The Complete
ABM Playbook

CONTENTS

Introduction

03

Chapter 1:
6 steps for getting started with ABM

04

Chapter 2:
6 vital ABM questions - answered!

06

Chapter 3:
A quick guide to Ideal Customer Profiles

09

Chapter 4:
Essential ABM metrics

11

Chapter 5:
How to build ABM target lists

14

Chapter 6:
How to plan content for ABM

16

Chapter 7:
10 questions to ask your ABM vendor

18

Chapter 8:
Example ABM tech stack

21

Conclusion

23

INTRODUCTION: YOURCOMPLETE GUIDE TO ABM

If you’ve downloaded this playbook, chances are you workin B2B marketing! Maybe you’ve heard of Account-Based
Marketing (ABM) but you’ve never done it. Or maybe you’ve
run some ABM campaigns before, but you want to know
how to improve them.
If you fit into either of those categories, you’re in luck!
Cognism’s Complete ABM Playbook will be your guide tolaunching effective ABM for 2020 and beyond! Over thecourse of these pages, we’ll give you:
• Definitions for what ABM is and how you can get started
with it.
• Top tips and advice from an all-star cast of ABM experts!
• Templates and infographics you can take away and use
in your business.
• Answers to all the ABM questions you can think of!
So, whether you’re an ABM newbie or an old hand, comewith us and learn some new skills or refresh some old ones!
Happy reading,
Alice de Courcy
Head of Marketing, Cognism

The Complete ABM Playbook | 4

1

CHAPTER 1:
6 STEPS FOR GETTING STARTED WITH ABMMany organisations are reaping big rewards from account-based
marketing (ABM). Here’s how you can join them.

Account-based marketing is gaining in popularity
across the B2B sector. Why? Because it works. B2B
marketers who use ABM report upticks in almost
every KPI.
• A study by Demandbase found that 19% ofcompanies using ABM for at least a year reported
more than 30% growth in revenue.
• A SiriusDecisions survey found that 91% of marketers
using ABM see a larger deal size, with 25% seeing
their deal sizes grow by more than 50%.
• ITSMA found that companies using ABM saw an
84% rise in reputation score and a 74% improvementin customer relationships.
Some companies believe that switching from a
conventional sales and marketing strategy over to
ABM is difficult. However, it’s actually really simple.
Here are our six tips for ABM success.

1. Build your ABM team

2. Define your ABM goals

ABM, focusing your sales and marketing operations ona small number of highly-targeted accounts, requiresa change in thinking around the way you sell.

If you don’t know what your goals are, how will you
know when you have achieved success? Plus, giving
your ABM team clearly defined goals helps focus theirefforts. Think about what you want to accomplish fromyour new ABM strategy. Here are some questions to
get you thinking:

One of these changes involves getting your marketingand sales teams to work much more closely. You needto build an ABM team of people with different roles,
but common aims. These could include:• Are you using ABM to launch a new product tothe market?

Sales reps

• Do you want to target a new customer segment?

Sales operations• Are you looking for new business, or more spend
from existing customers?

Marketing operations
Content producers (e.g. writers, designers)
Customer success repsMarketing development reps

TOP TIP
Once you have defined your goals, make sure you
have the right technology in your organisation
to help your ABM team achieve them.
For example, will you need new tech to help
you identify your targets? Will you need email
automation software? Will you need to adapt
your CRM to help you find ABM victory?

The Complete ABM Playbook | 5

3. Select your target accounts

4. Create personalised messaging

6. Evaluate and iterate

The next stage of getting started with ABM is possibly
the most important. Who are the companies you aregoing to target? Think about the goals you have set
out at the last stage.

ABM is all about creating content that resonates withevery individual who has an input into buying decisions
at your target account. The more personal you can get,the better. Ideally, you want to create one-off content,
addressing their specific needs - no copy and pasting.

Starting with ABM can be a trial and error process.
Your reporting should be able to tell you after a shortwhile what kinds of messages are resonating and what
are not. Your sales reps will hear from their prospects
what lines of attack work better than others.

