Lessons from the frontline in scaling your ABM programs

If the definition of ‘true’ ABM is an approach that treats key accounts as markets of one, what happens when you’re asked to scale your efforts to 10, 50 or even hundreds of accounts? This is a very real conundrum for ABMers today, who may have reported some of the highest ROI figures for any marketing activity for their 1:1 or 1:few ABM campaigns and, in response, are asked to scale those campaigns to cover more accounts.

Such is the success of ABM that we are increasingly witnessing this very targeted activity start to converge with traditional demand generation approaches as organizations look for the ‘love child’ of smarter demand generation and scalable ABM to meet growth objectives.  

Indeed, in its recent ‘State of ABM’ report, when Forrester posed the question, “what do marketers want next from their account-based marketing approach?” 82% of marketing professionals surveyed noted a desired future-state where demand and ABM are broadly or fully aligned. 

So what is the right way to scale ABM programs and does quantity always mean compromising on quality?

Recently, Agent3 was asked to present a session at the B2B Marketing Exchange Next-Level ABM Conference to discuss learnings, recommendations and practical tips for delivering impactful ABM programs at scale. Specifically, we covered two possible scaling models that Agent3 has innovated and used successfully with clients on multiple occasions.

For the first – the ‘Playbook-Activated’ model – we were lucky enough to have esteemed ABMer, Carrie Feord, previously of ServiceNow, join us to describe how that model was deployed to scale what was already a very mature and successful ABM practice at ServiceNow

For the second – the ‘Responsive ABM’ model – Greg Salmon presented a case study of how this approach generated over 100x ROI for Agent3 client, Splunk.

It was great to hear these lessons from the frontline, and audience feedback would suggest we hit upon some very real challenges.  If you missed it, we highly recommend carving 30 minutes out of your day to watch.  If you have any feedback, questions or comments, please do not hesitate to reach out at abm@agent3.com.