLM to an external data source. Join the waitlist.

🎤 ABM Insider: Must-Attend Events

• Salesloft Virtual Summit - An event that focuses on both strategy and tactical framework to drive predictable and scalable revenue growth – April 29, 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM EST

• Madison Logic: ABM Content Best Practices Webinar – April 30, 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM ET

• Inside the Shift to a Modern B2B Content Operating Model  – May 7, 2:00 PM ET 

💬 Quote of the Week

Praise-Led Marketing – when you make others look good, they’ll happily promote you.

-Tom Orbach (Head of Growth Marketing @ Wiz)

All content in this newsletter was written and edited by Océane Li—not AI 🤖

🧠 Ready to revamp your strategy? Check out our past editions or let’s chat.

🎯 Until next time—stay bold, stay targeted.

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