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Fes Askari (strategicabm) – Hey, Josh, welcome back for another episode of ABM Under the Hood. How you doing? 

Josh Weale (strategicabm) – Yep. All good. Thanks, Fes. How are you? 

Fes Askari (strategicabm) – Good, good. I think we've got a pretty interesting topic for this session. We are going to talk about 'Eight Myths of ABM'. We're going to do some myth-busting! And we've outlined, well, we had ten - we've reduced it to eight - and hopefully we can talk about them in a timely fashion; we won't go too deep into some of these. But should we jump into it? 

Josh Weale (strategicabm) – Yeah, let's get started. 

Fes Askari (strategicabm) – Good! So, I mean, there's so much discussion about ABM in the market, so many different perspectives on ABM across LinkedIn and different people talking about their experience of ABM at different levels. Obviously we run our ABM Lunch & Learn. So, I hear a lot of different stories about Account-based Marketing strategies for many different businesses at different stages of their ABM maturity. And, you know, we've heard it all already. So, I think just talking about some of those key myths is quite interesting. Some of the typical things that come up usually from, not Marketing but other parts of the business, whether it's Leadership or Sales, or other teams that are trying to understand, really, what good ABM looks like, right? 

Josh Weale (strategicabm) – Yeah. 

Fes Askari (strategicabm) – So I think we've figured out a few of the top ones, and that's what we're going to run through in the session today. Number one, ABM is just for large enterprises. What's your take? 

Josh Weale (strategicabm) – Yeah, so I mean, I can understand why that has kind of become common in the market just because ABM is for large, more complex deal cycles. So naturally, you're going to find them in more enterprise businesses. But that's not to say that ABM is not applicable for scale-ups and to an extent some startups that want to grow pretty aggressively. Because ultimately, ABM's not just about like needing enterprise level of resource and budget. It's more about a different approach, a different mindset, and actually just applying a thought process of going deeper with a smaller set of accounts. Rather than thinking, okay, ABM's just this big thing that we can only do if we've got, like, a huge team to operationalize it. So yeah, I think the myth behind that is just that it's taken a step back from just being about these kind of complex deal cycles and thinking about how ABM can work in different environments as well. I don't know, what do you think? 

Fes Askari (strategicabm) – I think typically with these things, there's an element of truth to it, right? I think there's some considerations there. I think it's less about who you are as an organization and more about who you are targeting and the solution that you're taking to market, right? So if you have an enterprise-type solution that you're taking to market, then typically it's a good fit for an ABM approach. Because you have large, complex deal cycles, you have a number of people's influence within the account. Who you are as an organization can impact the type of ABM program that you might want to develop, right? What resources do you have internally? What types of, what's your starting point for ABM really, right? And that can come through in terms of the size of the Marketing team, the size of the Sales team, the tech stack, things like that. So, obviously you can scale ABM and, you know, deploy it, you know, across different regions. If you are an enterprise, that doesn't mean you have to be an enterprise to run an ABM program. I do think that most teams should have a general base of good B2B Marketing happening to then think about where can ABM add that additional layer for their most important accounts? I think that's the way to think about it. 

Josh Weale (strategicabm) – Yeah. Yeah, 100%. I think you're right. There's no getting away from the fact that ABM is more resource intensive than other aspects of Marketing, but the way that I talk about it with some of our clients is about thinking about ABM as a lens that helps to kind of overlay all of your other activity. So, if you're already doing PR, you are already doing demand generation, paid ads, that kind of stuff, it's more about how can you take an Account-based approach to that activity - and bring in additional streams of engagement that's just focused on very specific accounts. So, taking a press release and personalizing it just for a single account, that's something that you can do. And it doesn't take a huge amount of resource, as long as it's the right account to do that for. So I think, yeah, there's no getting away from it that it takes a little bit more to do, but it's not just for enterprise businesses. 

Fes Askari (strategicabm) – No, exactly. Yeah. And it kind of leads into point two: ABM replaces traditional Marketing - that's a myth. It definitely doesn't replace traditional Marketing. I mean, it should be part of your integrated Marketing at some level. Just with regards to point one, I think the other aspect on that is ROI, right? You want to deploy ABM in, like you said, it takes additional resources in... you want to deploy that resource in an environment where you can capture additional ROI because the deal value's of a certain size, or lifetime value of the customer's of a certain value. You know, those are the considerations there, right? With regards to ABM replacing traditional Marketing, myth number two - you started to touch on it there as did I - it definitely doesn't replace existing or traditional Marketing. It definitely does integrate with those aspects. You mentioned PR there, one example of that I could see is, particularly for existing customer Marketing, where you have a great customer story, you might do a piece of PR around that customer - to then help build awareness and visibility with other decision-making units in that customer account that you are not already working with, right? So that's where you can take something like PR and leverage that with an ABM lens on it, because we're trying to land and expand within this account. The PR isn't just about telling a story to the rest of the market about that customer success. It's actually helping you build visibility within that customer across different markets and regions that you could, you might not be working with today, but that you could work with in the future. So that's one example of traditional Marketing enhancing your ABM strategy. 

