A round-up of the day
Insights and inspiration from the day’s dynamic sessions
Gen AI has a huge role in helping us re-think challenges of strategic client growth, while the need to protect confidential information is paramount. Momentum ITSMA has been piloting Generative AI across programs – expanding research datasets, adding context for account teams and for business cases modelling. To look beyond the tech, Rob sat down with Rhiannon to explore the fundamental shifts this will bring to ABM.
The emergence of Generative AI is transforming the entire ABM landscape, according to Rhiannon and Rob. As companies dig into the capabilities that Gen AI tools have enabled, ABM-ers can barely keep up with the opportunities and challenges.
From account insight and creative personalization to new ways to engage and collaborate, Gen AI suggests that an overhaul of every aspect of ABM is coming fast.
Much of the early excitement revolves around efficiency and scale, automating the development of content and connection. But this is just scratching the surface. As with the early days of the Web and social media, it’s hard to even imagine the Gen AI use cases just a few years from now.
As we dive in, our rethink must address a wide range of concerns: What types of guardrails and governance can mitigate risk, address biases, and ensure ethical use?
How can we cut through when buyers deploy their own bots to filter the noise and design new solutions? Which types of partners, vendors, and agencies still make sense?
Core ABM principles can provide the most important guidance: Client-centricity, cross-functional collaboration, and shared value every step of the way. By leveraging Gen AI smartly, remarkable results are within reach.
ABM Leader, Global Marketing, PwC
SVP, Advisory, Momentum ITSMA
Andrew and Rob shared some fantastic insights, telling us the first step is to start small and grow. It’s important that we don’t overreach by selecting a manageable number of accounts and scaling up gradually. Strategic account selection, and prioritizing accounts with high growth potential is also a vital component. Clearly define your success metrics, align them with your specific business goals, and communicate them effectively to the rest of your organization to showcase the tangible impact of ABM. They likened this to a map that guides us, allowing us to measure progress accurately and demonstrate the value of our efforts.
Rob told us he believes ABM succeeds if we treat it as an account-based mindset, and we explored the power of sharing compelling customer stories to gain support and understanding, connecting the dots between our programs and our overarching business objectives. As collaboration is the lifeblood of ABM, working closely with our sales teams ensures alignment and maximizes results.
To drive successful ABM, Andrew and Rob urged us to embrace organizational change and invest in capabilities like analytics and Centers of Excellence. Staying agile, adapting our approach, and exploring new horizons are crucial elements to stay ahead in the ever-evolving ABM landscape.
Alisha announced new capabilities Momentum ITSMA has been building as the leading strategic client growth consultancy.
This includes research-based thought leadership to help build reputation in strategic clients and the development of its new Strategic Client GTM Maturity Model, to help organizations develop people, processes, and technology around clients.
Vice President, Global ABM, Kyndryl
Head of Enterprise Marketing, Google Cloud
Chief Client Officer, Momentum ITSMA
In the world of sales and marketing, alignment holds the key to success. When teams lack synchronicity, the business suffers. In this captivating discussion, we discovered the power of enablement in overcoming these challenges.
Sales and marketing dynamics can sometimes resemble a clash between cats and dogs. Shockingly, we learned that a staggering 70% of created content goes unused or wasted, leaving sales to rely on outdated materials, mismatched slides, and inconsistent messaging. The result? Confusion, frustration, and a loss of confidence and trust.
Criteo experienced these struggles first hand, prompting them to implement an ABM program and turn to Highspot for a centralized content platform.
To outpace competitors, they focused on enhancing messaging and positioning, ensuring sales had a crystal-clear understanding.
The transformation into a global commerce media provider led to a content production surge, unleashing chaos. Sales teams grappled with finding up-to-date information, while marketing struggled to track assets across various platforms.
Without a single source of truth, identifying the assets driving real results and understanding customer progression through the sales funnel was almost impossible.
Deploying analytics proved to be Criteo's saving grace. Gaining valuable insights into asset sharing, downloads, and usage patterns, meant they could effectively course-correct – something that would have been very difficult without the right data.
Product Marketing Director, Criteo
Head of EMEA Marketing, Highspot
Drawing on findings from the recent Momentum ITSMA Client Buying Index Study (CBX), Adam revealed caution is the prevailing theme, driven not just by macro-economic uncertainty but also the growing complexity of solutions and, consequently, the fear of making costly mistakes. We discovered buyers are seeking transparency, flexibility, and proof of concept, while looking for engagement with thought leaders who understand their business.
A startling 33% of enterprise deals stall before completion. In other words, the buyer starts out on their journey, then stops the process. Almost all the reasons for this are internal and organizational – for example, including the turnover of executives on the buyer's side.
The hypothesis here is that when an internal champion moves on, the deal he or she was championing grinds to a halt.
Adam covered many key trends. Executive Briefing Centers have emerged as powerful tools right the way across the buyer journey, educating clients on industry trends and helping them get to a decision. Interestingly, incumbents seem to be regaining some of their historic power.
Perhaps the theme that provoked the most discussion was the finding that enterprise buyers are under pressure to deliver measurable ROI within 12 months. Time to value has shrunk and enterprises are actively favouring providers aligned with this ROI objective.
