The ABM Solutions Playbook: Making Platforms Work

To ABM platform or not to ABM platform? That is the question.

Let me start out by saying that I’m a big fan of the 6senses and Demandbases of the world. They can deliver astounding results, have tons of features, and have made ABM what it is today. That being said, while they are the perfect fit for a lot of businesses, they aren’t the perfect fit for all businesses.

Are traditional ABM platforms for you? Or would an unbundled ABM system be more your style? Let’s find out together—and hot tip: Don’t just think of this as a yes/no checklist. Below are some powerful examples of how to make ABM platforms work for you, should you choose to get one. 

Time and Bandwidth 

First off, implementing a full ABM platform is time-intensive, needing a lot of initial setup: tech integrations (CRM, MAP, Ad platforms, intent providers, analytics, etc.), foundational elements (intent keywords, taxonomy, reporting, alerts), team enablement, sales enablement, and more.

Onboarding can happen as quickly as a few months or can take upwards of a year, depending on how fast your org can move. Then, you need to integrate within your daily workflow across all revenue-generating teams and enforce usage. Getting the alignment across teams can be a whole other ordeal. 

DO THIS: Create a stakeholder map of who you feel will own each section of the platform. All revenue-generating teams are usually involved—Sales, Marketing, Customer Success, Operations, and more. Think through whether these members have the bandwidth to handle a months-long initial onboarding and routine quarterly maintenance afterwards. 

For certain team members like admins, it can be dozens of additional hours per week for months. If you’re strapped for time or resources, an unbundled ABM point solution may be an easier initial lift to start seeing immediate results. 

Knowledge Gaps 

The big platforms have steep learning curves. Even if you are familiar with one, you won't necessarily understand the mechanics of another. There’s an overwhelming amount of (super helpful) content, education, and trainings to take in, and it can be hard to know where to start. Ideally, you have someone to help sherpa you through applying the ABM platform against your business, or you’ll be left guessing with the input you can gather from your ABM platform CSM. 

DO THIS: Seriously consider if you even have the time to complete the basic trainings and certifications on an ABM platform. It’s generally a 10 – 15+ hour commitment, but those often get pushed to the side. How will you source ideas to solve complex problems like showing ROI on your tool 1 – 2 years in?

If you don’t have a hefty number of hands-on-keyboard ABM platform experience, you’ll pick up the ins and outs of an unbundled ABM solution much faster, meaning faster time-to-value. However, this could mean trade-offs like full orchestration or multiple platforms.

Testing the Waters 

How many times have you been asked to prove the value of something before trying it out? As a marketer, I have been more times than I can count. If you need to prove this whole ‘ABM thing’ is worth its weight, consider a smaller-scale pilot—whether using a full ABM platform or an unbundled solution.

If you go this route, you'll want something you can implement against just one team or one line of business (LOB) to gather your initial data before either rolling out org-wide or implementing an entire ABM platform. Bonus: You can even take your learnings with you to the platform to make the most of your investment there. 

DO THIS: Think through what LOB/product you feel would have the most success with ABM and the LOB/product you feel has the most traction to gain from ABM. Sketch out your sample ABM plan of attack. How could you pilot this out over one to two quarters, and how would you show if it’s successful? Try that, and then you can even use those learnings to share in your ABM Platform RFPs/evaluations to pick their brains on how they can further amplify that success! 

Not the Right Type of Business 

Your business may not be the best for an ABM approach, period. You may be going after small accounts, small buying committees, or your 1st party data may be too messy. Don’t be oversold into a full ABM platform if it does not match up to what you are trying to achieve. It can be a really shiny toy to look at (and for good reason), but it won’t move mountains for every business. 

DO THIS: I love a good list. Write down every reason you feel your business is a great fit for ABM. Then the opposite—why do you feel it might not be a fit? Again, use this list in your evaluation with vendors to gather their thoughts. Ask to talk to customers with similar issues and see how they’ve managed success. 

Cost Prohibitive 

The biggest hurdle last… these ABM platforms can be expensive. Are they worth it? Absolutely, if implemented and executed on correctly. Are they still often six-figures or more? Yep. Not all businesses have the funds to cover this. Even if they do, the funds are often hard to get approved, having to go through a rather large internal buying committee that requires an act of God to get everyone to check the box on. Going back to earlier points, once you justify an ABM approach and have solid data to back yourself up, it’ll be much easier to get this approval. 

DO THIS: Talk with each department to ensure they are aligned. If the CRO, CMO, and CEO aren’t aligned, it will be hard to make the entire ABM movement a success. Map out how each department is going to evolve to this new mentality and what metric(s) each department will focus on that all feed into each other. For instance, maybe look at Marketing Influence vs MQL; then, see in your own data how this shift is leading to an increase in pipeline, regardless of lead volume! 

Tales of Failure and Success 

It’s so easy to make or break your ABM platform investment. When our editor asked for examples from my personal experience, these two directly came to mind: 

Success: There are SO MANY features in these ABM platforms that it can be hard to know what to use, not use, or even what to ask for. Like did you know that you can enable a Keyword Playground in some 6sense instances? I once worked with a customer who did this for keywords that they didn’t want to influence their predictive model, yet wanted sellers to see certain intent keywords to personalize their outreach based on their prospect’s personal interests… like Star Wars and Star Trek. Hear me out, it actually vibed with their tech brand! 

Failure: I once worked with a customer who complained their accounts were overly noisy and all showed the same intent. Upon further review 98% of their 1.5M account TAM was showing intent for vague brands and keywords like ‘Adobe’. Well, Adobe has 93 products, so they needed to narrow it down further… did they care about Adobe… Analytics? PDF Reader? Marketo? I have seen similar situations countless times, and it always holds that something so easy to fix can be an instant turnoff to users (i.e., sales) if not executed properly from the start. 

And Finally, for Those Who Are Already in It 

If you’ve made a recent (or not-so-recent) investment in a full ABM platform—congrats! That’s wildly exciting. The number one question we typically hear during that engagement is “how do I prove the ROI on this?” It’s not an easy task, and it requires additional work to make sure your setup is tracking properly in CRM, that all teams are using it how it’s intended, and that you’ve shifted the way you GTM fundamentally. We can help with this! We want you to make the most of this hefty investment—this could honestly be a whole other blog post in itself. 

If you are looking to integrate an ABM approach using the Unbundled ABM Growth System or if you need a partner to help you evaluate what platform or solution is right for you and don’t know where to start, reach out!