Josh Weale (strategicabm) – Yeah, just on that point, I think it comes down to your objectives. But one of the most common use cases for ABM for a smaller organization that's scaling up is that kind of change in perceptions, and being able to demonstrate that you can move from mid-market to enterprise, and showing that your solution has good market fit. So, taking that example you've just shared there, and being able to use that in an ABM, Account-based way is where clients can add a lot of value to their existing Marketing efforts. One of the things that I was going to mention is - and something that comes up quite often - is demand generation versus Account-based Marketing, and where the two things fit together. I'll get onto that in a second, but I mean, from my point of view, I think this comes up quite often, because often it's a shared resource or a shared, like, media budget that you are kind of drawing down upon to be able to execute the two motions. But I actually think the mindset shouldn't be ABM versus demand generation. It's how does ABM add an additional layer of enablement to demand generation? So the way that I like to think about it is that you have your demand generation funnel that's always on, it's building awareness, it's building kind of engagement with your total addressable market. And then Account-based Marketing is for that more strategic clusters of accounts, where you're seeing engagement or you've got a specific opportunity, or a specific need to build a program around a very kind of tight objective, of 'We need to change perceptions with these companies' - because they're representative of the market, and if we can win them, the rest of the market could follow. So it's thinking about how can your demand generation program build that platform, that ABM can then come into and add an additional layer of strategic enablement to. I don't know what your thoughts are on ABM versus demand generation - and that whole debate? 

Fes Askari (strategicabm) – It's a really interesting one for me, actually. You know, we've been talking - I was talking to you about it the other day. I was talking to Pete in your strategy team, as well, about that concept of The long and short of it. You know, the work from Les Binet and Peter Field. And it was really thinking about, you know, the perception of ABM in B2B Marketing versus some of the broader traditional Marketing frameworks, right? And for me, really, ABM is aligned with longer-term Sales cycles, deal values - right? So you've got that long-term brand awareness, which you're trying to stay front of mind with your target accounts, and increase awareness and reach within those accounts, right? At the same time, you've got the short-term, often tactical elements - sales activation, you're enabling Sales with personalized assets, personalized content, right? So I don't think, you know, for me it's not binary. It's not like you have to, it's not ABM or demand generation; these are things that are layered on top of each other. You know, you've got your brand-building exercises and brand should be at the core of everything. Brand drives demand, right? And then you've got this concept of sales support, sales enablement, personalized assets, working very closely with the Sales team. So like you said, it just comes down to your objectives. And ABM can be a long-term strategic initiative. It can also have levels of tactical support, and sales activations within it. I think these things, people often think of these things as binary. You know, you have to do one or the other. It's not, it's just down to your objectives. What are you trying to achieve with this set of accounts in the market, or a cluster of accounts, or a single account, or a particular decision-making unit or key stakeholder, right? It is that level of detail. Now, the difference is, going back to the beginning of what I was saying about ROI, it's: What's this worth to you as a business, right? Some teams don't need a huge volume of customers. They need a low volume of customers with high-value opportunities. And so ABM is a great model for that. Or like you said - some teams are very used to marketing to SMB, where it's all about reach. And then they're moving into enterprise, it's less about reach and it's more about quality. Because there's a certain number of accounts or that have a certain deal value that they want to engage with, right? 'Cause they've got a product market fit, a sweet spot for that particular type of account at that time. So, you know, it just comes down to getting your objectives right. And understanding your accounts at that level, where it's not just a generic target account list. It's actually based upon real critical thinking about why we're going after these particular accounts. 

Josh Weale (strategicabm) – Yeah, 100%. 

Fes Askari (strategicabm) – Myth number three: ABM is only for the Marketing team. 

Josh Weale (strategicabm) – Yeah. I mean, it's an interesting one. And I think it's a debate that will rage on for year after year after year in terms of Sales and Marketing alignment, and how Sales and Marketing teams should work together. Should they even be called Sales and Marketing teams or just revenue teams? There's all different flavors of this debate. My opinion is that ABM is certainly not just for Marketing teams; it's a whole mindset shift across an organization. And it goes beyond just Sales and Marketing as well. There's aspects here of, like, customer success and actually operations. Like, there's certain things that you can do within an ABM program, which actually benefit from better logistical servicing of a company - that could be part of your ABM strategy. Can we get our solutions or our products into these customers faster? Through deployment and customer success, and better service? Like, that could be part of the strategy. So, when it comes down to 'ABM is just a Marketing initiative', I completely kind of push back on that and I think a large proportion of the market probably would as well. I think we are now at the stage where this is a myth still, but it's becoming increasingly more of a hot topic that everybody recognizes that it's not just about Marketing, and it's more about figuring out how do the two departments and the rest of the business actually collaborate and work together. 

