Don't ABM without testing waters 🚫

To fly, first jump

But…………..

if you don’t have wings, you’ll die ☠️

Using the same logic in B2B marketing..

Don’t jump into ABM full-fledged without testing the waters first

This reminds of something I saw recently

Recently, I came across a company that recently onboarded a young ABMer

This person came from a company which is ABM mature and was eager to Command C - Command V everything from their earlier firm

We told them I would be more than happy to onboard them

But that I was 90% sure they wouldn’t continue after 3 months

The entire marketing function recently ventured into the world of ABM

First step of this process was the new hire

Which is a great 1st step

Who better than someone more experienced?

But I asked them to follow these 4 steps to implement ABM

Step # 1: ABM Strategy Preparation

Some steps you should take before you even start

• Locking in your ICP
• Identifying the buying committee
• Breaking the ICP into different segments (industry, size etc)
• Clear definition of what’s an ICP account & what’s not
• Budget allocated for this exercise
• Gathering the team that’s needed to implement

Step # 2: Run a Pilot

What’s our goal?

Start an ABM campaign quickly without using up too many resources, so you don't lose the trust of executive team and sales.

Because this is a pilot, we need to keep things small & tight

That means

• Don’t add 100’s of accounts in your pilot
• Focus on the ones where you can win easily (engaged, high intent)
• Get a small buy-in from sales team
• Research your accounts but don’t overdo this

How will this help us?

Showing quick wins to exec team is the fastest way to win approval for a long term effort

Step # 3: Get your Team Right

You can plan all day long but if you can’t assemble the right team

Everything you do can go down the drain

You’ll need a small team that can

• Identify accounts (ideally 1 from sales & 1 from marketing)
• Write copies for ads
• Write copies for landing pages
• Write personalized emails for target accounts

This should be as small as it can get.

You are looking for proof of concept here

Step # 4: Get the right tools

While you may not want to splurge $$ on expensive tools at this stage

You’ll still need tools to

• Pick your accounts
• Understanding intent data
• Run your ABM experiments
• Measure the performance

And full marks if you find a tool that can offer you all this & a 3 month trial period

Yes, Recotap offers a 3 month trial (paid) to dip your fingers and get dirty with ABM

Book a 1-1 demo with us here (if you are ready to fly of course)

Hopefully we’ve gained a trusting future customer

But more importantly, we helped a team not have a bitter ABM experience