One way to define your target accounts is to consider
what kind of companies are already your customers.
Then, look at their competitors. If you are providing
value to several companies in a specific industry, it’s
likely you can provide value to all the others too.
There may also be companies you dream of landing
as customers, for the MRR, the logo or both. ABM puts
you in a great position to hit these ambitious targets.

TOP TIP
Find out everything you can about yourtarget accounts. You need to discover who ison the decision-making committee for yourtarget accounts.
What are the motivating factors for everyone
who would have an input into purchasing yourproduct? How can you reach them with the kindof messaging that will make them want to buy?

Think about what sort of content will work best witheach particular individual:
Email

PPC advertisingSocial media

ListiclesVideo

Templates

Articles orwhitepapers

Webinars

You may even go as far as putting on events for yourtarget accounts.

5. Just do it!
Preparation over. It’s time to get ABMing! Use yourchosen tech to start distributing the content you havecreated to the people you have chosen.
You also need to deploy your sales reps to start
making inroads into your target accounts. Make calls,
set up meetings and demos. If your content is good andwell-dispersed, your buyers will already know who you
are. You know the interest they have in your product.
You see the solution you provide for them. It’s time tomove them through your customer journey.

TOP TIPIf something is working well, double downon it. If something else is failing, switch it out.
Use A/B testing to hone your ABM strategy
to perfection.

The Complete ABM Playbook | 6

2

CHAPTER 2:
6 VITAL ABM QUESTIONS - ANSWERED!
3 ABM experts, 6 vital questions. Cut through the confusion and get
all the answers you need to kickstart ABM in your business today.

ABM (account-based marketing) is an often
misunderstood concept, with even seasoned marketers
feeling confused about what it is and how to get started
with it. On Wednesday 9th October 2019, Cognism
hosted a live broadcast: ABM Beyond the Hype:
How to get started today.
The purpose of the webinar was to cut through all thejargon and misinformation and provide clear, practicaladvice on how you can add ABM to your marketing
efforts, right away.
For this reason, we assembled an awesome line-upof speakers who are working every day on the frontlineof ABM. They were:

We asked our panel 6 vital ABM questions. Theiranswers will help any marketer launch their own ABM
campaigns, fully optimised to produce the best results.

1. What does a good ABM campaign look like?
The answer here is - it depends! It depends on thecompany and their objectives, the market they’reworking in and the territory in which they’re based. But
within that, there are things you can do to make sure
your ABM campaign is as primed as it possibly can befor success.

Building a profile of your perfect customer is an importantfactor that can make or break an ABM campaign.

Nick Mason:“You need to be absolutely clear
who your Ideal Customer Profile is.
This is something every business should do. It’s
an incredibly useful exercise even outside of
ABM. Who are we not selling to at the momentthat we could be selling to? That’s a goodquestion to ask.”

Joe Birkedale:
Alice de Courcy
Head of Marketing at
Cognism [Moderator]
Nick Mason
CEO & Founder at Turtl
Owen Steer
Account Strategist at Punch!
Joe Birkedale
CEO at Project36“When we go about implementing
ABM, it’s during the discovery phasethat we get together with our sales team,senior and junior, and we drill into their existingsales cycle. We understand the steps andphases that exist, the blockers and objections,the timescales they’re working with, what’s
the buying journey like, how long it takes
to convert a typical sale from initial inquiry
through to conversion. We need to know those
things to set KPIs and goals for the campaign.”

2. How do you decide which tactics to use?
There are many different tactics you can deploy whenrunning an ABM campaign, from live events to online
advertising, blog posts to direct mails! Which ones you
use will depend on the decision-maker you’re targeting
and where they spend their time.
How can you pick the right channels? The panel agreed
that personalisation is the key.

The Complete ABM Playbook | 7

Nick Mason:“Personalisation is the difference
between ABM working or notworking. But the personalisation has to bemeaningful. It really comes down to who you’regoing after, in terms of the type of businesssector they’re in, the type of person you’relooking for, and that will help you determine
which tactics to use.”

