What ABM “leaders”
do differently

In this section: comparing organizations that achieve significantly higher returns from ABM compared to other marketing initiatives, versus those that report the same or lower ROI

ABM leaders are more aligned, impactful and
client-centric

We’re seeing a correlation between embedding ABM practices more widely across the organization and better ABM ROI – though cause and effect are not clear.

What’s certain is that leaders are more likely to say that “ABM is important in driving growth in key accounts,” “the value of ABM is widely understood and valued,” and “ABM practices inform and enrich all marketing activity.”

There’s also a strong difference between leaders’ and laggards’ level of account-centricity in general: leaders are much more likely to have shifted from a product-oriented approach to one that prioritizes the needs, challenges, and goals of their most important clients.

48^%

of leaders say ABM enriches all our marketing activity vs 18% of laggards

Laggards rely more on relationship owners to win

We asked marketers to tell us what their key accounts’ top three deciding factors are when making a purchase decision.

Top three deciding factors according to leaders:

1.

Trustworthiness

2.

Fresh ideas and innovation/
Flexibility in our approach

3.

Our knowledge of the account’s
unique needs

Top three deciding factors according to laggards:

1.

Quality of the relationship between
our account and sales rep

2.

Fresh ideas and innovation/
Our knowledge of the account’s industry

3.

Trustworthiness

While leaders and laggards agree on two of the top three factors (with leaders favoring a more nuanced/deeper knowledge compared to laggards’ broader knowledge), laggards appear to place a premium on the individual relationship between the sales rep and the account.

In contrast, leaders believe their accounts value scalable capabilities that go beyond ‘individual acts of heroism.’ Trustworthiness, fresh ideas and innovation, flexibility, and deep account knowledge are scalable capabilities across the marketing and sales teams. They rely on a collaborative effort. Laggards, however, believe their clients are in the thrall of the account owner, which suggests their approach to relationship management is spearheaded by a single figure.

There is also an interesting distinction between leaders’ emphasis on unique account intelligence versus laggards’ emphasis on broader industry knowledge. This suggests that laggards are unable (or choose not) to go deeper in their intelligence and understanding of their key accounts’ organizations and instead rely on more general knowledge.

Our Client Buying Index (CBX) survey showed that salespeople/account managers are not among the most trusted stakeholders in your organization. Subject-matter experts and senior executives represented 73% of the vote for the most trusted stakeholders, versus just 18% for sales and account managers.

ABM leaders
have balanced
objectives

Leaders and laggards share many of the same objectives related to customer acquisition and retention. However, leaders are more likely to be judged across a broader range of goals. For instance, 28% of leaders have formal objectives related to reducing churn, versus just 17% of laggards.

Laggards also place more emphasis on acquisition – 70% have objectives related to increasing the number of new customers, compared to 59% of leaders.

28^%

of leaders include “reducing churn”
in their objectives vs 17% of laggards

Leaders have deeper knowledge and personalization

Leaders believe clients make purchase decisions based on the deep knowledge of their unique needs. Laggards think clients value broader industry knowledge.

This contradiction could be down to organizations’ ability to deeply understand their clients. Just a quarter of laggards feel they are “fully leveraging” their customer data platform (CDP) and account intelligence, versus 39% of leaders.

Related to or because of this, leaders are more sophisticated in their content personalization – 37% believe they’re fully leveraging content personalization versus just 26% of laggards. Without those account insights, laggards are unable to generate client-led, personalized content. We know that laggards are less client-centric overall and this correlates to poorer ABM ROI.

39^%

of leaders are “fully leveraging”
account intelligence vs 25% of laggards

Leaders stay engaged throughout the buying process

Both leaders and laggards recognize that the buying process is changing, and clients are becoming more empowered and self-service-oriented. Both groups agree that clients are demanding more attention from executive teams and subject-matter experts (SMEs). (Remember, clients tend to trust SMEs and executives the most out of your teams.)

However, leaders are more likely than laggards to recognize that clients want more support in building the business case for change (42% versus 28%, respectively). This suggests leaders are not using ABM merely as a sophisticated lead generation tactic but are engaged in deals mid-funnel. Enabling clients to build a business case also demonstrates the strategic value of the partnership between leaders and their clients.

42^%

of leaders recognize clients need business case support vs 28% of laggards

Leaders place a premium on consistency and collaboration

47^%

of leaders say hiring talent is a
top challenge vs 34% of laggards

Staffing and skills are critical parts of the Momentum ITSMA Account-Based Marketing Adoption Framework, and this is reflected in the benchmarking data. While marketers have long lamented the shortage of skills, ABM leaders are more likely to recognize “hiring ABM-ers with the right experience, skills, and talent” as a top challenge (47% versus 34%).

Leaders are also more likely to recognize the challenge of “aligning the wider marketing organization to ABM strategy, priorities, and processes” (37% versus 20%) and take steps to rectify it. There’s strong reason to: 45% of marketers who strongly agree the role of ABM in driving growth on key accounts “is widely understood and valued across the organization” saw significantly higher ROI from ABM compared to traditional marketing initiatives.