Account-Based Marketing (ABM) delivers higher ROI than other strategies for 97% of marketers. But the process of standing up ABM for the first time (let alone scaling it) is heavily reliant on the right skill sets and individuals to drive alignment. Success in ABM demands tight-knit alignment across marketing, sales, and customer success teams – a task easier said than done.

At minimum you’ll need a versatile marketer and member of sales (more on this minimal approach later). But best practices and ABM at scale require dramatically wider skill sets. 

This guide is your backstage pass to ABM. We'll break down how it's a whole new ballgame compared to "traditional" marketing and what that means for your team lineup. So, let's dive in and help you put together your dream ABM crew!

What is Account-Based Marketing (ABM)?

Account-Based Marketing (ABM) is a radical readjustment in B2B go-to-market motions. It’s economical, centered around shared characteristics from your most valuable accounts, and focused on strong alignment between each business function in a customer journey. Simply put, it's a strategy that concentrates on individual customer accounts, personalizing buying experiences for a select group of high-value targets.

Rather than initiating with a focus on channels, an ABM strategy kicks off by pinpointing and targeting your crucial customer accounts and building well coordinated targeted touch points across the customer journey. 

"If “traditional” inbound marketing is fishing with a net then filtering out the fish you don’t want, ABM is spearfishing only aimed at targets you’ve determined in advance."

There are three rough “levels” of ABM, starting from a broader account list (more akin to traditional inbound) and moving towards 1:1 focus on accounts. 

• Programmatic ABM forms the foundation of the pyramid. It's a broad approach, involving the smallest investment and yielding the lowest return per account. This version of ABM harnesses the power of technology to personalize campaigns on a large scale, heavily depending on automation to craft individualized campaigns.
• ABM Light resides in the center of the pyramid. Campaigns under this category are constructed using templates with a touch of personalization, operating on a one-to-few model. Generally, these campaigns are aimed at clusters or secondary accounts, interacting with approximately 5-10 individuals simultaneously.
• Strategic ABM tops the pyramid, necessitating the largest investment but also promising the highest return per account. Strategic ABM concentrates on one-to-one accounts, developing highly tailored plans for each individual account.

Read more: Our Favorite KPIs for Account-Based-Marketing

ABM's Origins 

ABM has been around for a while. Back in 1997, the marketing and advertising agency CSC employed a marketing strategy known as "full-court press pursuit." This approach entailed deploying every possible marketing tactic – from phone calls, personalized emails, and in-person visits to traditional mail and TV spots – until something resonated with a distinct account list.

The strategy proved successful – it resulted in CSC securing two contracts valued at over $170 million spanning a decade.

In recent years, ABM has reached more widespread acceptance as one way to avoid “one-size-fits-all” marketing approaches that are out of touch with over-inundated consumers. 

Initially, large corporations with deep pockets utilized ABM, but today, thanks to technology advancements, it's accessible – and perhaps most common – for smaller organizations (we’ll cover how you can get started with even a single marketer below).

What are the pros and cons of Account-Based Marketing?

Before you start posting openings for "ABM manager" or seeking consultants, consider your unique situation as well as the pros and cons of ABM detailed below. 

Key ABM benefits include:

• Better alignment between sales and marketing
• Improved customer relationships
• Potential for land and expand motions due to stronger relationships
• More consistent customer journey
• Higher revenue

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However, ABM isn't for everyone.

It works best for companies selling high-value, complex products or services, especially when multiple stakeholders are involved.

Possible ABM downsides include:

• High initial time and resource investment
• A different cadence and focus than “traditional” marketing that may require hiring or reskilling
• Potential neglect of smaller, consistent revenue-generating accounts
• Necessity for high level of collaboration between sales, marketing, and customer success

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"ABM is most effective for companies dealing with high-value products or services and long sales cycles."

Now that we’ve tackled ABM from a high level, let’s look into the roles and skill sets you need to account for to begin standing up your own campaigns.

