Fazley RabbiAccount-based marketing (ABM) is a B2B approach in which you choose a short list of specific companies you would most like as customers, then plan your marketing and sales around each one. Instead of reaching out widely and sorting through whoever responds, you decide in advance who you want and learn as much as you can about them. Each target company, called an "account", gets research, messages and contact designed for its own situation.
How ABM differs from broad lead generation
| Broad lead generation | Account-based marketing | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting point | A large audience | A named list of companies |
| Message | One message for a whole segment | Tailored to each account |
| What counts as success | Number of leads | Progress inside each target account |
| Who is involved | Marketing first, then sales | Marketing and sales together from the start |
| Effort per company | Low | High |
| Best suited to | Many smaller deals | Fewer, larger, longer deals |
Neither approach is better in general. They suit different businesses, and many firms use both: broad activity for steady enquiries, and ABM for a few accounts that would change the business if won.
When ABM fits, and when it does not
Good fit
- Each deal is large enough to justify hours of research and personal attention.
- Your possible customers form a known, limited group, such as hospital groups, large factories, banks, or foreign brands in your product category.
- Several people take part in each buying decision.
- You can adapt your offer to each customer's needs.
Poor fit
- You sell low-priced products to many buyers.
- You do not yet know which kinds of companies make your best customers. Work out your ideal customer profile first.
- You need a large number of new conversations quickly.
Running ABM step by step
- Choose the accounts. Keep the list short enough that you can research every company properly. Pick companies that match your ideal customer profile closely and where you have a real reason to think you can help.
- Map the buying group. For each account, identify the people involved: the decision-maker, the users, and the technical and finance contacts. Use buyer personas to plan what each of them cares about.
- Research each account. Read their website, news, public reports, job advertisements and social media. Note their priorities, recent changes and, if known, their current suppliers.
- Plan the touches. Decide how you will reach each person over several weeks: a personal email, a LinkedIn connection with a thoughtful comment, a phone call, a useful document, an invitation to visit, or a meeting at a trade fair. For the LinkedIn side, see LinkedIn outreach that gets replies.
- Tailor the content. This does not have to be costly. A one-page note on how you would approach their particular problem can be enough.
- Work as one team. Whoever handles marketing and whoever sells should share the same account list, notes and next steps.
- Review account by account. Ask regularly: whom have we reached, who has responded, and what is the next step?
A hypothetical example
Imagine a leather goods manufacturer in Savar that wants to supply mid-sized European fashion brands. Rather than emailing hundreds of importers, it chooses a short list of brands whose style and order sizes suit its factory. For each brand, it identifies the sourcing manager and the product developer, studies their current collections and prepares a short sample book showing similar items it could make. It writes to each person individually, follows up on LinkedIn, and invites them to visit its stand at a trade fair it already plans to attend. Progress is tracked brand by brand, not by the number of emails sent. For more on reaching overseas buyers, see finding and contacting foreign buyers.
What to measure
Lead counts are the wrong measure for ABM. Track instead:
- How many target accounts have at least one engaged contact
- How many people in each buying group you have reached
- Meetings held and proposals sent for each account
- Deals won, and how long they took
Common mistakes
- Choosing accounts because they are famous rather than because they fit
- Calling it ABM but sending the same template to everyone
- Giving up too early, when large accounts often take many months
- Contacting so many people at one company, so often, that it feels like pressure
Where to start
Write down the companies you would most like to work with and, beside each, one honest reason why you could help them. Cross out any company where you cannot write that reason. What remains is your first ABM list. If you would like help researching and approaching those accounts, you can get in touch.