TLDR:
Research and advisory company, TOPO, found that not every company that implemented ABM got as much out of it as others. The reasons for this were ICP accuracy and how effective an ABM program’s execution was.
It’s no secret that ABM is no longer a buzzword. It’s been around for a little while now—at least long enough to prove its worth many times over. Recently, a report was released by TOPO, which is in the research and advisory sector of business.
According to this report, around 80% of companies have at least one ABM program in place. The problem is not every company that’s a part of the 80% get the same rewards out of ABM as others.
TOPO had to get to the bottom of this.
What they found is the technology companies were using to power their ABM strategies wasn’t the reason why those businesses got such outstanding results. What mattered was how well the execution of an ABM program was carried out.
More specifically, the companies that didn’t perform as well as the others weren’t as confident their ICP was on-target. Businesses that were confident, however, enjoyed a 68% higher win-rate than underperforming groups.
The factors for ABM success that underperforming firms didn’t account for were company-wide buy-in to ABM efforts, in addition to strategy development before technological implementation. Businesses have a tendency to rely on technology to the point of paralysis without it.
TOPO researchers recommend that companies conducting ABM focus less on technology—at least as a jumping-off point. Instead, those businesses who want to benefit from ABM should focus their energies on customer experience—the strategies they need to bring to life a positive happening.
Also according to TOPO’s report, many businesses are also becoming increasingly interested in Account-Based Advertising (ABA). These companies more often not manage their target account lists in the best possible places they can—ABM platforms such as Terminus, RollWorks, or Demandbase. But these same firms are often unaware that those platforms are actually the ideal places to do just that.
Those that do add ABA to bolster their ABM efforts, though, need to find a more effective way to measure it because traditional methods won’t cut it for today’s B2B marketing landscape.
Original article from Forbes on 11 March 2019.