Adam raised the interesting question of what this means for ABM programs – do we also need to be delivering tangible results and demonstrable, measurable inside 12 months?
Head of Consulting, Momentum ITSMA
"Fewer customers but bigger returns" was a striking phrase Paul used to characterize the potential impact of ABM.
During a thought-provoking session, we discussed ABM from a sales leader's perspective. When done properly, Paul maintained, ABM aligns marketing, sales, professional services, and technical efforts, acting as a collaboration point that de-risks customer engagements. He argued forcefully that a cookie-cutter approach is not appropriate. Every enterprise has a different technology landscape and is staffed by different people. Every account is unique.
ABM helps to pinpoint opportunities and cut down on wasted sales time.
This is particularly important as almost all clients carry out substantial research before engaging in conversations with a salesperson, who consequently has less time to engage and influence a client. ABM facilitates purposeful and focused conversations.
While buying teams may be large, we explored how the bulk of decision-making often occurs within a smaller sub-group.
This has always been the case. But the challenge today is that the number of decision influencers are many and various – from procurement, legal, and compliance through to ESG and DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) stakeholders. Insights from ABM can help the salesperson bring clarity to this often complex set-up.
Regional Vice President, Cloudera
Partner & SVP Research, Momentum ITSMA
How do you scale a global ABM program for hundreds of accounts across multiple verticals and geographies, with different degrees of relationship maturity?
Over the last 18 months, Momentum ITSMA has joined forces with Colt to tackle this challenge head-on and achieve Colt’s ambitious growth targets. Leveraging Turtl as their key tech enabler for effective tracking, measurement, and scaling on 1:few and 1:one.Di shared the three key building blocks for success:1. Programmatic framework – account clustering using a technographic analysis method supported by sales insights and intent data, and having a centralized, easy-to-access content bank
2. Execution support – having the right extended team to support with data prep, content personalization for 1:few and 1:1 approach and technical set up3. Tech enablers – automating the process, being able to personalize at scale and comprehensive measurement
Nick highlighted the importance of a solid framework and plan to maximize the technology’s potential. He demonstrated how clients can use Turtl to scale their ABM programs, while addressing wider organizational challenges and preserving the core principles of ABM.
Securing sales champions, obtaining vital support, and embracing the right technology were key to Colt's ABM success.
Internal alignment between sales and marketing, trusted partnerships with organizations like Momentum ITSMA, and leveraging advanced technology enabled scalable personalization and effective account targeting. All critical factors closely aligned with findings from Momentum ITSMA’s Client Buying Index and ABM Benchmarking studies.
Global Capital Markets Marketing Manager, Colt Technology Services
CEO and Founder, Turtl
Consultant, Momentum ITSMA
Celia and Vicky held the audience with an engaging discussion on how we can align teams effectively to create maximum impact. ABM is seen as a complex orchestration, involving multiple elements within an organization – something Celia likened to herding cats, as up to 20 teams can be involved. So, striking the right balance between specialized teams is crucial to reduce noise and maintain conviction.
We explored the challenges of coordinating multiple teams, the differentiation and disruption in marketing efforts, and the importance of building reputation and relationships.
Celia highlighted the value of engaging with internal customers and cultivating advocates through self-promotion and sharing successes.
Vicky provided a unique perspective by discussing an ‘unmarketing’ approach, highlighting the pivotal role of marketers in providing client insights and equipping teams with the right tools to foster successful conversations – emphasizing the indispensable role of internal buy-in for successful ABM implementations. Consistent messaging across teams, coupled with passion, process management, and energy of ABM-ers emerged as vital ingredients for triumph.
Guy summarized the session as stakeholder collaboration and communication is critical, as is senior stakeholder buy-in and support.
To better enable your teams, Momentum ITSMA has been developing its practitioner-level assessments to support learning programs, and has now developed its own ROI model to help make the case for professional development.
Senior ABM Practitioner, Service Now
ABM Lead, Arup
Global Director of L&D, Momentum ITSMA
Greg and Al addressed the complexity of unlocking the potential of ABM and ABX programs at a 1:many level – discussing how navigating through a multitude of competing priorities across various dimensions, including people, processes, platforms, and planning is a challenge. As marketers, it’s tempting to rush into action prematurely, driven by our desire to deliver delightful buyer experiences. So, we explored why it's crucial to avoid getting entangled in the nitty-gritty of content creation, persona development, and other intermediate steps without first establishing a clear blueprint for engagement. Otherwise, the result often falls short, leading to a subpar buyer experience due to a lack of alignment.
We heard why, to effectively engage buyers at scale, it becomes imperative to have a well-defined orchestration blueprint that aligns journey stages with measurable metrics, stage-based objectives, teams, and channels. Without this strategic framework in place, meeting the diverse needs of expanding buying groups becomes nearly impossible. As the number of individuals within these groups grows, there’s a need to meet all of them where they are as individuals, and as part of a group. Establishing a solid foundation and continuously refining it through iterative processes is critical for success in this dynamic landscape.
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