Why Your Account-Based Marketing Strategy Got Stuck Before It Got Started (and How to Fix It)

Why ABM Is on Everyone’s Radar (and Why That’s a Good Thing)

Account-based marketing (ABM) is having a moment. Although analysts disagree on the exact numbers, everyone agrees that more B2B organisations are launching account-based marketing strategies:

• 70% of marketers reported “using ABM” in 2021, up from 15% in 2020. (HubSpot)
• By 2023, another survey found 96% of B2B marketers had documented ABM strategies and 98% said they’re central to achieving objectives. (Foundry).
• Uptake is slower in APAC is a growing market, where 38% of B2B marketers had an established ABM approach in 2024; another 37% were starting on the journey, while 16% were assessing the value, and 9% weren’t interested. (xGrowth).

So why do you feel like your account-based marketing strategy is going nowhere fast, while everyone else is off to the races? In our conversations with B2B customer experience management teams, it’s clear that many are keen to launch ABM strategies but are spinning their wheels trying to create the perfect plan. Others have taken the first steps, but either slowed or stalled for reasons we’ll explore shortly.

The truth is, you don’t need a flawless system to start seeing value. You don’t need expensive tech to target new accounts. And you don’t need a 50-page strategy to start testing account-based marketing strategies. You mainly need a clear vision and internal alignment. ABM leaders get those fundamentals in place and mature over time.

What ABM Actually Is

It’s Not as Intimidating as You Think

ABM is a way of thinking about marketing and sales efforts through the lens of accounts, not individuals. It means:

• Building a strategy with your best-fit customers (“accounts”) at the centre.
• Strategically engaging businesses you want to win, not just any leads that land in your funnel.
• Focusing your energy (and resources) on a curated list of target accounts.
• Personalising experiences for the roles, or ideally the individuals, within those target accounts.

If that sounds familiar, good. Your approach might be more mature than you realise. Account-based marketing strategies are more accessible than many people think.

Four Pillars of Account-Based Marketing

Effective ABM is a strategic mindset. The tactics and tools look different for every organisation. However, all successful ABM strategies are built on four core elements:

• ICPs (Ideal Customer Profiles): You probably have a sense of your best customers already. ABM combines sales and marketing insight to define their key characteristics clearly.
• Decision-makers and influencers: B2B deals rarely involve just one person. Who shapes the buying decision? Who needs convincing? Mapping the decision makers & key influencers into a Buying Group is key.
• Tailored messaging: Once you know the people involved, you can speak to them directly. That means moving from linear campaigns to personalised messaging for the Buying Group in addition to specific experiences for: decision-makers, influencers, users, detractors, and procurement.
• Meaningful success measures: Forget lead volume. ABM is about how deeply you’re engaging the right accounts and their stakeholders, and how effectively they’re moving through the sales funnel.

You don’t need four fully built pillars to begin. We look at account-based marketing maturity as a matrix with spectrums in each quadrant, rather than a linear scale.

Breaking Through ABM Barriers

If account-based marketing is so straightforward, why is confidence so low? We see the same hurdles pop up time and again, across different industries and company profiles.

The Immovable Mountain of Marketing

There’s a misconception that ABM replaces traditional B2B marketing approaches. It doesn’t. It applies a new lens that’s capable of zooming out to see the entire account while simultaneously tracking multiple individuals within it.

This means an account-based marketing strategy can roll out alongside or within your existing systems, gradually reframing your approach rather than suddenly upending it.

“Traditional demand-gen marketing casts a wide net. Marketers chase lead volume and score individuals, and sales only get involved when leads hit certain thresholds. With ABM, the teams are united in scoring accounts and measuring the strength of relationships. You’re still engaging people – just with the context of their role in the buying group and their influence on the decision.”

Richard Austin, B2B Practice Lead

Lack of Experienced Support

In xGrowth’s State of ABM in APAC 2024 survey, more than 40% of new ABM practitioners reported that a lack of implementation support was a significant pain point. Around 30% also cited a lack of experience. Around 27% felt the process was too complicated.

This matches our experience as B2B CXM consultants. We often hear of teams getting overwhelmed before they really get started, whether due to internal capability gaps or a lingering bad taste from a failed ABM experiment.

How To Get the Right Support:

• Audit your team’s experience and capabilities; identify gaps and key requirements
• Be smart about your goals and KPIs.
• Work with strategic consultants who are experienced in ABM.
• Engage them early to ensure customer centricity is built into the foundation of your ABM approach.