Fes Askari (strategicabm) – Yeah, I mean, I think it's going a level deeper than that, right? What is Marketing? Marketing is a function of Sales and revenue, right? In terms of businesses exist to drive revenue. And, you know, Marketing is a driver of sales. It is - I'm not talking about Sales as a function, I'm talking about sales as an outcome, right? In terms of revenue. And when we talk about 'ABM is only for the Marketing team', I mean... that doesn't make sense to me at all, right? Because ultimately, we're doing everything to create a better customer experience. That better buying experience. Erm, ABM definitely helps, well, the challenge is in the terminology 'Account-based Marketing', right? That's the starting point, that's the thing. Outside of that, if we take that out of the equation, you know, ABM helps focus the mind, for me. It helps align Marketing on the objectives, the business objectives, and the needs closer to where the Sales team's focuses are, right? Rather than just being about brand, it's also about the commercial objectives in the short and medium term as well. And I think that's where a ABM helps focus the mind. And it really helps get people around the table with a discussion about some key objectives, you know, what we might call north star objectives and north star metrics, right? So definitely ABM is not just for the Marketing team, there are key aspects of the Account-based Marketing strategy and development and execution that are for Marketing, right? That is where they need that collaborative effort from Sales or leadership. And that starts with defining what ABM means to your business. It then might move into account selection, objective setting. And then it goes into the strategy and content, et cetera. 

Josh Weale (strategicabm) – Yeah. That was what... That was what I was going to say as well, is that a lot of people see ABM as being something that originates in the Marketing department as well. But really, ABM is something that can be brought to a company's attention by someone in Marketing. It's like, 'I think we should do this'. But really, ABM as an initiative needs to be driven from top down. It needs to be rooted within commercial objectives and business objectives. And it goes back to that whole point around the mindset shift required to deliver a successful ABM program. If you're trying to just drive ABM from the Marketing department, it's like pushing water uphill, because you're always going to encounter challenges around conflicts between if your ABM objectives are not aligned to your business objectives and your commercial objectives, there's always going to be an issue around 'Can we dedicate time, resource, budget, effort to an ABM initiative, if all of that time, effort, budget is dedicated to something that is rooted in the commercial objectives?' So I think that's a really important point as well, is around that Sales and leadership buy-in, and having a sponsor to drive ABM throughout the organization. 

Fes Askari (strategicabm) – Yeah. And that's often why we advocate for teams to consider ABM readiness, right? Readiness is our proposition around helping teams to drive that internal alignment, like you say, around objectives. Understand the considerations around developing your ABM framework and internal narrative. Building that roadmap, setting expectations, helping everybody really visualize what good looks like before you jump into, you know, building that pilot campaign and executing, and all the stuff that is required to get into market, but actually works much more smoothly if everybody can visualize the roadmap early on, right? So readiness for us is a key way to get that alignment across different teams, but it's typically driven by Marketing. It is typically, you know, driven from the Marketing team, but pulling in all of the right people, at the right time. Good! Okay, I think we covered that one off. So, next on the agenda is, once you've maybe done that readiness piece and, you know, you're thinking about what type of ABM program to deploy. Then comes the key questions around budget, right? So, ABM myth number four: ABM requires a huge budget. Now for me, that's typically relative. And relative on a few different axes. It can be relative in terms of the value of the account. It can be relative in terms of the product and solution that you're taking to market: What's the investment required from the customer? It can be relative to your ABM maturity: Where are you in your ABM journey? How much should you invest? And it can be relative to the outcomes that you're seeking. It's not, you know, it's not about how big is the budget; it's about what kind of results are you seeking? In what timeframe? What resources do you already have? What experience do you have? And so, there's different levels to consider there. Again, that's why we talk about readiness. People can assess these things effectively, and put some real thinking about it, behind it. What's your kind of view on that topic? 

