ABM Under the Hood – Episode 2 The top 10 ABM challenges

Josh Weale and Jack Rawlings | Heads of ABM | strategicabm

ABM Under
the Hood

Episode 2: The top 10 ABM challenges

Our new podcast, ABM Under the Hood, takes a close look into the inner workings and practicalities of everything Account-based.

In Episode 2, strategicabm Heads of ABM, Josh Weale and Jack Rawlings, take us through the top 10 challenges when setting up an ABM program.

We know that an Account-based Marketing program has many moving parts, and that getting it to run like a finely tuned machine takes hard work and knowhow.

But, oh! The feel of the wind in your hair… metaphorically speaking! … when the engine is running smoothly, and you’re accelerating on through the Three Rs of ABM with your target accounts – driving Reputation, Relationships and Revenue.

ABM Under the Hood is our new podcast, going into the mechanics of getting your engine started, moving up through the gears and on, to ensure you’re going smoothly at full revs. So, fasten your seatbelt, because we’re up and running – here’s the lowdown on episode 2.

Jack Rawlings and Josh Weale are strategicabm’s Heads of ABM, and for this second episode of ABM Under the Hood, they’ve been getting their hands dirty again, so to speak, thinking about the top 10 challenges of setting up an ABM program, which include:

How to pivot to, or get started with ABM
The tech you need – and don’t need
How to get buy-in across your organization
The metrics for success – and more!

Which accounts should you target?

“It's ultimately about understanding what it is that you're trying to achieve as a broader business objective, and then actually looking at where it makes the most sense to focus your resources.”

- Josh Weale, Head of ABM at strategicabm

Choosing where to aim your ABM program is a question of prioritization. Firstly, consider the program type you need. Are you aiming One-to-one with a specific target? Or going for the other end of the spectrum, One-to-many; intended to encompass an array of accounts that may be in quite different verticals?

Some businesses have a very clearly defined target market; they know exactly what their product does and who it's best to serve.

But ABM account selection is not always so straightforward. It's all about aligning to your objectives: What is it you actually want to achieve with your program? E.g. is it to win more enterprise-sized businesses, or to build your footprint within some of your existing accounts?

There’s so much more under
the hood!

As clear, the 10 points looked at this time will form the basis of in-depth discussion for many future episodes.

So, whether you recognize all these ABM challenges, are new to a few of them, or find there’s one in particular that you really want to hear the nuts and bolts of – stay tuned!

This podcast is dedicated to offering insight from professionals within our own Agency, joining Jack, Josh or both to provide expertise across all areas.

Episode 2 of ABM Under the Hood is now live, so be sure to check it out!

How do you pivot to Account-based Marketing?

“We're not saying you should move all of your business and all of your Marketing efforts across to an ABM program overnight. That's not going to be effective, or successful, or even possible, really.”

- Josh Weale, Head of ABM at strategicabm

If you’ve done Demand Gen or Lead Gen, starting a One-to-many ABM program is not such a huge transition. But, if you're starting at zero or a little bit of Lead Gen or Influencer Marketing, rolling out a huge, blended ABM program is going to take some doing.

You should think of ABM as part of a broader Marketing mix – and not as a silver bullet! If you put all your eggs in that single basket, then actually find that you don't have the resource – or something changes in the market and you have to react – it becomes difficult.

So, there should be a slow, patient transition towards an ABM way of thinking, at the same time making sure that your other tactics, channels and strategies are still in place.

How can you change the perception of ABM internally?

Trying to extol the benefits and virtues of a program before you've got one set up, to a business that isn't necessarily bought in, isn't really the way to go about changing internal perceptions about ABM!

Start with something small, almost like a pilot, so you can demonstrate results, take a business case back, and have that conversation. And make it understandable by using the same language that your business uses already. Coming at it with Marketing jargon and a load of acronyms nobody really understands is only going to make things more difficult when questions are asked about where the value is.

How can you resource ABM properly?

“When you're thinking about setting up your ABM program, you should consider the resource that you have available, and do the things that are highest impact first.”