4. How about the metrics? What should
you track?

5. What is the secret to aligning successfully
with sales and the business?

When you launch an ABM campaign, you need toprove to management and the wider business that it’sworthwhile. While the ABM metrics you track will varyfrom campaign to campaign and company to company,
we asked our panel for the top metrics you need tofocus on.

Our panellists agreed that this is the most importantpart of any ABM campaign.

Nick Mason:

3. What tech is out there to help? And isthere a no-tech route?
Everyone working in B2B and SaaS will be aware that
there has been an explosion in sales and marketing
tech. People can be overwhelmed by the avalanche ofchoice available to them. How can you make the righttech choices for ABM - and can ABM be done withoutbuying tech?

Owen Steer:“You can absolutely do ABM without
technology. Don’t rush into making
decisions for a tech stack when you’re trying
to learn and implement ABM. Instead, haveregular meetings between sales, marketing and
CS to agree on a plan for each account andsee how you can leverage the knowledge you
already have in your team.”“Moving further up in the funnel
than revenue and pipeline, which
are the ultimate metrics that we’re looking
for, the thing that we’re really interested
in is genuine engagement. You need tounderstand engagement far more deeply
than who clicked what and who downloaded
what. The thing that we really look for is
who’s spending time on what particularparts of what particular document.”

Owen Steer:“As campaigns are going, part of
the alignment process needs to be
making sure that any insights and information
regarding genuine engagement are filtereddown to sales. Make sure that those real-time
metrics are being transparently shared acrossthe company so that you’re making the mostof what you’re learning.”

Owen Steer:“Getting buy-in from internal
stakeholders, first and foremost, isabsolutely essential. Set realistic expectations you need to secure a budget from the company
for your ABM campaign. Be aware that it’s along-term campaign. ABM is not a short-term
revenue grab. Avoid the pitfall of failing fromthe get-go by setting realistic expectations.”

Joe Birkedale:“However long your stages ofdelivery for ABM are, the final stepshould be: measure, learn, optimise and repeat.
It’s not a set and forget program. ABM is aliving, breathing thing, so it will change. It takes
time. If you want revenue tomorrow, ABM is
not the program for you.”

The Complete ABM Playbook | 8

6. What are your top tips for success?
We asked our ABM experts for their number one tip
for ABM success.

Joe Birkedale:“If sales don’t understand why ABM ishappening and the process and steps
that a lead has gone through to be classified asa marketing-qualified or sales-qualified lead...
then there’s no importance placed on it. If sales
understand what is happening and why, they’remuch more likely to jump on those leads andclose them. It should be seen as a joint effort
to close that lead.”

Nick Mason:“Start small and get an understandingof what you want to achieve.”

Owen Steer:“ABM is not just multi-channelmarketing, it’s best practicemarketing. But there’s more to it than justusing multiple channels. It’s about treating theaccounts you’re going after as markets in theirown right. There’s no better resource for amarketer to learn more about accounts thantheir own internal sales team and customer
success team.”

The Complete ABM Playbook | 9

3

CHAPTER 3:
A QUICK GUIDE TO IDEAL CUSTOMER PROFILES
The key to ABM success lies in identifying a small number of high-profile accounts and targetingthem with personalised campaigns. To do this, you’ll have to build your Ideal Customer Profile.

Unlike traditional forms of marketing, where the net
is cast wide in the hopes of catching large volumesof customers, ABM is all about getting hyper-focusedand granular.

How do you create an ICP?

3. Analyse the data

These are the steps that we use at Cognism to build
our ICP:To get your ABM campaigns started with a bang,
you need to define who your ideal customers are.
The best way of doing this is to build your Ideal
Customer Profile (ICP).

1. Identify your super-users

Once you’ve conducted your interviews and collected
the answers, it’s time to study the data. Put all theanswers together and see what links them. Look forcommon attributes. Are there any recurring patterns
or shared characteristics? The insights you’ll gain here
are critical for the next step in developing your ICP.

