The ABM accelerator
Why martech is the difference between winning and losing
A full 81% of practitioners say ABM delivers higher ROI than other types of marketing, according to the 2023 State of Account-Based Marketing report by Momentum ITSMA and the ABM Leadership Alliance.
“What’s fascinating about ABM is not only that sales cycles are so much longer and so much more complex, but you’re trying to understand so many different stakeholders and you’re developing multiple relationships in parallel," says Jon Miller, a seasoned martech entrepreneur and former CMO of Demandbase, a leading ABM and go-to-market technology platform. “Technology provides an opportunity to help us master that complexity.”
That's why martech is as critical to your ABM strategy as governance, funding, and staff. As Latané Conant, Chief Market Officer of 6sense, a leading AI-powered ABM and data platform, says: "It’s not just a tool. It’s the foundational element of your marketing strategy. The difference between winning and losing is about the [tech]."
It’s also an area where ABM leaders stand out from the pack: 40% of leading ABM programs have a standardized account-level metrics dashboard that's at least a year old. Just 16% of all other programs have the same, according to our data.
Leading programs are also more likely to use martech and data more deeply than other programs, capitalizing on account intelligence, personalization, and account engagement data to create market-beating results.
Unfortunately, most organizations struggle to optimize martech for ABM. With over 11,000 solutions to choose from, how do you know if you have the right ones?
How would you characterize your current status with developing and using the following marketing tools/capabilities for ABM?
Mean rating (N-200)Momentum ITSMA and ABM Leadership Alliance, 2023 ABM Benchmark Study, November 2023
There are point solutions for specific ABM use cases, ABM platforms that promise to be a one-stop shop, and a whole host of challenges with integration, utilization, skills, data security, and cost. "Clients often come to us and ask, predictably, ‘What’s the best martech tool for the job?’" says Guy Phillips, Global Director of Learning and Development at Momentum ITSMA. "The answer to that is always, ‘It depends.’"
Scott Brinker, VP of Platform Ecosystem at HubSpot, a leading martech platform, and founder/editor of the blog Chief Marketing Technologist, adds: "No one should say [to a marketer], ‘these are the top three products, now off you go’, because you must know the business context for using them."
In Section Two, we explore why context is so important to getting the most from martech and offer five tips to help you break down the major barriers to better results.
ABM Depth of Technology and Data Use
Leaders (N~15)
Others(N~90)
ABM Platform*
4.1
3.3
Reporting and Analytics*
4.2
3.5
Content Personalization*
3.6
3.0
Account Intelligence and B2B data*
3.4
Account Engagement Data*
4.4
Surveys and Interviews within our ABM Accounts*
3.7
2.6
Note: Mean rating based on a 5-point scale where 1= Just scratching the surface and 5 = Fully leveraging the tools/capabilities. Source: Momentum ITSMA and ABM Leadership Alliance, 2023 ABM Benchmark Study, November 2023