Josh Weale (strategicabm) – Yeah. I think it comes back to another kind of related misconception that I think has been driven throughout the market for a number of years - that ABM is about, like, display advertising and paid advertising. And because of that narrative, that ABM is, that's the primary focus of an ABM campaign, I think people immediately assume, okay, so if it's just about paid ads, then it's about what's my media budget? And how much media do I need to be able to run an ABM program? The reality is that you don't at all. We always talk about strategy first, technology second. In theory, you can run an ABM program without doing any paid media at all. It's the mindset shift of, it's just about delivering a more personalized experience focused around what the target account needs and getting that message to them in the right channel. So you can do ABM just through organic outreach, through like, send - being creative and sending some gifts to them just off your own back. So there's a small outlay there, but you don't need thousands and thousands of pounds of media budget to do that. But going back to your point, obviously that media budget helps you to scale. So it all depends on how fast you want to go, how big you want to go. But you could, in theory... all you need is a way of logging customer information, a way of researching that customer, or client or target account, and then being able to develop a strategic outreach approach that's personalized and targeted to them. And you don't need to spend any money at all on paid advertising. 

Fes Askari (strategicabm) – No, exactly. Yeah. I mean, a huge, underutilized channel that I see is social selling, right? And that can happen at different levels from your organization, from peer-to-peer at the executive level down to subject matter experts, down to Sales teams, down to Marketing, doing outreach. You know, there's different levels that you can leverage outreach through social selling - that can create a great brand and experience. Both organically in channels like LinkedIn and at the one-to-one direct messaging channel. If you have some really nice personalized content for your target accounts, you can get that into them through different channels, through social selling, right? It doesn't always have to be through paid lead generation tactics. Of course, you know, there are some audiences that aren't on LinkedIn, and you need to consider other channels and tactics. You might do something with industry associations and partnerships. You might do things through, depending on who you're targeting, you might have a substantial email database that you can leverage. You might be able to use in-platform, so you have your - or in-product Marketing - so you have your existing platform that you are servicing the client through, and you can do targeted banners through your own customer portal, right? There's different ways to approach these things. But, you know, again budget just comes down to what impacts are you looking to make? What levers do you have? If you have existing relationships, you can lean less on paid activations. If you don't have those relationships, sometimes you know, you need to use paid and other channels - events, experiences - to create those relationships. Right? If we talk about the Three RS of ABM, briefly: Reputation, relationships and Revenue. Often we are talking to teams about benchmarking, where their target accounts are across those three, what level of reputation do you have within the account? If you have a low level of reputation, then perhaps you might need to use things like paid media to enhance visibility and awareness across those accounts. However, if you have existing relationships, how well are you leveraging those relationships? Is it more about enhancing those relationships with personalized content and experiences? So, you know, it is about thinking about the different opportunities that you have with your accounts, and then deploying the right activations and tactics, and content and media, against those in the right way to... you know, achieve your objectives. Anything else you wanted to add there? 

Josh Weale (strategicabm) – No, I think that covers off the point. I guess ABM doesn't require a huge budget; it just requires the right budget for what you need to do. And then quite often we talk about scaling ABM. So once you've kind of proved some early-stage results and demonstrated value, that's when you can start to ask your leadership team for more budget, and scale what works, maybe kill what doesn't. But ultimately it's... you don't need to start with a hundred thousand dollars of media spend! You can do it on a much smaller budget than that. 

Fes Askari (strategicabm) – Exactly, yeah. I mean, it just comes down to your objectives, and what you're trying to achieve there. Which kind of, you know, you're talking about scaling ABM - that kind of leads into the next point. Number five: ABM strategies are complicated to implement. Again, I think there's a couple of different considerations there. What's your view about complexity and ABM? 

Josh Weale (strategicabm) – Yeah, I think I've wrote about this before for DashDot. I think ABM doesn't need to be complex. I think one of the issues that ABM has had in the past is that complexity, it is just through a simple kind of lack of explaining how simple it can be, in terms of between how Sales and Marketing teams should work together to deliver a more personalized and cohesive experience for a target account. Ultimately, ABM is just about being in the right place with a personalized experience. And it doesn't necessarily even mean that you have to have these kind of really complex outreach sequences. It's just about delivering value, and the more you deliver value - and I think we talk about the kind of 95 to 5% rule in terms of only 5% of the market are in, are in market and intent on buying at any point in time. So it's about delivering value and reaching those people. Keeping yourself front of mind, however you do that is completely down to your own strategy and your own approach. But it doesn't need to be complex. I mean, look at our agency marketing, for instance. It's completely based around Declan, our CMO, building his personal brand, sharing value every single day, keeping in front of people. And that's how we build our ABM programs. It's about just sharing value and being there when someone thinks it's the right time to talk to us. So, yeah, I don't think it has to be any more complex than that. It's just, people sometimes get hung up on 'We need this tool', 'We need that tool', 'We need this budget' and 'We need these people'. But it's more about a simplified mindset, I think. 