Sales and Marketing (Mis)Alignment

From xGrowth’s survey, sales and marketing alignment was the main motivator for 75% of new practitioners and around 60% of established teams. Overall, 62.8% of respondents said greater alignment was the biggest benefit of implementing ABM.

How To Align Sales and Marketing Behind ABM:

• Set shared goals.
• Identify common ICP traits.
• Collaborate on account planning sessions.
• Define who owns what stage of the customer journey.
• Define the process to manage leads, sales handovers and ongoing marketing support.

The last point is where a lot of organisations get stuck. They try to create the perfect solution before any work is done. Taking an agile approach and working with a small group of ABM advocates from sales will enable you to develop these processes alongside the initial ABM tactics, forming a proof of concept.

“ABM is a catalyst for sales and marketing alignment. Sales and marketing alignment is an enabler for ABM. This is usually a profound insight for clients we help to implement and mature a long-term ABM approach. They help each other out, and also help the business to become integrated and customer-centric.”

Richard Austin, B2B Practice Lead

The Perfection Problem

Perfection is the enemy of progress. Don’t wait until every ICP profile, workflow, or dashboard is flawless.

Every business is at a different point. For example, you might know who makes the decisions at your ICP’s company but not how to reach them. Or you might have a slick sales deck that works in some boardrooms but not others.

Start where you are, not where you think you should be. You’ll get the most value by testing your account-based marketing approach with a handful of accounts and iterating as you go.

How To Start:

• Launch a pilot with what you have.
• Pick one thing: a single high-value account or ICP.
• Test your concept and learn from mistakes.
• Measure what matters and refine as you go.
• Establish maturity milestones.

Tech Overwhelm

You don’t need a giant tech stack to see momentum or value in account-based marketing. In fact, you probably have what you need right now: a CRM, engagement platforms, and access to LinkedIn. Nearly 1 in 2 new ABM adopters (46.3%) and 1 in 3 established practitioners (over 30%) don’t have any specific tech. Tools help, but strategy and alignment are far more impactful.

Optimising Your Tech Stack for Maximum Impact

• Focus on strategy, not software.
• Use the tools you already have to get started.
• Upgrade or update existing tech before investing in new tools.
• Layer in new tech only when there is a clear ROI.

Read more: The Best Martech Platform is Probably the One You Already Have.

Where To Start With an Account-Based Marketing Strategy

We talk to a lot of marketing and sales teams who feel like they’re skimming the surface of account-based marketing but can’t break through. They’re targeting key accounts. Maybe they’re testing personalised campaigns or gathering data on individuals within ICPs.

They score a few wins, but then progress falters and people get frustrated. The problem isn’t that ABM is wrong for the business. It’s that these first efforts aren’t aligned to a strategy. They’re not contributing to a bigger picture, so a speed bump looks like a dead-end.

This is why an ABM strategy workshop is valuable. It’s a chance to:

• Get sales and marketing in a room together.
• Map out what’s already happening.
• Agree on where you want to go.
• Define your best-fit customers.
• Align on what “good” looks like.

More than anything, it’s an opportunity to define how you see ABM.

Every business defines it differently. A clear and agreed vision is the essential core of every effective account-based marketing strategy.

Pinpointing ICPs For a Pilot

A simple “lookalike” strategy is one of the fastest, smartest ways for most organisations to prove there’s value in pursuing an account-based marketing strategy. Find new accounts that look similar to your best current customers. Test the aligned approach on them. Document what you learn.

There will be missteps and tactics that fall flat. But you’re guaranteed to learn a lot from every interaction. As long as you’re taking calculated risks, that experience is significantly more valuable than doing nothing.

You Don’t Need a Perfect Account-Based Marketing Strategy

Keep Moving

Account-based marketing strategies enable brilliant B2B customer experiences. By aligning your teams behind what matters most, and focusing your resources where they’ll have the biggest impact, you’ll create a revenue engine that delivers exceptional ROI.

What you can’t afford to do is get bogged down in details right at the starting line. If you take one thing away from this guide, let it be this: momentum beats perfection every time.

Learn (and Optimise) as You Go

ABM is never finished. New opportunities arise. Markets move. Contact people change. You’ll always be learning and refining your approach. Most of the moving parts – messaging, targeting, measurement, technology – evolve as you mature.

The important thing is to measure outcomes along the way so you know which direction things are moving, and how to correct mistakes or repeat successes.

In our next guide, we’ll dig into the people side of ABM strategies. How to map decision-makers, engage influencers, and personalise your approach for every key role in your target accounts. Follow us on LinkedIn or join our mailing list to be first in the know when we release new insights.