12nd Edition
As the ABM landscape continues to evolve, we are at a crossroads of new technologies, shifting strategies, and an increased focus on the Buying Team.
For instance, Salesforce’s recent acquisitions, including Zoomin, point to a future where data integration fuels more personalized customer experiences. This highlights the critical need to integrate customer touchpoints for a more effective ABM strategy.
However, Josh Jill reminds us that adding new ABM tools without understanding the full picture of your GTM process is risky: “It’s far too easy for Marketing and Sales to go too fast to add new ABM tools before they fully understand the problem they are trying to solve.” The key to success, he argues, lies in building buying teams and "ABM Surround Sound" strategies & campaigns.
In this week’s newsletter, we dive into how aligning sales, marketing, and operations around the buying team can elevate ABM efforts and examine the evolving role of revenue marketing in driving effective GTM strategies and results.
Editor's Pick: Evolving from ABM and Marketing Automation to Revenue Marketing
Forrester introduces the "revenue marketing platform," a new category which goes beyond traditional ABM by focusing on account-based strategies and buying groups, which shifts the entire go-to-market (GTM) approach from isolated tactics to a comprehensive business process. Revenue marketing as a new approach to GTM emphasizes the automation of tasks typically handled by BDRs, e.g. initial outreach and meeting scheduling. Now, AI-driven agents can engage target accounts and secure the first meeting, giving the sales team more time to focus on understanding the account's needs. This level of automation helps streamline ABM efforts, allowing for more effective orchestration across multiple channels while prioritizing key accounts and buying groups. 6sense's CPO, Jerome Levadoux's Perspective
Industry News & Research
Salesforce to Buy Enterprise Knowledge Platform Zoomin
Salesforce is acquiring Zoomin to enhance the integration of unstructured data across all customer touchpoints (including product usage, websites, support centers, and customer service centers). This move potentially supports ABM/ABX initiatives by enabling more personalized service interactions and providing deeper data insights. The acquisition strengthens Salesforce's ability to deliver account-based intelligence through its Data Cloud and Service Cloud, offering richer customer profiles for more effective ABM execution. Explore More
ABM Trends: Striking the Balance Between ABM & Demand Gen
During a panel at last week’s B2B Marketing Exchange, industry leaders discussed how ABM and demand generation are no longer competing strategies but rather complementary. Successful teams are leveraging ABM to target high-value accounts while using demand generation for broad awareness, ensuring both strategies work together to drive growth. Watch More
“Success in modern marketing doesn’t come from treating these approaches as mutually exclusive but from fostering collaboration between sales, marketing and leadership.”
Cvent Expands Its Event Capabilities with Acquisition of Splash
Cvent’s acquisition of Splash enhances their event marketing capabilities, offering tools to create personalized, measurable, and repeatable event programs that align with ABM strategies. This allows marketers to engage target accounts through scalable events that drive demand and pipeline growth.
ABX Insights from Industry Icons
Top Strategy Spotlight: The Buying Team is Missing in Your ABM Strategy
(Author: Josh Hill)
Josh Hill dissects the concept of building buying teams within ABM, emphasizing that success in ABM requires aligning sales and marketing to develop deep relationships with key stakeholders. This approach boosts engagement and improves the chances of closing deals with enterprise-level accounts. Full Ebook Link
“The purpose of the BDR is to build the buying team in partnership with the AE, not an Email marketer.” - Josh Hill
ABM success hinges on constructing and engaging the buying team, not just focusing on leads. Many teams mistakenly treat ABM as lead generation, which undermines its full potential. The buying team, typically consisting of 5 to 15 people across an organization, should be built collaboratively with sales, ensuring alignment and understanding of the account’s needs.
Implementing and executing a successful ABM strategy requires end-to-end management of the internal and external customer experience. It’s clearly a team sport, requiring tight synergy across GTM teams.
ABM should not be treated as a series of one-off campaigns. Instead, it needs a coordinated, omnichannel strategy that builds long-term relationships with decision-makers and influencers within target accounts.
ABM and the go-to-market (GTM) motion need to be closely aligned.
Instead, a successful ABM strategy requires an omnichannel, personalized approach where your messaging is highly targeted and automatically, often referred to as "ABM Surround Sound." This strategy uses dynamic ads, emails, intent signals, and personalized content to ensure continuous engagement with all members of the buying team.
So few companies have fully operationalized the buying team across their GTM strategy and technologies due to the missing of the two key steps: 1. The GTM account process. 2. Who is part of the buying team and what does your ICP look like?
There are two paths for your customer journey. In or out with different goals:
Educating out-of-market accounts and people.
Bringing in-market accounts and people to Sales.
A GTM workshop can align teams, define ICPs, and ensure smooth handoffs in the ABM process.
Q&A with Stacey Fontenot, Cvent: Leveraging Tech to Enhance Event Marketing (A Key ABM Tactic)
Stacey Fontenot of Cvent shares insights on using technology to create personalized event experiences that cater to key accounts. These tools help companies gather actionable data, fueling ABM campaigns by fostering year-round engagement and deeper connections with decision-makers. Full Ebook Link
Top Tools & Resources for ABM Champions
Demandbase’s ABM Starter and ABM Champion Kit
These kits offer essential tools to help companies align their sales and marketing teams around ABM strategies. They provide actionable frameworks to plan, measure, and optimize account-based initiatives that target key prospects and increase win rates.
What Are We Listening To?
Podcast: The Science of Scaling
In this podcast, Mark Roberge (Stage2Capital) discusses the science behind scaling revenue through a strategic B2B revenue lens, focusing on how tech companies can structure their GTM efforts to drive sustained growth. Podcast link
Upcoming Events
Webinar On-Demand: Beyond The Blast - Crafting Precise Demand Gen In The Age Of Content SaturationThis session focuses on creating demand gen strategies that complement ABM by leveraging intent data and personalized content. Learn how to transition from content volume to hyper-personalized, value-driven engagement for target accounts. Event details
Webinar: Personalization at Scale: A Blueprint for Global Success (Oct 1, 2024) Explore how to personalize marketing efforts globally, using data-driven insights to boost account engagement and drive conversions for high-value accounts. Event details
Webinar: Digging Into The Event Data Goldmine (Oct 28, 2024)
Unlock the potential of your strategic targeted accounts marketing strategy by using event data analytics to measure success. This session teaches how to harness event KPIs to create a data-driven ABM approach that increases stakeholder engagement and pipeline. Event details
Thank you for reading the Weekly ABM/ABX Insights Newsletter! I’d love your feedback, ideas and tips: oceane@nextgenabm.io. If you think someone else might enjoy this newsletter, please pass it forward or they can sign up here. Subscribe to our Weekly Newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn to get the latest insights on industry trends, tips, and useful resources on ABX.
About Us
NextGenABM is a consulting and solution firm aiming transforms B2B marketing and sales strategies with ROI driven pipeline results through account-centric pipeline marketing. Looking to start your ABM journey or need help with your current program? Let's talk.
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