What is ICP?
Your ICP is a comprehensive description of yourperfect client. It’s the kind of customer that finds
massive benefits from your product or service, while
also being able to give you enough value in return
to make your business profitable.

It’s likely that your ICP is already a customer of yours.
Start by looking at the prospects that convert quickly
and your longest-serving customers. Narrow down
your customer base until you have a list of 10 superusers - the people who don’t just use your product,but the people who love it and get more value outof it than the average user.
2. Interview your super-users
Set up phone calls, Zoom or face-to-face meetings
with your 10 super-users. Ask them about theirexperiences with your product, specifically:• Their buying processes.
• How they found out about you.
• Why they purchased.
• How they’re benefitting from your product.

4. Create your ICP template
This final step is where you put it all together. Take all
the insights you’ve gained and build a template of yourideal customer.

The Complete ABM Playbook | 10

Here’s an example which we use at Cognism. This hashelped us to launch our own ABM campaigns!
Follow our quick guide - and use our ICP template and you too will soon have a complete picture of thecustomers you’ll need to target with ABM.

The Complete ABM Playbook | 11

4

CHAPTER 4:
ESSENTIAL ABM METRICS
For success in ABM, you need to let the data drive your decision-making.
Here are the most important metrics to track.

ABM isn’t a “quick win” activity. It can take a lot oftime before it starts producing results. When you
start running an ABM campaign, you’ll need to proveto management and the wider business that it’s worth
the time and expense. The only way you can dothis is to monitor your ABM metrics.

Tracking ABM engagement

While the metrics you track may vary from campaign
to campaign, at Cognism we’ve found that there aresome core metrics that you need to keep your eyeson - especially if you’re just starting out with ABM.

What is ABM engagement?

These are the essential metrics to help you get
started with ABM.

DIGITAL ENGAGEMENTTOP TIP• Agree on the metrics to track before
starting your ABM campaign.
• Align sales and marketing and ensureboth teams are fully aware of the metrics
they need to monitor.
• Be transparent in sharing the resultsof your ABM activity as the campaign
progresses, so both teams learn together.

The guiding principle of ABM is to build and maintaindeep and meaningful relationships with your target
accounts. To measure success in growing thoserelationships, you’ll have to track engagement.

ABM engagement is any interaction a prospect has withyour ABM activity. There are two types of engagement:This includes any online interactions from yourprospects. For example:
Opening an email
Visiting your website
Downloading a piece of content
Reading a piece of content
Filling out a survey or form
Signing up to a newsletter or mailing list

Click to view full size

The Complete ABM Playbook | 12

PHYSICAL ENGAGEMENTTOP TIP #2

This includes all real-world interactions fromyour prospects. For example:

Another quick trick is to track yourengagement scores in Excel or Google Sheets.
There’s no need to shell out on expensive
reporting solutions when you’re just startingwith ABM.

Onsite visits or event attendancePhone calls
Direct mail
SMS

What can you do with this data?

Demo attendance

The insights you’ll gain from measuring engagement canbe invaluable to the continued success of your ABM
efforts. Here are some questions to get you thinking:

How to track ABM engagement

Are certain days of the week more
popular for engagement than others?

At Cognism, we regularly help our customers to
run targeted ABM campaigns. We encourage themto track the engagement they have with theirprospects by using the template to the right.

Do you find that you get a higher number ofengagements on certain days than others? Are certain
engagement types more popular on specific days?
The answers to these questions will tell you when are
the best times for launching your ABM activities. They’ll
inform your ABM campaign schedule and help you
to maximise engagement from your prospects.

TOP TIP #1
Our advice is to keep your eye on theengagement score. Before you start yourABM campaign, define your goals and set
engagement scores against each goal.
For example, a prospect answering an email
could be a score of 5, while booking ademo could be a score of 8. Add up all theengagement scores to see how well eachcampaign is doing in relation to others.