Fes Askari (strategicabm) – Yeah. I think there's a few key points there. I mean, for me, going back to readiness. You know, one of the biggest areas of complexity is getting the alignment internally - on objectives and what good looks like. And if you can do, spend a little bit of time getting that right upfront, then it reduces the complexity downstream. Erm, so, it's great if you can get the right people around the table. We have a good few working sessions to define what ABM means, what we're trying to achieve. You know, we call it a showcase. You might call it a pilot, you know: What are you trying to achieve at key stages in the process? What are those key milestones? Then that helps to reduce the complexity. 'Cause you can also map out upfront who needs to be involved, when they need to be involved, what conversations need to be had. What can happen sometimes is that you get into a situation where everybody's rushing because there's this urgency to get into market. There's always this need to get into market. But if you set those expectations upfront, if you do the pre-work in the right way, if you plan things effectively, then hopefully you will reduce complexity. And of course, when, you know, depending on the volume of accounts, if you're working with hundreds or thousands of accounts, there's a level of complexity there, definitely. Right? That is where technology can help reduce complexity and manage things: Reporting. Reporting can be complex. And you need to be able to understand these things upfront, rather than wait until you are in the process to then try and reduce the complexity. It's not always easy, because things are always moving and evolving - with clients, within teams, all of that kind of stuff. Right? So, you know, nothing worth doing is easy as they say. But, er, it's just about trying to mitigate some of that upfront with a bit of planning. Right? And that's where we think readiness makes sense. 

Josh Weale (strategicabm) – Yeah. As with most things in life, complexity is in the people, not necessarily the process. 

Fes Askari (strategicabm) – Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Moving on, number six: Personalization means just changing the name. I know this is a pet peeve of yours. 

Josh Weale (strategicabm) – Yeah! Yeah, it is! And I spend a lot of time talking about it, writing about it, and thinking about it. Because yeah, to deliver true personalization, it's not just about changing the name. I mean, that was something that marketers have been doing for kind of, well, since mail-merges were a thing, I guess! Being able to kind of do that at scale. But I mean, everybody gets emails in their inbox today, which are personalized, to an extent. And even more so with AI now starting to bring in some more kind of dynamic personalization. But, it can't just be that we change someone's name and we just loosely reference something that we think they might be interested in. You have to put more of a thought process around it. And it all comes back to a value proposition. The value proposition has to be rooted in what the needs, the challenges, and the objectives are of that target account or cluster of target accounts. And then working from there to scale personalization in terms of, okay, we have this value proposition, we know we can solve this problem for this particular account. What does that look like at the account level? And then moving beyond that, what does that look like for the individuals involved in the buying committee? And then developing messaging content that maintains a consistent thread from that point, but demonstrates that, you know, that they are the problems that they're having, and you can effectively map that to your solution. That's what true personalization is. And again, there's an element of operationalizing this, that it has to be in the right channels. It has to be in the right places where these people are. Because you've got to be where they are. And it has to be relevant in terms of timing. That's another element of personalization. That the best time to market to somebody is when they've experienced that problem today. So, I think there's a lot more that goes into personalization than just changing the name on an email, or loosely referencing something that they might care about. So yeah, I... there's so much I could talk about in terms of personalization, but I think for me, it's just so important that we think about it as a holistic experience for the account and the customer - rather than just a one-off. 'Okay, we sent you a message, why don't you like the personalization we've done?' kind of thing. 

Fes Askari (strategicabm) – No, yeah. I think there's a few dynamics to the term 'personalization' when we think about it in the context of ABM. There's, for me, there's like foundational personalization and then there's, like you say, operationalizing levels of personalization. That, again, that can be where technology and AI comes into play. Absolutely. And we deliver. And we see that working with clients and teams, and partners in the industry. Like you said, for me, foundational insights is really getting that value proposition and messaging and narrative right. Either at the market level or, you know, if you're moving from SMB to enterprise, which is a use case that we see a lot. If you're targeting a particular industry or vertical; then if you're getting down into clusters, accounts. And then, you know, decision-making units and teams - that level of personalization changes, the narrative changes. And you need some level of insights to support that. Not just, you know, personalization of a company name and logo. That's kind of basic, right? If you even use that, I mean, it's really about the story that you're trying to tell, the narrative. And, you know, the term that I always use, and others have shared with us, once in a podcast, is: 'Show me you know me', right? It's really that next level of, er I mean, it is interesting, personalization and relevancy. And I think relevancy for me is even more important. And showing that you, contextualizing a target account or customer's challenge, and it's that insights piece, it's really bringing that insight to the fore and giving you that unfair competitive advantage, because you really have done the work to understand this account and their challenges, right? And then it moves into that more scalable piece, and scalable can be, again, a couple of different things. It can be scaling across a single organization, personas and decision-making units. Or it can be scaling across accounts and markets and you know, you can do that through technology and, you know, there's different platforms out there that you can use to personalize landing pages, like we use Folloze. Or content strategy, like we use Turtl. And ad technology. So there's a whole different number of ways that you can talk about personalization. Again, it's about having that conversation upfront, internally, about 'What does it mean to us today, in our business? With our budget, and our tech stack, and our roadmap, and our objectives?' Right? And then you design that great graphic ABM maturity model. That maybe we could share, it's probably in the recent DashDot. Where you can talk about those different stages of ABM maturity and how that level of, that concept of personalization and relevancy might change and mature over time, and adds layers of complexity, if the business case is there. 

