Is ABM Right For Your Company? An ABM Readiness Guide for B2B Teams

Account-based marketing (ABM) enables B2B organizations to target high-value accounts with hyper-personalized marketing and sales efforts. It’s a tool that brings together various aspects of ads, outreach, and automation to streamline the prospecting process, personalize messaging, and effectively target the right audience with just-in-time visibility to increase engagement. However, implementing ABM without the proper groundwork can result in underwhelming outcomes.

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So, how do you know when you are ready for ABM? By asking the right questions, you'll be able to determine where you are in your ABM journey - and if you are ready to dive into your first ABM campaign. 

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ABM: A Powerful Sales Enablement Tool

Think of ABM not just as a marketing strategy but as a sales enablement tool. The primary goal of ABM is to increase conversion rates for outbound sales. However, to do so effectively, marketing and sales teams must be in sync. Aligning sales and marketing isn't optional—it's a prerequisite. The goal is to increase conversion rates from 1% to 3% or 5% (or more!). But that's only possible when both teams work together seamlessly.

Therefore, ABM works best when there's a solid outbound sales process in place. Without it, your campaigns risk generating leads that sales teams don't act on. To be truly effective, we recommend automating the outbound sales function using tools like SalesLoft or Apollo to ensure a smooth handoff between marketing and sales. But ABM's value isn't just in running ads—it's about creating a full-funnel growth strategy that turns intent signals into actionable opportunities.

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Assessing ABM Readiness Across 4 Key Areas

Since ABM is more about sales enablement than simply running ads, it's important to think about your campaigns across four key areas - audience, resources, content, and channels. The goal is to build out a strategy that speaks to specific audiences in a hyper-personalized way across multiple channels. Here's how to understand if you are ABM-ready across each of these important segments.

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Audience

A data-driven understanding of your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) ensures you focus resources on accounts with the highest potential ROI. Without it, your marketing efforts will be generic and unfocused, wasting time and resources. ABM's effectiveness lies in precision—knowing who to target allows you to craft messaging that resonates.

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Here's how to gauge your readiness:

• Do you have a defined ICP? If you're still defining your ICP you may not have enough data to execute ABM effectively. Focus on identifying patterns among your most successful customers.
• Are you refining it? Refining your ICP is a sign of progress, but further analysis will be needed to pinpoint your most valuable segments.
• Is your ICP proven and effective? A proven ICP indicates maturity, but gaps in data or segmentation capabilities can limit growth.

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You're ready for ABM when:

• You can segment effectively. Segmenting your audience using detailed insights ensures that your ABM campaigns are laser-focused, increasing their effectiveness and ROI.

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Resources

Successful ABM bridges the gap between marketing and sales, enabling seamless handoffs and collaboration. Without alignment, your campaigns may generate leads that sales teams don't know how to act on—or worse, ignore. However, you do need adequate staffing and budget, as well as executive buy-in, to ensure ABM is a company-wide priority with dedicated funding and support.

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Gauge your resource readiness by asking:

• Do you have a tech stack in place? If you are building out your marketing team or have an incomplete tech stack, focus on establishing these foundational elements first.
• Do you have a sufficient budget? Allocating a budget ensures you can invest in the necessary tools - like CRMs and sales automation - and put money behind ad spend.
• Are you working to align sales and marketing? A unified approach between sales and marketing creates a smoother workflow, maximizing campaign impact.

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You're ready for ABM when:

• You have management buy-in and a budget to match. With executive buy-in and a dedicated ABM budget, your organization can execute effective campaigns.

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Content

ABM relies on high-value content and individualized messaging to resonate with specific accounts at various stages of the sales funnel. Generic content won't capture the attention of decision-makers, especially in competitive markets. A varied content library allows you to address unique pain points, demonstrate value, and nurture accounts over time.

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Grow your content organically by:

• Designing a content pipeline. Without a content roadmap or sufficient resources, your ABM efforts will lack the human touch that sets ABM apart.
• Understanding what you need - and from whom. Knowing what content you need and hiring experts to create it is a significant step forward.
• Creating ICP-driven content that can support hyper-personalization. A diverse content library tailored to your ICP ensures you can engage accounts across industries, company sizes, and personas.

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You're ready for ABM when you can:

• Build in messaging and content based on intent data to assist conversion rates. Advanced content strategies leverage intent data and engagement signals to deliver the right message at the right time, enhancing conversion rates.

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Omnichannel Execution

A single-channel approach limits your reach and impact. ABM thrives on a coordinated, omnichannel strategy (across email, programmatic ads, social media, direct mail, etc.) that keeps your brand top of mind while delivering consistent messaging. Incorporating intent data into your campaigns allows you to focus on accounts actively searching for solutions to increase your conversion rates.

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Build your reach step by step:

• Add more channels to your strategy. ABM needs more than single-channel campaigns to generate the needed engagement. Start by integrating additional channels into your demand-generation efforts.
• Analyze results to gauge audience interest. Adding more channels and analyzing results is a good sign of progress. This phase builds the foundation for omnichannel ABM.
• Use intent data to inform future campaigns. When you have a reliable revenue stream from demand generation and are using intent data to inform campaigns, you're ready to move into ABM.

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You're ready for ABM when you can:

• Build specificity and personalization into your campaigns. Omnichannel ABM campaigns targeting specific accounts on a 1:1 or 1:Many basis ensure maximum engagement and ROI.

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What If You're Not Ready for ABM?

While ABM is an effective marketing tool, jumping into ABM without preparation can lead to:

• Wasted budgets.
• Poorly targeted campaigns.
• Disengaged sales teams who ignore leads.
• An inability to demonstrate ROI.

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If you're not fully ready for ABM, focus first on strengthening your ICP, aligning teams, building content, and establishing an outbound sales motion.

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Propensity´s Jumpstart Program Will Get You Ready

Propensity's Jumpstart program is designed for companies that want to adopt ABM but need help building a solid foundation. Over 90 days, we'll help you:

• Build the ABM framework
• Set up your audience
• Create an omnichannel campaign and automated playbook
• Execute your first campaign
• Stand up and hand off hot leads to your sales automation system
• Funnel high-quality leads to sales

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This 90-day program is designed for organizations implementing ABM for the first time and includes end-to-end orchestration implementation and execution of an ABM campaign and sales automation.

ABM doesn't have to be intimidating. By putting the right tools and processes in place early in the process, you'll set your teams up for long-term success while capturing the highest possible ROI.