How do individual prospects engage
with your company?
Click to view full size

We’ve found this template to be a useful way of
tracking ABM engagement over time. Not only does
it list each engagement on a day-by-day basis, but
it also shows how each interaction feeds into thesuccess of the entire campaign.

As we’ve said, ABM works when it’s highly-personalised
and relevant to each prospect. Look out for patterns intheir behaviour. Do they engage with certain channels
but not others? Do they usually respond at certain
times of the day? Are there particular messages orengagement types that they respond best to?

The Complete ABM Playbook | 13

TOP TIP #3
Use the information to get even more
personalised. Double down on what works
and build a campaign that’s laser-focusedon the prospect and his or her needs.

How well are each engagement
types performing?
ABM is a multi-channel undertaking. You have tointeract regularly with your potential buyers across anumber of different channels and media. It’s the only
way to keep that meaningful relationship going.

TOP TIP #4
Find out which engagement types work bestfor each prospect. Then you’ll know which
engagement types you need to concentrateon. Use the template we’ve provided to keep
track of this.

The secret of ABM engagement
ABM engagement is about time. It’s the same withany purchasing decision you make in any walk of life
- the more time you spend in a shop, for instance, themore likely you are to buy something. So it is with B2B
buyers. The more time they spend interacting withyour company, the more interest they’re showing inbuying from you.
Tracking engagement is the vital first step in measuring
the success of ABM. It’s simple to understand, easy to
track, and can give you some useful insights early on.
Simplify the process even further by making use of our
tracking template. Be sure to share your successes
with us!

The Complete ABM Playbook | 14

5

CHAPTER 5:
HOW TO BUILD ABM TARGET LISTSHow do you build lists that will bring Account-Based Marketing
success? Owen Steer, ABM Specialist at Punch, shows us how.

Account-Based Marketing (ABM) can be an extremely
effective way to win bigger deals from more clients in
the B2B space. However, it takes a considerable amountof investment, of time and money, for it to work.

How to build your lists

Step 2: Measure first-party intent

Owen recommends three core things you can dowhen you build your ABM target lists.

First-party intent (also called engagement) is informationfrom end-user engagement with your brand. This could
take the form of:

For this reason, you need to have a robust plan before
you start your ABM operation. You can’t run ABM
campaigns on an ad hoc basis. Part of your preparation
for ABM is building a list of targets. You need to define
who you are going to approach before you start.

Step 1: Create your Ideal Customer Profile

We sat down with Owen Steer, ABM Specialist at Punch,
to gain more insights on ABM and target lists. As an
ABM expert who deals with this topic every day, there
are few people better qualified to show us the right
way to do things. Here is Owen’s how-to guide for list
building success.

ABM requires you to get your sales and marketing teamsaligned and working together. Once you’ve done this,you can run this exercise - creating a profile of your ideal
customer, the type of account you will target with ABM.
Think about what makes a good customer for yourcompany. Get your sales, marketing and customer
success teams around the table to get a full picture.
Map out technographic and firmographic data for all
your clients. What connects them?

TOP TIPUse these insights to create your Ideal
Customer Profile (ICP). Then, you can use
tools (such as Cognism Prospector) to build
out your Total Addressable Market (TAM) –a list of accounts ripe for targeting.

• Event attendees.
• Users who have viewed or downloaded content.
• People who have filled out online forms.
At this stage of your list-building, you need to gather all
this information together. You’re looking for anyone who
has directly engaged with your brand.

TOP TIP
Once you have all the data, study it. Are any ofthem in a buying window right now? Have they
signalled any intent to buy?
You can add any users with intent to buy toyour ABM list.

The Complete ABM Playbook | 15

Step 3: Measure third-party intent

How to order your lists

Choosing the right type of ABM

If first-party intent is all about people who have directly
engaged with your brand, third-party intent is about
people who could be interested in your company, but
may not know about it yet.

Now you have a list of people, it’s time to put them inthe order in which you’re going to target them. You can
use all three of the methods we’ve talked about – but
be scientific. Don’t just go after the biggest or most
famous companies – look for targets that are the best
fit for your offering.

