Common pitfalls in adopting ABM strategies
I was recently talking to an advisory group about my perception of ABM and why brands find it difficult to adopt these strategies. Over the weekend, I wrote up my conversation in the style of the interview, questions address ABM trends in 2022, challenges and culture.
Has ABM adoption peaked?
Whilst ABM has been around the block for some time, I do think that ABM has experienced a new lease of life with relatively new brands embracing technology such as data co’ops, reverse IP lookups or cookie matching. What we see now is that more and more B2B brands adopt ABM strategies and implement technology which they in turn use for demand gen. This, often to make up for the dwindling MQL numbers and their desperate attempts to get prospects to fill in forms (RIP lead gen). So, ‘no’, it has far from peaked, particularly in EMEA where we see aggressive growth. I’ve previously written about the necessary pivot from campaigns to programs.
The MQL is dead, long live the MQL
Why do we see such a rapid adoption of ABM tech now?
There are obviously plenty of factors that play a part. But it is mainly about the savvy B2B buyer. We know that prospects typically conduct 70% of their product and vendor research before even talking to a sales person. This puts immense pressure on today’s marketers that try to match increasing customer expectations when it comes to delivering personalised and relevant experiences. It also challenges the traditional feature-focussed sales pitch.
What are the challenges providing personalised experiences?
A lot of these brands simply don’t have the foundational tech stack. I see a lot of operationally neglected tech ecosystems where truly embracing an ABM platform will significantly challenge the status quo. To get to the point where such a platform can provide significant value, the timespan is about 2 years, which is a hard sell in front of any CFO. I’m not a fan of the expression digital transformation, mainly because it’s old news, but I have to remind myself that a lot of companies have not invested enough in this area over time.
What is needed to adopt ABM strategies
As just mentioned, a modern integrated tech stack will play a significant role in successfully building ABM strategies, and I’m mainly referring to 1-to-many or 1-to-few programs here. Besides the tech stack, it’s the people and processes that are often missing. The talent that has had exposure in running these programs, the integrated sales/marketing/customer success trifecta, and joining forces with teams internally to build revenue teams and revenue operations. Some companies have a long way to go to change that culture which has to happen from top-down. So please dear CEO’s, stop hiring top sales leaders into CRO roles and instead, find true revenue visionaries that can also bring that cultural change.
If your teams work towards different KPIs, even the best ABM platform won’t get your sales and marketing folks talking.
How has the marketer’s role changed?
The good news is of course that marketing increasingly has more exposure at senior level. Marketers are well equipped to beat the drum of revenue teams and understand the customer focus as an umbrella with sales, marketing and customer success underneath. This will ultimately come with more autonomy and allow marketers to hire the right people, and implement the right tech. Marketers will also increasingly have a say in implementing new tech, not just martech. Knowing the conversion metrics is increasingly important. It’s always been like that for demand gen marketers, but as a marketing team leader, I do have the expectation that all marketers in my team understand customer journey metrics, KPIs and have basic forecasting skills, regardless whether you work in content, SEO, brand or events.
Replacing inbound marketing with ABM is like putting all your money on ‘red’.
What will happen in the ABM vendor markets?
This is already a very competitive landscape. The way brands adopt ABM strategies varies greatly, from a one-off ad hoc collaboration through an agency to implementing a fully-fletched ABM solution. We’ll see the product category becoming more crowded and the big players eating up the small ones. That ultimately happens with all overly mature product categories. It has happened with CRMs, customer research platforms, and will also happen in the ABM vendor space. The unpredictable no-cookie future will also put a question mark to some of these vendors. I don’t think many brands have spent much time thinking about their first-party data strategies.. have you? Is it even possible given the size of your company? This will perhaps lower confidence in buying over the next two years, but ultimately, pick up again.
How do you get started if you’re new to ABM?
First of all, ignore the buzzwords. I actually believe that the term ‘ABM’ will gradually disappear as it’ll be simply the default for relevant, contextualised and personalised B2B marketing. If you’re a marketer and you care about the customers and try to provide relevant experiences, you’re already halfway there. I also deeply believe that inbound marketing co-exists alongside ABM strategies. There will always be the need to have both go-to-market strategies in place. When it comes to acquiring an ABM platform, it’s more so about winning internal champions that can help with cultural changes. If the budget doesn’t quite stretch, there are plenty of opportunities to run a smaller pilot (which you should always do anyway) and get some proof points whether your product/category is suitable for ABM.
As a next step, have a look at my practical and tactical ABM playbook I put together a while ago. This is a great resource on how to go about account selection, TAMs, personas, process.
