12 tips for ABM success in 2023

12 tips
for ABM success
in 2023

A New Year brings new opportunities to win, grow and retain your most valuable accounts.

With this in mind, we’ve put together some helpful tips from a few special ABMers. It’s time to get set for a year of ABM wins.

Remember: ABM is a marathon, not a sprint. That means it takes time! And what better time than now, to set yourself up for success down the line?

But, how do you know you’re winning? After all, you need to measure wins throughout the journey.

And for many ABMers this is where the challenge comes in. Measuring ABM wins can seem daunting. A program has many moving parts, a multitude of stakeholders, and long cycles.

But setting yourself up for success doesn’t have to be scary. You can make sure you’re heading in the right direction, by measuring against the ‘Three Rs’ of ABM:

Reputation
Relationships
Revenue

Monitoring these core metrics will help to keep your ABM program on track. They act as a base – a place to return to when you need a health check.

Ready to transform your programs with the Three R’s in 2023? Here’s are some great tips from our ABM experts to help you along the way.

Reputation

Your reputation is the legitimacy you have within a particular industry/sector. It’s a track record of trust, built up over time with your target accounts.

In ABM, strengthening your reputation is key! You want to be the first name that comes into your accounts’ minds when they’re ready to buy. And in the meantime, you want them to think of you as a trusted advisor who understands them.

Here are a few tips from our ABM experts that will guide you in growing your reputation in 2023:

Dive into insights

Jack Rawlings | Head of ABM | strategicabm

Without insights, you’re only working with half the picture.

Jack Rawlings, Head of ABM at strategicabm, shares how insights allow you to measure your reputation with a target account. It’s about gaining an understanding – both early on and throughout the ABM journey.

You need to know how an account perceives your business, whether your value proposition resonates, how they engage with your content, what drives clicks and, ultimately, what you’ve done right to close a deal.

Without insights, you’re a rudderless ship.

They map out your journey and act as a compass. They’re a source of truth to return to, and they help to keep your destination in sight.

With insights, you’re really getting into the customer’s mindset. You’re understanding what it is that they’re worried about. What are their pain points and what are their challenges.

Jack Rawlings | Head of ABM | strategicabm

Assess your relevancy

Alex Embling | CEO | strategicabm

Understand your ‘why’.

What does that mean? It means understanding your purpose. Knowing why you do what you do, and how that aligns and resonates with your customers.

Your reputation is built on the trust an account has for you and how legitimate they perceive you to be.

So ask yourself, “Why are we relevant?”

Alex Embling, CEO of strategicabm, explains why this is such an important question.

If you can’t answer this in the context of your client, chances are your reputation will suffer. Use this as a barometer throughout your ABM program to ensure that everything you do has a purpose.

Make 2023 the year of knowing your ‘why’.

You really need to understand at a deep level why you’re relevant to your accounts, your cluster of accounts, or your wider audience.

Alex Embling |CEO | strategicabm

Know where you’re going

Désirée Daniels | Google Cloud

A successful ABM program starts with setting out your goals and having a plan.

These tell you where to start, and keep you on track for those ABM wins.

Désirée Daniels, Head of ABM for Retail, Fashion, Beauty and Consumer at Google Cloud, recently shared some helpful tips with us to get you ready for the year to come.

She highlighted the importance of a strong set of goals and a well-defined Ideal Customer Profile (ICP).

While goals point the needle in the right direction, an ICP tells you what your destination looks like. It helps you target the right accounts to suit the outcome you’re looking for.

But remember, while an account may suit your ICP, you still need to measure the reputation you have with them and continue to build on it.

Use insights, stay agile, and remain relevant.

Relationships

ABM is an organization-wide strategy. It requires buy-in, trust, and goal alignment from your own internal stakeholders. Getting your Sales team on board is essential - so these are the first relationships to strengthen!

But when it comes to measured success - ABM of course requires trust from the influencers and decision-makers within your target accounts.

Effective ABM programs (run by well-aligned teams!) work to strengthen account relationships through relevance, encourage authentic trust - and help accounts feel you’re their ‘go-to vendor’.

Our ABM experts have shared some tips that will help ensure a solid foundation for long-lasting relationships.

Know your customer

Gabrielle Pirzad | Cloud Software Group

In any relationship, it helps to know what makes a person tick. What are their strengths, and where could they use a little help?

Your customer is no different. To build a strong relationship with them, Gabrielle Pirzad, Head of Global ABM Strategy at Cloud Software Group, says you need to get under their skin.

What does this mean?

It means experiencing a day in their life. Find out what a normal day looks like to learn their pain points, understand their culture, and foster those relationships.

If you truly want to tailor your content, tailor your messaging – you need to get under the skin of your customer.

Gabrielle Pirzad | Head of Global ABM Strategy | Cloud Software Group

Make time for empathy

Fes Askari | Director of Sales | strategicabm

It’s tough for a relationship to succeed without empathy.

People experience the world in different ways and, without empathy, the effect those experiences may have can get lost.

Empathy allows us to take a step back and consider a situation from another perspective. It allows us to see the world through a new lens – one that could reshape our approach.

Fes Askari, Director of Sales and Strategic Accounts at strategicabm, reminds us to actively make time to prioritize empathy.

As a building block to a successful relationship, it can deepen those connections and create a lasting bond.

As a building block to a successful relationship, it can deepen those connections and create a lasting bond.

Fes Askari, Director of Sales and Strategic Accounts at strategicabm

Select the right accounts

Christian Weiss | Autodesk

Account selection is an important part of ABM. It tells you where you’re aiming and allows you to focus on solving a problem and adding value.

The risk, however, is that without good account selection, you end up doing industry marketing. It’s broad and impersonal – and it’s not ABM.