You need to choose the right ABM method for yourbusiness, based around the nature of your company
and the type of accounts you want to target. Importantfactors to consider when selecting the right type of
ABM are deal size and lifetime value.

You are looking for people who have engaged andshown interest in your industry or sector. These could be:• People viewing competitor websites.
• Users searching for specific terms on search engines.
How can you find these people? First, define a set of
keywords that are relevant to your industry. Be carefulwith these keywords - they must be relevant. Owen
recommends a list of around 250 keywords. Always
double-check your list to make sure the terms you’reusing aren’t bringing in irrelevant search results.

TOP TIPUse tools that will find people who aresearching for these keywords online. You can
add those people to your ABM lists.
Owen recommends this as a good option forsmaller companies with low inbound volume.

You should also prioritise the accounts that have astrong intent to buy.

• Lower-value accounts are best suited to one-to-many
ABM. This allows you to spread your budget over alarger number of accounts, maximising ROI.

The 3 types of ABM• Higher-value accounts should be targeted with a
one-to-few approach.

OK, now you have your target lists, it’s time to getstarted! But how?

• The highest-value accounts should be treated as amarket in their own right and targeted with one-to-one.

There are 3 types of ABM:
• One-to-one: picking up a handful of high-value
accounts and putting all your budget into targetingthem. This works with 1-5 accounts max.
• One-to-few: Sector-specific – selecting a larger pool ofaccounts in the same industry (10-30 accounts max).
• One-to-many: More like traditional digital marketing,but with more customer-centric messaging.

TOP TIP
Owen’s advice is to run a pilot programme.
Probe the market with the one-to-manymethod. If you get good results, you can ramp
up the pilot into one-to-few or one-to-one. You
need to know the science behind your ABM
operation to help you make informed decisions.

The Complete ABM Playbook | 16

6

CHAPTER 6:
HOW TO PLAN CONTENT FOR ABM
We interviewed Joe Birkedale, the founder and CEO of Project36.
Read on for some top insights into planning ABM content.

Joe Birkedale is the founder and CEO of Project36- a strategic ABM agency that delivers marketing
projects for clients all over the world. Project36 has
an impressive portfolio of services, including inboundmarketing, content and strategy, video marketing,campaign planning and execution, and creative
design and illustration.
We sat down with Joe and asked him for his thoughts
on how to plan content for ABM. As an experienced
marketing professional with a strong record ofconnecting and engaging with target accounts on his
clients’ behalf, Joe had many tips on this topic.
Here’s Joe’s advice for planning content for ABM.

1. Identify your target audience
First and foremost, before you embark on an ABM
strategy, you need to define your target audience.
Content in an ABM context only works if it resonateswith the people who engage with it. So, you need toknow who you’re going to engage before you startcreating your content.
Start off by developing your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP).
Get your sales and marketing departments to work
together on this. Your ICP should be a comprehensive
description of your perfect customer, including:

2. Define their pain points
Work out individual pain points for everyone in the DMU.
For example - are they looking to reduce costs? Save time?
Grow their sales? Streamline their existing processes?
Interview the salespeople who are interacting with
the DMU. Sales reps work at the coalface of businessevery day and the information they pick up during their
qualification and discovery calls can be invaluable to theaccount-based marketer. Use their insights to define theprospects’ pain points - and then use the pain points toinspire and influence the content you’ll create.

• Who they are.
• Where they work.
• Their challenges and goals.
• Where they spend their time online (or not!).
Once you’ve developed your ICP, you can use it
to inform the next stage - creating lists of the ideal
customers you want to target. Then, when you’ve built
your target lists, go even deeper. Identify the decisionmaking units (DMU) inside each target company. ABM
is a highly-personalised play - you’ll need granular
intelligence on every member of the DMU.

3. Choose the right medium
Joe shared a stat with us - on average, there are 7 to
8 influencers involved in every business decision.
Each influencer is different, so it stands to reason thatthey will all respond to content in different ways. Somepeople respond better to different types of content
than others.

