Why spend half day with a room full of ABM leaders talking about data?

July 1, 2019 Mihaela Bisnel

Last week SiriusDecisions took the initiative to organise an awesome series of events around Europe, focusing on data strategy specifically for ABM. The room was packed with ABM leaders, Marketing Operation Managers, Demand Marketing managers, and a few sales leaders. Most of whom already started their ABM journey in some shape or form but the majority of these early ABM practitioners immediately also indicated that they're struggling showing ROI and results. Why is that?

  • Lack of planning,
  • Insufficient management sponsorship,
  • Unbalanced marketing / sales effort and responsibility,
  • Difficulties articulating KPIs and success,
  • But most often they started with bad data.

Key learnings for an ABM data strategy

So, if you were to start your data strategy for ABM tomorrow, what would be the key learnings we could share with you?

  • Start having conversations with the different stakeholders (e.g. sales leaders) explaining the benefits for them, rather than making it sound like another request for budget or another admin task for their team.
  • Set the expectations right by starting with a pilot or POC, and make sure you communicate that it is actually (just) a pilot.
  • Take enough time for planning and strategy - pay special attention to budget allocation and fiscal year cycles.

Make sure you have a control group with lookalike accounts, that didn't benefit from ABM. Check how they perform compared to the accounts in your ABM target list. This way you can show success early, while refining and improving your long-term KPIs and data.

3 pillars your ABM data strategy should focus on

Circling back to the topic of the event, there are 3 pillars in your data strategy that you have to focus on:

  • What minimum data do you need to get started?
  • How do you manage that data?
  • How do you get it in front of the teams who need the data?

What we advise our clients is to start with looking at the data that is already in place: a quick and deep data-analysis of your operational data.

If you attended the event in London, Paris or Amsterdam and you want one hour of free ABM-data consultation or a customised intent data report, use the code #newfabric when contacting us at demandmore@leadfabric.com. Or drop us a line if you are still unsure about how to start, or if you just need expert support.

About the Author

Mihaela Bisnel

Global Marketing Manager with 10+ years experience in Marketing Technology (Marketing Automation, CRM) and Integrated Digital Marketing Campaigns.

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