Christian Weiss, Director of ABM at Autodesk, offers up a fresh approach to account selection. He advises selecting a few example accounts, analyzing them deeply, and determining some key outcomes they would like to achieve.

This approach is about starting small and scaling.

To do this, you need to develop good relationships within your example accounts to gain a true understanding of how you can help them. If you take the time, you’ll reap the rewards.

Find three to five outcomes your customer would like to achieve… and then build your content and messaging based on that.

Christian Weiss | Director of ABM (EMEA) | Autodesk

Find an ABM champion

Hillary Carpio | Snowflake

An ABM champion is someone who believes in your mission.

It’s not always easy to find that person, but once you do, you have someone to help develop your ABM pilot program and to celebrate the small wins with.

Hillary Carpio, Senior Director of Account-based Marketing at Snowflake, shared this tip with us – another example of how fostering relationships can help on your journey.

She says that you may need to look around before you find the right colleague you can really lean into. That person will help to get your program off the ground and allow you to scale with the knowledge that you have support.

Not everyone’s an ABM champion – and that’s okay.

Hillary Carpio |Senior Director, Account
Based Marketing | Snowflake

Make friends with Sales

Marnie Giuranna Zaccaria | Finastra

Without Sales, ABM won’t succeed.

You need alignment between your Marketing and Sales teams to get the best out of your program. We know the importance of building strong relationships with accounts, but don’t neglect those closer to home.

Marnie Giuranna Zaccaria, Global ABM Lead at Finastra, reminds us to communicate our goals and strategy with Sales. You can’t expect them to be on board if you don’t put in the effort.

Once you have their buy-in, you’ll both be pointing in the same direction and be on track to achieve ABM success in 2023.

Don’t forget to build in a couple of Sales enablement sessions into your yearly Marketing plan. Remind Sales what a gift ABM is and what importance it has for their accounts.

Marnie Giuranna Zaccaria |Global ABM Lead | Finastra

Revenue

This is the R most marketers are familiar with!

Numbers are what your stakeholders want to see at the end of the day, and is one of the more tangible measures of program success.

But remember, ABM is a marathon. It’s not about quick wins and instant results. It’s about creating authentic trust, long-term advocacy, and nurturing accounts through long sales cycles.

So as you monitor your success metrics throughout your journey - whether that’s meetings booked or your win rate - keep in mind that quality results and real success takes time.

Here’s what our expert ABMers said:

Manage expectations

Davis Potter | Scale AI

If it’s been said once, it’s been said a thousand times. ABM is a long game.

If you start a program hoping to see results in one or two months, you know ABM is not for you. ABM is not a one-size-fits-all strategy – and knowing when it’s right (and when it isn’t) is the first question you should be asking.

Davis Potter, ABM Marketing Manager for Strategic Accounts at Scale AI, is keen for us to keep this front of mind. Know what you’ve set out to do and don’t expect immediate results.

He also reminds us to set the right expectations for all relevant stakeholders.

Teams unfamiliar with ABM may want to see those quick results and get money in the bank. Explain the process and help them to understand that the wait will be worth it.

ABM campaigns are six-to-twelve-month, multi-touch campaigns. It is going to take time in order to realize the immense results you’re hoping for.

Davis Potter | ABM Marketing Manager for Strategic Accounts | Scale AI

Start scaling

Xenia Sapanidi | Head of Demand | strategicabm

ABM is resource-intensive. It’s hyper-personalized – and that doesn’t come with just a few clicks of a button.

This means that teams can sometimes see ABM as being difficult to scale. It can seem daunting and put people off.

Head of Demand at strategicabm, Xenia Sapanidi, tells us how to tackle this problem.

Her advice is to start small. Find out what works for your company and the solution you’re offering. Then, using the right technology, you can begin to scale.

This is no mean feat – it can take time and requires optimization. However, once you’ve found a recipe that works, you can scale your program and increase revenue.

Once you’ve found what works and delivers results, you can find the right web personalization technology with the right ABM and data platforms, to take the next step in your program.

Xenia Sapanidi, Head of Demand at strategicabm

Get obsessed with data

Amber Bogie | Reachdesk

Data is part of what drives a successful ABM campaign.

It shapes your program and allows you to optimize along the way. Without data, you have little to inform your decisions.

Amber Bogie, Director of Global Demand Generation at Reachdesk, has some advice for the coming year – and that’s to obsess over data.

Pore over the numbers and look for patterns. This will help you optimize and improve your campaigns, thus driving revenue.

When it comes to data, make best friends with your data!

Amber Bogie | Director of Global Demand Generation | Reachdesk

Explore the Metaverse

Michael Christodoulou | Creative Director | strategicabm

The Metaverse – it’s THE buzzword in tech, marketing and the world of social media right now.

As a term, it bounces around a lot. Few people understand what it is and what role it will play in the future, however. The truth is, the Metaverse is still in its infancy. We really don’t know everything that it is and everything it can become. What we do know is that we’re standing on the precipice of something new that could revolutionize the way we work and interact.

Michael Christodoulou, Creative Director at strategicabm, thinks it can offer a new way of engaging with your accounts.

As this develops, there will be opportunities to explore experiences and sales channels that can change the way you do business.

We’ve spoken about ways of generating and maximizing revenue, but the Metaverse may offer an entirely new source.

It helps to think of the Metaverse like this – every type of service you can do in the real world, you can do in the virtual world.

Michael Christodoulou, Creative Director at strategicabm

Bring on the
New Year!

Ready to make 2023 your year?

You might be starting your first ABM program, hoping to scale, or looking for ways to optimize your offering. Whatever it is, make sure you keep the ‘Three Rs’ in mind:

Reputation, relationships and revenue.

These should form the foundation of your program and act as that all-important barometer. Start now, stay focused and, with some patience, you’ll begin seeing results.