The Complete ABM Playbook | 17

And in today’s modern marketing world, there is awide range of content types to choose from. Popularformats include:• Blogs• Videos• Case studies• Whitepapers• Webinars• Podcasts• Letters and direct mailWith so many options available, how can you becertain you’re choosing the right one?
Again, ask your sales team. They’ll know fromexperience what resonates most with different typesof buyers. Aligning marketing with sales is the surest
route to achieving success with ABM.

4. Select the right channels
Just as important as knowing what types of content toproduce is knowing where to promote them. Go backto your ICP - where are your targets spending their time
online? What social media channels do they most often
engage with?
Do your research. Check your own social media channels
and email campaigns. Where are you seeing engagementfrom your target accounts and others like them? Study
your data and make decisions based on it.
When activating your content, tailor and customise yourmessaging for each prospect. Personalisation is the key
to ABM engagement.

5. Timing is everything
Successful ABM campaigns contain multiple steps,
involving numerous channels and content types.
Joe had some great advice to share.
The more senior the decision-maker, the shorter yourcontent must be in the first step. Senior decision-makers
will have no time in their day to consume long-form
content. It’s only later, at the decision stage of thebuyer’s journey, that they’ll have time for long content.
Build up to that point by delivering smaller pieces ofcontent at regular intervals.
Joe told us that the trick is to keep the engagement
going. You’ll need to provide the prospect with valuable
content at every stage of their journey with your brand.

The Complete ABM Playbook | 18

7

CHAPTER 7:
10 QUESTIONS TO ASK YOUR ABM VENDOR
Choosing the right ABM vendor can be a tricky proposition. Owen Steer and
Joe Birkedale select their top 10 questions to help you through the process.

ABM has the highest return on investment of any
B2B marketing tactic. It’s no surprise then that the ABM
industry is booming. There are a wealth of agencies andtools out there that promise to take your ABM campaigns
to the next level. But, with so much choice available,
how do you pick the right one for your business?
We asked Joe Birkedale, founder and CEO of
Project36, and Owen Steer, ABM Specialist at Punch,
for their advice. As seasoned marketers with a record ofdelivering complex ABM strategies for their clients, they
are uniquely placed to offer their insights into the top 10
questions you need to ask your ABM vendor. Their tips
will help you when it comes to defining your ABM goals
and making a sensible buying decision.
Over to Joe and Owen!

The questions

2. What metrics will you be tracking?

1. What does success or failure look like?
Owen said:
Joe said:“Asking this question first of all is avery good option! Before you startwith ABM, you need to determine what you’relooking to get out of it. What’s your perfect end
result? What are you hoping to achieve?
Bear in mind that ABM is not a silver bullet. It
normally takes a lot of time and effort before
you see success. A good ABM vendor will seek
to outline the end goal first, then describe thesteps you need to take to get there.”“You definitely need to set thecorrect KPIs before you launch an
ABM campaign. All stakeholders need to be
fully aligned on these metrics. Think about thefollowing: what does success look like? Who is
responsible for achieving these metrics? Whoand how will you be measuring results?
This conversation should involve marketing,sales, customer success, and of course, your
ABM vendor.
Remember that ABM is a long-term initiative, so
you may have to agree on short-term metrics
that showcase early signs of success, while you
wait for the long-term benefits to kick in.”

The Complete ABM Playbook | 19

3. How many accounts can you realistically target?

Joe said:“You need to be realistic with what
ABM can achieve, what you canhandle and how far your budgets can reach.
Start small, always. Prove the model and thenscale. If you scale up too soon, you’ll drownin data and the campaign will stumble.
Most clients aim for 1-to-Few ABM, which
is typically 20 accounts with approximately
5 decision-makers in each.”