Josh Weale (strategicabm) – Yep. Yeah. 100%. 

Fes Askari (strategicabm) – Good. Number six. Sorry! Number seven: All you need is the right ABM software. Oh, I just touched on a few, didn't I? So, ABM and tech, ABM and software. What's your kind of thinking on that today, having been through a number of client programs, having used technology at the Agency ourselves? Where are you with that tech discussion? 

Josh Weale (strategicabm) – Yeah, I touched on it before, but something that we always talk about is going back to that point around strategy first, technology second. I think we're at a point now in the industry where there's so much technology, and technology that has overlapping use cases, similar use cases and to an extent diminishing returns across certain types of technology. Because they can all do the same thing to a similar standard. That quite often it's about, okay, it doesn't really matter which technology platform we have, they can all deliver the same experience. And it actually just comes down to personal preference of usability and customer support of those technology platforms as to whether you use them or not. But thinking about how do they actually apply to an ABM program. I don't think there's any such thing as the right tech stack for an ABM motion. It's just have you got something where you can log customer touchpoints, like a CRM system? Have you got a way that you can report on the engagement that you're seeing from target accounts, and being able to capture those engagement touchpoints? Have you got a way which you can distribute content and get in front of those people? As long as you've got kind of those three core things, in terms of distribution, reporting and measurement, I think that's your starting point for an ABM program. Everything over and above that is obviously helping you to scale personalization, helping you to reach more customers, with AI now helping to kind of deliver more dynamic personalization, for instance. So yeah, I think that there's a ton of ways in which you can go and explore technology, and there's quite, kind of novel ways now in which technology is helping to scale ABM programs. But I think for me, it has to stay rooted in that point around you've got to know what you're using the technology for, and why you've selected that technology. And importantly as well, defining roles and responsibilities around it. Who's using the technology? What are they using it for? Where are the hand-off points? What does everybody involved in the program need to know? Because, one of the biggest issues that I've personally seen when working on client programs is that the Marketing team will have a piece of technology that they're using to engage with target accounts, seeing engagement, generating kind of valuable touchpoints with target accounts. But then the Sales team don't necessarily know how to follow up with those accounts, because they're not in the know of, 'This is how you go into the platform and this is where you see the engagement, and then this is the expectation of what you should do next'. So it's making sure that you have the technology and you have the right kind of, I guess, rules of engagement or ways of working around it as well, in terms of roles and responsibilities, and taking that as a holistic approach across the program. I dunno what you think about that? 

Fes Askari (strategicabm) – Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I mean that's key. I mean, for me, we are, we love tech, right? We are a tech marketing Agency helping clients sell technology to technology buyers, right? So we are... surrounded by technology all the time. And, from the perspective of how we use technology at the Agency and how we recommend it and work with clients, I definitely think it's about having those key use cases, like you say, understanding where and when to deploy technology, right? And, you know, we work with a ton of great partners out there, and they all bring value in a unique way. And I think it's really about understanding, going back to the point about objectives, you know, what are you trying to achieve in your ABM program? And I actually do think there are different use cases for different types of technology. That can be kind of down to the size of your organization. It could be down to the regional reach or capabilities of a tech platform, right? It can be down to the type of experience that you are trying to create. Does that technology solve for that particular challenge, like you say. So, you know, sometimes you need to run the program without the tech to understand how it works and where the gaps are, and where the issues are, and then see what's working and then enhance that with the technology. What you probably don't want to do is set yourself some goals from an ABM program, adopt a piece of technology, and then get stuck just trying to figure out that tech for the next six months and not actually deliver on your ABM program. Which is one of the issues that we sometimes see. 'Cause you know, bringing in a new piece of technology, like you say, you need alignment, you need understanding and you need to know how to get value from that. And that's not to say that some of the partners out there don't have great, you know, methodology to help clients accelerate their time-to-value. It's just being aware that you don't want to get caught up in a cycle of trying to deploy a piece of technology instead of actually meeting your objective about...engaging with your top account list. Right? And, you know, sometimes you need to just be aware of some of the watch-outs there with the tech side of it. However, you know, we've helped clients ramp up their time-to-value with technology, as have the vendors themselves. And sometimes you just don't know how that technology's going to work until you've got it in. But it's good to go in there with a framework of we are deploying this technology to meet these objectives. This is a narrow, very narrow focus that we have, so we know what we need to do with this tech to get to the... data that we need to answer some questions, right? And maybe not trying to do - you know, some of the technology that we see in the market today has so many different capabilities and use cases - it's not trying to do everything at once. It's trying to identify some key, it could just be 'We need better quality reporting'. And, you know, the tech can do, it can do intent, it can do advertising, but actually right now, we just need to see the wood for the trees, and we need better quality reporting, and this tech we'll start with setting up some really clear dashboards, assess where our clients are, and then help to bring in the other parts of the platform. 

