ABM-fit and readiness checklist

Dear Trencher,

Many B2B companies are so enthusiastic about account-based marketing (ABM) and jump straight into implementation without first checking whether ABM is the right solution for them.

Before diving into the development of an ABM strategy, we strongly recommend that you review the ABM-fit checklist below and assess your readiness to launch ABM.

In this newsletter, we'll look at some criteria for determining whether ABM is right for your business.

Let's get right into it.

1. Long sales cycle (>180 days)

If your sales cycle is short and transactional, we recommend focusing on demand-capturing activities (ads, SEO, cold outreach) instead of ABM.

2. ACV (average contract value) > $30k.

Will it pay off to proactively market and prospect a specific set of accounts? We suggest considering ABM if the LTV or ACV of your best customers is higher than $30k.

3. Hybrid sales: product + consulting + best practices training.

ABM is extremely important when you don’t only sell products, but also sell your expertise in solving challenges your buyers have.

It includes product training, consulting alongside implementation, and training on best practices.

4. TAM (target addressable market) <1000 companies.

If your market is limited to 500–1000 companies across the globe, you have no other choice than account-based marketing.

5. Multiple buyers are involved in vendor evaluation and buying processes.

If you usually deal with multiple people (3+) who influence the buying decision, ABM is a perfect strategy.

The first three points are crucial. Here is why.

Your market can be more than 1k companies, or you might sell to an SMB where you don’t have lots of decision-makers, but the ACV is high.

E.g. Software development service or enrichment software like Zoominfo.

After analyzing these initial criteria, if it turns out that ABM is right for you, you will now have to check if your company is ready to launch it.

5 questions to check your readiness to launch ABM

Here are 5 questions that will help you see if your company is ready to launch ABM.

1. Do we have a clear ICP (Ideal customer profile) and account qualification criteria to build a list of companies that are likely to buy our product?

Start with selecting a target vertical and then develop your ICP including the 5 following pillars:

• Firmographics

• Buying committee structure (roles, stages they join, reasons to buy and not to buy, KPIs)

• Account qualification and disqualification criteria

• Account segmentation

• Account enrichment (buying and demand triggers, research, evaluation, and decision-making processes, channels, etc.)

Many B2B companies make two critical mistakes when developing ICP for ABM programs.

a) Developing their ICP based on a wish list of big logos and big brands.

I totally get that you want to have Microsoft’s logo on your website; cool. But if Microsoft doesn’t have a need for your product, ABM won’t help.

ABM is not about magically converting any type of company into a customer. Rather, ABM is about first identifying companies that have a need that your product solves, and then offering them customized, appropriate solutions.

b) Going too broad with the ICP definition.

Sorry to break it to you but «all startups from Boston that have raised money recently», «Round A SaaS companies», «European financial institutions» are no clear enough ICPs.

Broad targeting turns your company into a generic, one-size-fits-all vendor. And by so doing, your buyers won’t see any difference between you and the competition; and of course, they’ll only buy from you if your prices are lower.

See, you must accept the fact that not everybody is going to buy your product. The narrower your focus, the higher your ROI will be.

2. Do we have a value proposition and collateral for specific vertical and job roles?

Enterprise buyers don’t care about your elevator pitch. They care about how your product solves their challenges or helps them hit their OKRs. Hence, your value proposition should be tailored to specific verticals and individual buyers.

Keep in mind that there is always a risk of bringing an unknown/not well-known vendor. You just need to create a buyer enablement program for a selected vertical to mitigate these risks, including:

• Vertical implementation case studies

• Testimonials;

• ROI justification;

• Migration process;

• Security, etc.

3. Do we have a clear playbook to create awareness inside target accounts, generate demand, and activate them?

ABM requires manual account development, including:

• connections with multiple buying committee members;

• engaging and building relationships with them;

• identifying their needs and educating them on different ways to solve their challenges;

• coming up with personalized solutions.

4. Can we create a dedicated ABM team that doesn’t have pipeline pressure and has time to build ABM motion?

As you can see from the ABM-fit checklist, launching an ABM program will take time. You need a dedicated team that can commit at least 70% of their time to run the program for the next 3–6 months.

Otherwise, in 2–6 weeks you’ll hear that “it doesn’t work”, and the program will be shut down.

5. Do we have an alignment between marketing, sales, and executives on how to measure the campaign’s progress and performance?

Define leading and lagging indicators to measure the progress of the campaign and get approval from execs and sales.

In a nutshell, these are all the elements you need to launch a successful ABM program. It's important to bear in mind that ABM is not air cover and lead generation on steroids that can convert a wish list of accounts into customers.

ABM is a strategic motion to identify companies that need your product, customize your solution for them, and generate long-term customers.

To develop this motion, your company must allocate the necessary resources and build a solid foundation.

There are no shortcuts.

If ABM is a right fit for your company, get step-by-step guidelines on developing an ABM strategy from scratch in our ABM playbook.

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QUESTIONS FROM FELLOW TRENCHERS

• Hello everyone, am looking for a lead scoring tool that could score leads based on 1- fit criteria (such as job title, company size, industry..etc) 2- events (such as web page visits, webinars attendance..), and 3- Product usage (action inside our product)… any suggestions for tools that also integrates with Hubspot & Mixpanel…

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See you in Trenches 😉

Adechina D. ODJO