00:00:01 Introduction and Guest Background

The podcast opens with Arun welcoming Pooja Sharma, a marketing specialist at Crisil, a global credit rating company. Pooja shares her decade-long marketing experience spanning multiple industries including technology, telecom, BFSI (Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance), fintech, and startups. She emphasizes her consistent focus on Account Based Marketing (ABM) throughout her journey and expresses her passion for how ABM enables targeted and account-specific marketing strategies.

00:01:23 Industry Variations in ABM Approach

Pooja discusses the differences and commonalities in applying ABM across diverse industries. She highlights that not all ABM types (one-to-one, one-to-few, and one-to-many) suit every company or industry. Factors such as company size, readiness to invest, and expected ROI dictate which ABM model to adopt. She cautions against adopting all ABM types simultaneously without prior research, especially in regions like India where ABM is still emerging.

00:04:04 Marketing Culture and Sales Cycle Impact

This section explores how marketing culture and sales cycles differ between large enterprises, mid-scale companies, and startups. Pooja explains that sales cycles heavily influence ABM strategies; longer cycles allow for extended campaigns (up to 1.5 years), while shorter sales cycles require condensed programs (3-6 months). The marketing objectives vary accordingly, ranging from awareness and engagement to driving decision-making and closing deals. She stresses the need to tailor ABM strategies to fit the company’s sales cycle and culture.

00:07:20 ABM Program Planning and Cross-Functional Alignment

Pooja details the deep, multi-month planning process of launching ABM programs. She highlights the importance of understanding the business structure, key objectives, and involving cross-functional teams such as sales, product, content, and strategy. Achieving organizational buy-in, especially shifting mindsets across teams and leadership, is critical. She applies the concept of “contact-based marketing” internally to align stakeholders by addressing their individual needs and expectations, making the internal ABM adoption process akin to external ABM campaigns.

00:12:48 Overcoming Resistance and Internal Buy-In

Addressing common resistance to ABM within organizations, Pooja shares her approach of educating teams through workshops and personalized engagement. She uses ABM principles internally to “market” the ABM concept to various stakeholders, presenting clear benefits and aligning efforts around shared objectives. For startups or smaller companies, she recommends condensed educational sessions and prioritizing objectives based on team size and resource availability. She also suggests a checklist to assess ABM readiness and advises focusing on realistic ABM objectives like engagement, relationship building, or awareness.

00:16:50 Sustaining Engagement and Reporting

In long-duration ABM programs, maintaining team motivation and alignment is challenging. Pooja emphasizes transparency and regular reporting (preferably bi-weekly) tailored to each team’s objectives. Reports should include detailed account and contact-level engagement data, sales interactions, and progress toward goals. During periods with little activity (“lulls”), she recommends light-touch content such as industry facts or branding messages to maintain brand recall without overwhelming contacts. This adaptive content strategy helps sustain engagement despite fluctuating interest.

00:24:43 Measuring and Proving ROI

Pooja explains that ABM ROI measurement is a blend of quantitative and qualitative indicators. Account and contact scoring models track engagement levels, sales feedback, and movement through the funnel over time. She stresses the importance of educating management on the long-term nature of ABM and the value of personalized, relevant content for high-value accounts. Feedback loops with sales and event teams are critical to validating success and identifying replicable strategies.

00:28:00 Feedback and CRM Integration

Feedback collection from sales and events is a structured process documented meticulously in CRM systems to maintain continuity despite personnel changes. Pooja highlights the necessity of capturing detailed account histories and campaign impacts to enable predictive and comparative analytics. This data-driven approach supports decision-making on which accounts to prioritize and how to optimize ABM efforts across one-to-one and one-to-few models.

00:33:37 Roles in Data Capture and Maintenance

The responsibility for entering feedback and engagement data into CRM can be shared between marketing and sales teams. Pooja notes that salespeople often contribute when they see the value in tracking outcomes, which helps sustain data quality. Marketing typically initiates data capture, especially in the early stages, to demonstrate ROI and guide resource allocation.

00:35:23 Integrating ABM with Demand Generation

For companies starting ABM alongside existing demand generation programs, Pooja advises running both in parallel initially. She recommends segmenting target accounts by industry, product, or region into clusters for one-to-many ABM, then progressively focusing on one-to-few and one-to-one as accounts advance in the funnel. This staged approach balances resource investment and scales ABM efforts effectively, ensuring alignment with revenue goals.

00:38:55 Progression from One-to-Many to One-to-Few and One-to-One ABM

As accounts mature in their engagement journey, ABM efforts intensify with more personalized touchpoints, deeper content, and increased channel usage. Pooja explains that transitioning accounts from one-to-many to one-to-few involves more targeted messaging and multi-channel outreach tailored to industry-specific preferences and behaviors. One-to-one ABM demands even greater customization and research to meet individual account needs.

00:42:20 Alignment with Sales Funnel Stages

The final segment clarifies that ABM bucket progression aligns with sales funnel stages. Early-stage accounts are suited for one-to-many ABM focused on awareness, while mid-funnel accounts benefit from one-to-few engagement to nurture consideration. Top-funnel accounts ready for decision-making receive one-to-one ABM treatment. This funnel-driven approach ensures efficient resource allocation and maximizes the impact of ABM activities.

Profile Pooja Sharma Associate Director at Crisil LinkedIn

Pooja Sharma is a B2B marketing leader specialising in account-based strategies and revenue-driven demand generation. She partners with enterprise marketing teams to build aligned sales-and-marketing programs that target high-value accounts and deliver measurable pipeline. Pooja is recognised for her execution-first mindset—focusing on practical frameworks over theory to enable repeatable account growth. She shares actionable insights that help B2B marketing organisations scale with operational clarity and strong results.

Show Notes -

In this episode, Pooja shares how ABM looks different depending on the company size, sales cycle, and internal culture.
We talk about how to plan ABM programs, secure buy-in across teams, and keep momentum alive over longer campaign timelines.

You’ll learn:
-How to decide which ABM model fits your business.
-Why sales cycle length shapes campaign duration and messaging.
-How to align cross-functional teams before execution.
-Ways to sustain engagement and show progress over time.

Links & Resources -