Josh Weale (strategicabm) – Yeah, I think we've got about five minutes left, so should we just do... ? 

Fes Askari (strategicabm) – Okay. So, we've got two points left, I think? The next one is: ABM is only about targeting new accounts. What do you think? 

Josh Weale (strategicabm) – I mean, I would say you look back at the history of ABM and where it was founded, you know, Bev Burgess just doing some great work. It was founded in customer marketing and customer expansion - ABM, it's probably only more recently, in the last kind of decade or so, become more about leveraging net-new customer acquisition. And it's always been about, if you think about how do you measure the success of ABM? It's built around relationships. So naturally you're going to have more relationships that you can leverage in existing customers, and therefore it gives you a much stronger platform to build your ABM program on, because you can leverage those existing relationships; you know more about the account, you know more about their challenges and the strategy can focus on solving very specific problems for that target account. So, ABM absolutely isn't just for net-new acquisition. It's great for being able to build awareness and build opportunities for net-new customer acquisition, but I would suggest that more people should consider how much more value can you get out of your existing customers. And it's not necessarily always about chasing the new kind of shiny thing. 'Magpie syndrome', I think it's called sometimes. 

Fes Askari (strategicabm) – No, absolutely. Yeah. I think, you know, it's a key point and I think it's an often overlooked point about the value of ABM in the organizations. I think at the macro level, a lot of money and resource has been poured into new logo acquisition and now, perhaps, the tide is turning a little bit and people are thinking more about profitability and retention, and growth and expansion. And you know, you've worked so hard to win these customers that you have, how do we drive more value from and with them, right? And, you know, we're probably seeing a shift back, for the most part. I mean, even us as an Agency, we're investing a lot more time and resource in existing customers, as well as the new logo side of it, right? And thinking about, you know, not just the strategy piece, but also the technology: Are you using your ABM tech to really monitor and engage with existing customers, not just new logo, you know? Intent data, for me, has a great application for monitoring existing target account customer behavior, right? And seeing, looking out for those defection triggers or areas of new products that they might be researching and things like that, right? So, you know, I think when people think about ABM, often it has that new logo lens on it and absolutely there is a strong use case there. But there is also that consideration, particularly when you're doing it in the early stages, you know about time-to-value from ABM. If you're taking an account from very cold, no relationship to closed-won deal - we all know typically what those sales cycles look like, versus you are looking at an existing customer and you're looking for that expansion opportunity of retention, growth, upsell, cross-sell, that kind of thing. Then time-to-value can be much lower than new logo acquisition - and can add X multiples on your valuations, because you've driven more revenue from existing customers in a short timeframe than just a pure new logo focus, Right? I'll move on to the next point. Number ten. Quickly: The more accounts the better. Again, thinking typically back to the new logo focus, but myth number ten - myth number eight, sorry! The more accounts the better. What's your view on that? 

Josh Weale (strategicabm) – I just think it's categorically not correct! Because, if you think about the purpose of ABM, it's about quality over quantity. Sometimes, it can be easy to think, okay, so we're expecting to generate this much engagement with 20 accounts. Why don't we just think if we double that and do 40 accounts or triple it and do 60 accounts that we can just, again, expect the same amount of engagement. But actually, there's a correlation between the amount of effort and investment involved in terms of resource and time to deliver a personalized experience. So the more accounts that you focus on, the harder it is to deliver a personalized experience. That's why there's different tiers of ABM, from kind of growth ABM and One-to-many, through to like One-to-few and pure One-to-one. So, I just think it's as with most of the things we've talked about today - it goes back to objectives. If your objective is just to build awareness across a large set of accounts, then yeah - more accounts the better. As long as they fit your ICP and you know why you're targeting them. But when you're talking about quality over quantity, and really thinking about how are you going to drive the most value and potentially drive the most return on your investment, you have to think about what's the realistic number of accounts that we can service and deliver meaningful personalization into, without overstretching and ultimately dropping the ball, and not being able to actually maintain a long-term engagement plan with these accounts. 

