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The guest on this ABM Done Right Podcast mentioned on LinkedIn recently that in many cases ABM = Almost But Meh. 𝐆𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 ‘𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐢𝐧’ 𝐨𝐧 𝐀𝐁𝐌 𝐢𝐬𝐧’𝐭 𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐤𝐲. 𝐆𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐟𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐢𝐬.

He also said that - Most teams say they “do ABM.” What they really mean is they run a few ads to a named account list, and call it strategy. That’s not Account-Based Marketing. It's “Almost But Meh.”

ABM only works if you’re all in and deeply focused. The end state is that each account becomes effectively a market of one.

- Sales and marketing are aligned on the same few accounts
- Content is built for specific buying committees, not just personas in theory
- Every touchpoint is orchestrated

Brad Fehler, Head of Growth Marketing for Prolific joined Kristina Jaramillo and Eric Gruber to discuss:

1. How and why most ABM programs are almost, but meh.

2: How most teams are not ABM-ready before they launch.

3 How teams are using legacy frameworks and approaches that were created 22 years ago.

4: How teams are trying to scale ABM (even 1:1 ABM) and failing -- and how ABM cannot be automated even though platforms like Mutiny and Tofu are talking about scaling 1:1.

5. How we need to think about content when doing ABM

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Brandon Redlinger posted on LinkedIn that marketing doesn’t deserve a seat at the table by default. Marketing doesn’t have the respect of the CRO by default. Marketing should have a seat at the table and earn the respect of the CRO and sales, but other members of the C-suite lose confidence in Marketing’s ability to contribute more broadly than just branding and campaigns. They need to see that:

• You develop strategies that directly align with the company’s financial objectives.
• You collaborate more effectively with sales, customer success, product, and finance.
• You drive measurable impact on business, revenue, and margin growth – and not just pipeline.

In this podcast episode, Jayashree Rajan (CMO of Nexla) joined Eric Gruber (CEO of Personal ABM to discuss:

1. How CMOs need to rethink what ABM is --- and their approach? You'll see how most CMOs and their teams are only doing list-based marketing or account-based demand gen vs. changing the interactions that all teams have and the account experiences that are delivered across the buying journey and customer lifecycle.

2. How CMOs need to approach ABM readiness and execution.

3. How we should take a data-driven evaluation approach for actual impact

4. How CMOs need to change their thoughts on scaling and AI when it comes to ABM -- and how we should focus on scaling for impact vs. just scaling activities.

5. How to align your CEO, CRO, CFO, and CCO with marketing when it comes to ABM or a strategic account program.

After listening to this episode, you may want to check out the supporting article below:

https://www.personalabm.com/how-cmos-need-to-change-their-thinking-of-what-abm-is/

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In this episode of the ABM Done Right Podcast, Eric Gruber (CEO of Personal ABM) talks to Rachel Donner at Snyk about their ABM programs in relation to their customer success programs.

You will hear:

1. How true ABM belongs closer to sales and CS than marketing, and why the CRO and CCO should own it.

2. What true 1:1 ABM is - and how Snyk is using it to drive adoption, retention, and account expansion.

4. The 1:1 ABM content that is needed to protect and expand accounts.

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A couple of months ago, Gabe Rogl, the CEO of Demandbase, posted:

BGM, or Buying Group Marketing, is the new ABM. Yes, ABM was named wrong in the first place. It should have been account-based go-to market, or account-based experience. But it's because it's just not a marketing thing. And yes, it's still foundational for businesses that market complex solutions with long sales cycles, but there's been a clear evolution the last 15 years that's led us to the criticality of buying groups.

It started around 2010, when the lead-based approach reached its endpoint. That led to the decade-plus evolution of ABM as a practice, as a job function, and as a technology. ABM was a huge step forward because it focused resources on accounts that led to the greatest LTV and made sales and marketing alignment a priority. But today, the best go-to markets are supercharging ABM by operationalizing buying groups as:

1. Not everyone in an account is relevant to the sales cycle.

2. There are more people involved in a sales cycle than ever before.

3. Accounts can purchase multiple products, focusing on the account alone without using buyer groups as a data object. This makes it very difficult to prospect, sell, forecast multiple opportunities in the same account.

4. Engaging buying groups de-risks every phase of revenue creation. Pipeline, win rates, renewal, expansion.

5. It is an absolute competitive differentiator right now, because few companies are doing it well.

This is why he says BGM initiatives will drive the next wave of B2B growth. But on this episode, Jessica Fewless at Inverta joined Kristina Jaramillo and Eric Gruber to challenge Gabe's post and thoughts.

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Everyone makes ABM about accounts - and better account targeting. But ABM is not really about accounts. It's about the buyers inside the accounts you want to land and expand. It's about improving the interactions you have with these buyers and the account experiences you deliver to them. In this episode, Andy Monahan at Yield Group joins Kristina Jaramillo and Eric Gruber to discuss what it means to be buyer-led and how ABM programs should be buyer-led.

They also discuss:

1. How GTM teams do not understand their buyers -- and what GTM teams are missing.

2. How teams are not looking at buying group make-up fit, strategic fit, or future fit when defining the ICP.

3. How teams are not looking at the readiness of accounts.

4. How teams often miss the step of realigning their positioning, messaging, content, and even their pricing with the new ICP. They are pushing out the old stuff to new accounts and hoping for a better result. But accounts are still going dark because they haven't changed the content, interactions, and experiences to align with the ICP and the buyers within those ICP accounts.

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On this episode, Kristina Jaramillo and Eric Gruber talk ABM with Aura Lupascu - ABM leader at the supply chain tech company, Icron.

When you listen to this episode, you'll learn:

1. The collaboration with sales that is needed to drive revenue growth with ABM --- and how ABM cannot be done in pockets and reactive, like ABM was done at one of Aura's past companies.

2. How your ABM programs should have an impact beyond sourcing the pipeline.

3. The problem with 1:1 hyper-personalization with accounts that haven't proven they are worthy of the white-glove care and attention. You'll learn about an account-based GTM where there is a personalization journey.

4. The challenges the teams face with 6sense, including the fact that the platform only defines the total relevant market and not your ICP, and that intent data is speculative.

5. How Icron is lacking POV content and how it's limiting the success of Icron's program. You'll learn how many content marketers are great at creating account awareness, thought leadership content, but they lack the knowledge and know-how to create content that drives stage progression, enables buyers, and supports sales.

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David Anderson (Co-Founder and COO at SellingInnovations) joined Eric Gruber and Kristina Jaramillo to discuss how GTM teams can drive greater stage progression and avoid accounts going dark - an issue that many companies like Uniphore struggle with today.

Listen to this podcast to see how you can enable buyers to overcome their fear of risk, failure, disruption and spiraling costs. Learn how you can help buyers become uncomfortable in their current situation -- and comfortable with making change.

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On this ABM Done Right Podcast episode, Eric Gruber sits down with Jodie Lail (Revenue Marketing Leader at GE Healthcare) to discuss why teams need a revenue marketing organization if they are engaging in ABM.

Eric also digs into the GE Healthcare ABM program and discusses what's working for them - and where there are opportunities to have a stronger revenue impact.