4. Of those accounts, which ones would be best
to target?

Owen said:“Committing to ABM means focusing
your resources on accounts thathave a higher propensity of converting intobusiness. Best-practice account selection isabsolutely vital to ensure you’re mitigating theinherent risk of targeting fewer accounts.
At Punch, we start by drilling down into aclient’s data and building an Ideal Customer
Profile (ICP). We use this ICP to develop
a list of accounts that are a good fit foryour proposition. This is called your Total
Addressable Market (TAM).

6. How quickly can I expect to see ROI?
Once you have your TAM, it’s time to use intent
data to identify which accounts are showing
the best signals for having a need or entering abuying window. The accounts that are showing
the highest intent to buy are the accounts thatyou need to prioritise with ABM!”

5. How much will it cost?

Joe said:“It’s vital to stress that ABM is a longterm strategy. It’s best placed to workwith complex services or solutions that havea high degree of customisation, high cost andtypically long implementation timescales.
ABM is not usually suitable for high-volume,
low-value products or services. Expect the costs
to reflect the volume of research, data, insight,
strategy and the playbook the campaign requires.”Owen said:“Similar to question 5, this questionis all about managing expectations.
ABM isn’t a short-term cash grab. It’s good to
get everyone thinking long-term. You haveto set yourself realistic expectations aroundachieving ROI.
For example, if your current sales cycle is 12
months then you shouldn’t come into ABM
expecting to win business within the first 6
months. That doesn’t mean you won’t, though!”

7. How long will the campaign take?

Joe said:“The answer is - it will vary
dramatically based on the product,
service or solution being offered. Look at yourexisting sales cycle. If, for example, it normallytakes 12 months from enquiry to order, then
expect something broadly similar.
ABM should have numerous KPIs for tracking
success. Time to first order can be one of thosemetrics and ABM can shorten the sales cycle,
but it will need time to run before it can be
evolved and tweaked.”

The Complete ABM Playbook | 20

9. What systems/tech will you use?
8. How will you manage communications with
our sales team?

Owen said:“Although the conversation to develop
an ABM programme tends to start withmarketing, the first topic of conversation is always
the most effective way to align with sales.
Here at Punch, we invite sales, customer
success and marketing to attend a series ofstrategic workshops during the setup process.
This ensures that all stakeholders are aligned.
Fast-forward to campaign execution andwe’ll put in the diary weekly catch-ups about
how well the campaign is going, and monthly
reviews where we can share insights andideas for improvement.”

Joe said:“ABM doesn’t need a sophisticatedtech stack. A spreadsheet andgood data are really all you need at the start.
My advice to my clients is: don’t go mad on
the tech! As an ABM agency, we often spend
a lot of time unpicking our customers’ techstacks. They can become overly complex andconvoluted, and can actually slow you down in
the early stages. Get your ABM campaigningright from an operational level first, then add
in tech later.”

10. How long will the setup take?

Owen said:“I always say that ABM is 80%
setup, 20% execution. There are
no strict guidelines for how long it takes towork through the strategic setup of your
ABM programme...but you will notice thatdue diligence in getting the setup right in the
beginning will be reflected in your success.”

The Complete ABM Playbook | 21

8

CHAPTER 8:
EXAMPLE ABM TECH STACK
What tech can you use to enhance your ABM efforts?
Here’s an example tech stack for ABM.

INTELLIGENCE

MANAGEMENTEXECUTIONREPORTING

The Complete ABM Playbook | 22

INTELLIGENCE

MANAGEMENTEXECUTIONREPORTING

CONCLUSION
You’ve reached the end of Cognism’s Complete
ABM Playbook! We hope you found it useful.
We’d like to thank all our wonderful contributors
for sharing their knowledge.
What did you think about our Playbook? We’d love
to hear your feedback. Follow us on our social
media channels, where we’ll be sharing more
ABM-related content in the very near future!

Did you know?
Cognism is the perfect choice for the accountbased B2B marketer. Using our platform, you can:• Develop personas of your ideal customers
and quickly build target lists of B2B leads.
• Drill down into your target accounts anddiscover an accurate list of decision-makers
and their contact details.
• Deploy highly-focused, multi-step andautomated outbound campaigns to engage
and follow-up with them.

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