Fes Askari (strategicabm) – No, exactly. Yeah, I, you know, it's always down to the objectives, right? If you are trying to break into a new market, potentially more is better because then you can collect more data about that segment, and you can understand the behaviors and, patterns, needs and challenges in that broader set of data, so that you can then refine down those accounts to a more targeted list. You know, One-to-many down to One-to-few and such. However, if you have a very specific objective, you know, you need to help close X number of opportunities, then yeah, less is more, and a more quality-based approach is better. So really again, it comes down to that objective setting, understanding what you're trying to achieve, in what timeframe, with what resources and team. Then that can help define your account list and number of accounts. I think the key thing here though is having a robust framework for your account selection and your ideal customer profile, right? So having that - and you do a lot of work on this with the strategy team - is really building out that framework for account selection and understanding, like you say, which accounts are a good fit for this program, and why. And it really is down to being objective about it and removing some of the... you don't just want to have a list land on your lap, and say, 'Hey! You know, this is the list we've been given. Now we have to do some ABM on it, right?' Because ultimately, the list is the DNA of your value proposition. It's the 'why' behind your messaging strategy. 

Josh Weale (strategicabm) – Yeah. 'Here's the top 100 customers, or a hundred accounts globally, let's go and win them!' It's just not realistic. It has to be tied back to exactly the value you can offer and making sure there's alignment between that and who you are focused on. And that's ultimately what sets the foundations for you to deliver good ABM. 

Fes Askari (strategicabm) – Exactly. Brilliant. Okay, Josh, well we've covered off our eight myths of ABM for this session. We had a list of ten; we reduced it down to eight for the time. We may have got our numbers confused a little bit there at the end! But hopefully, outside of that we got some good insights for people to take away from the session. And it'd be great to get feedback on some of these myths and where other people think the considerations are. I'd love to hear some feedback from our network and the market on what other myths they're seeing out there. 

Josh Weale (strategicabm) – Yep, absolutely! 

Fes Askari (strategicabm) – Brilliant. Good stuff! 

Josh Weale (strategicabm) – Cool. Cheers, Fes. Have a good one. 

Fes Askari (strategicabm) – You too, Josh. Cheers.

The 9 myths of ABM - debunked! 

Too many B2B marketers fall for outdated assumptions that hold their programs back. In this episode of ABM Under the Hood, we break down 9 common ABM myths that derail strategy, misguide budget decisions, and stall growth.

Here’s what you need to know to build smarter, more effective Account-based Marketing strategies. 

1. ABM is only for large enterprises

While often associated with enterprise-level companies, ABM is actually about mindset, focus, and strategic alignment. Startups and scale-ups can also benefit when targeting high-value accounts with complex deal cycles.

2. ABM replaces traditional marketing

ABM doesn’t replace traditional marketing—it complements it. It should be integrated across your marketing mix to support broader brand and demand efforts while aligning closely with sales.

3. ABM is only for the marketing team

ABM is a company-wide initiative. While marketing may drive it, true success requires alignment across sales, leadership, customer success, and operations. It’s about shared commercial objectives, not silos.

4. ABM requires a huge budget

You don’t need a massive budget to start ABM. Effective ABM can be executed with minimal media spend using organic tactics like social selling, content personalization, and strategic outreach. Budget should match your objectives—not define them.

5. ABM strategies are complicated to implement

ABM can be simple if planned correctly. Complexity often arises from poor internal alignment. With proper readiness, clear objectives, and stakeholder involvement from the start, execution becomes much smoother.

6. Personalization means just changing the name

True personalization goes beyond using a first name. It involves deep insight into account needs, challenges, and objectives, and tailoring content and messaging accordingly to demonstrate relevance and value.

7. All you need is the right ABM software

Technology supports ABM—but it’s not the foundation. Strategy comes first. Tools help scale and track, but without a clear plan and role definitions, even the best tech can stall your efforts.

8. ABM is only about targeting new accounts

ABM is powerful for both acquiring new logos and expanding existing customer relationships. In fact, ABM originated in customer marketing and is highly effective for upsell, cross-sell, and retention.

9. The more accounts, the better

ABM is about quality, not quantity. Targeting too many accounts dilutes personalization and results. Success depends on selecting the right accounts and focusing effort where you can create meaningful impact.

Check out all episodes of ABM under the Hood here.