- Josh Weale, Head of ABM at strategicabm

This is a bit like, ‘How long is a piece of string?’ Because it depends so much on different factors – from the type of ABM program to who you're targeting, what technology stack you've got, the level of ABM maturity or understanding within
the business… and so on.

It’s more about ways to get into an ABM program and an ABM way of thinking, without necessarily having to embark
on a full-scale program from the get go. Particularly if you're short on resources internally; you need to find ways to prioritize that resource.

How do you
drive more opportunities?

If you haven't got that alignment with Sales, you're not getting that information back from them about what's worked, what people are talking about in the Sales process… you want to be able to bring that back into the Marketing… to talk about what the Sales team is seeing succeed in their activities, as well.”

Jack Rawling, Head of ABM at strategicabm

The key here – as it is for Account-based Marketing in general – is alignment. Opportunities, metrics for the Three Rs – it's got to be about having Sales and Marketing aligned.

And not just in the picking and choosing of target accounts, either, but actually in terms of the teams’ engagement and activation. Having the Sales team working in a way that is aligned with what the Marketing team has done previously is absolutely essential.

What tech do you need to run a program?

It’s a matter of great debate, of course, but perhaps it is best to think about the minimum viable technology required. So, what is absolutely fundamental to an ABM program?

The main things are obviously access to intent data, CRMs, Marketing automation, and potentially some Sales automation stuff as well; so, activation tools, and ad and email platforms. And once you’ve got those in place, then you can look at the next-level stack, as your ABM maturity grows.

It’s fun, of course, to talk about gold-standard tech – if you had all the budget, time and resource to set it up – but as a foundation, keeping things simple and clear is best.

How do you get started with ABM?

Although similar to the previous challenge about pivoting to ABM, this is more focused around how to actually go about developing your first program.

So, a very big topic for future episodes of ABM Under the Hood, and beyond – going into detail about what that first couple of months of an ABM program looks like in practice. And also of course, what the lead-up into it looks like.

What’s the right budget for an ABM program?

“You have to ask the question: What are your objectives? If it's existing customer strategy, then you've already got a lot of intel you can use to start… If it's new acquisition, then there's research and insight you need to gather, and that can take more time – and more budget.”

- Josh Weale, Head of ABM at strategicabm

Again, this depends on various factors: What are you trying to achieve? Who are you trying to win? What's the size of your organization? What size deals are you trying to win? Etc.

Because ultimately, it comes down to smart Marketing investment – what you put in to get out. So, understanding where the channels are that can see the return you want. And building a view of what that looks like over the next 12, 18 months, two years – depending on your Sales cycle.

How do you measure a program’s success?

“I would probably put this as challenge number one… There's so many different tools available. There's so many different data sources. There's so many different ways of thinking about the data, and the metrics, and the campaigns.”

- Jack Rawlings, Head of ABM at strategicabm

There are certainly some standardized ways of measuring things, but also a lot of nuance. You need to think about specific client use cases, and who's the audience for your reporting?

From a tactical point of view, you ask how much engagement do we have? Who are we reaching? What are they doing? All of that is vital information to understand how your program is making an impact – but it's quite in the weeds! When you're trying to report and measure the success of your ABM program, you're talking at a much higher level.

How can you align Sales and Marketing?

“It's about speaking the same language. If you can… understand everything that each team is doing, and feel like you're one team, then that's how you can best foster a collaborative approach.”

- Josh Weale, Head of ABM at strategicabm

A question ABM Under the Hood will return to all the time. How do you get that Sales buy-in, first of all, but also working together as a team. It’s such a big topic, with lots of different approaches – all sorts of shapes and sizes when it comes to Sales and Marketing alignment!

There's an argument to call it an ‘ABM team’ that actually includes Sales and Marketing within it. That can work in some businesses; it depends on their size and where they've come from. But, the fact it's called Sales and Marketing just innately creates this division and this silo. And that's something you've got to try and avoid in an ABM program.