Read more: 4 generative AI workflows for B2B account-based marketing

ABM Jobs: Essential Roles For Account-Based Marketing

When building a successful ABM team, it's vital to understand the roles involved and the specific skills required for each role. Here, we break down the essential jobs and their responsibilities in an ABM setting:

Account-Based Marketing Manager

• Responsibilities: The ABM Manager owns the overall success of ABM campaigns. They’re the team leader, responsible for the strategic planning, implementation, and evaluation of ABM campaigns. They coordinate with sales and marketing teams to ensure alignment, create personalized marketing strategies for target accounts, and monitor and measure the effectiveness of ABM initiatives.
• Skills: Strong leadership, strategic planning, excellent communication, knowledge of ABM platforms, analytical skills, and an understanding of CRM and marketing automation tools.

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Content Strategist / Content Marketer

• Responsibilities: This role is tasked with developing engaging, highly personalized content for target accounts. This content can range from blog posts and white papers to social media content and email campaigns. The content strategist must understand the needs and interests of each target account to create effective content as well as how to gather per-account insights into what content provides value.
• Skills: Content creation and delivery through many channels,, excellent writing and editing skills, creativity, and an understanding of content management systems.

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‍Paid specialist

• Responsibilities: This specialist manages online advertising campaigns, including retargeting efforts. They create and optimize ads, analyze campaign performance, and adjust strategies to maximize ROI. They need to ensure that the ads resonate with the target accounts and align with the overall ABM strategy.
• Skills: Knowledge of online advertising platforms (like Google Ads, Facebook Ads Manager), strong analytical skills, creativity, understanding of SEO and SEM, and familiarity with tracking and analytics tools.‍

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Data Analyst

• Responsibilities: The Data Analyst is in charge of collecting and interpreting data related to ABM campaigns. They track campaign performance, analyze customer data, provide insights on target accounts, and assist in making data-driven decisions to improve ABM effectiveness.
• Skills: Data analysis, proficiency in data visualization tools, understanding of data management platforms, and strong problem-solving abilities.

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Sales Development Representative (SDR)

• Responsibilities: SDRs work closely with the marketing team to follow up on ABM campaigns. They reach out to target accounts, nurture relationships, and play a significant role in converting these high-value accounts into customers.
• Skills: Excellent communication, customer service skills, understanding of CRM platforms, and strong persuasive abilities.

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Customer Success Manager

• Responsibilities: Once an account is won, the Customer Success Manager steps in. Their role involves nurturing the client relationship, ensuring customer satisfaction, and working towards account expansion.
• Skills: Strong communication, customer service, relationship building, problem-solving, and understanding of customer success tools.

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Building a successful ABM team involves hiring for these key "account based marketing jobs" and nurturing the right skills in each team member. As the team forms and develops, your business will be better positioned to personalize marketing efforts, engage target accounts effectively, and ultimately boost your "account based marketing ROI".

Skills needed for ABM by process stage

You can also look to build out ABM from a skill-based perspective. Below are the most common steps in setting up an ABM campaign, as well as the skill sets that most support each of these steps: 

1. Identify and Select Target Accounts 

The first step in the ABM process is to identify and select the high-value accounts that you want to target. These are typically accounts that have the potential for high revenue, are a good fit for your product or service, or strategic in terms of market positioning.

Skills Required: Analytical skills to process data and insights, knowledge of industry trends, ability to assess the potential value of different accounts, and strategic thinking for selecting the most valuable targets.

2. Research and Account Insights 

After you have identified your target accounts, the next step is to gather insights about these accounts. This includes understanding their business needs, pain points, key decision-makers, and business environment. Data collected during this stage forms the basis of personalized marketing strategies.

Skills Required: Research abilities to gather relevant data, analytical skills to process and interpret this data, and attention to detail to uncover important account characteristics.

3. Account-Based Content Strategy 

Using the insights gathered, develop a content strategy that is tailored to each target account. The content should speak to the specific needs and pain points of each account and may include personalized emails, custom web pages, specific blog posts, case studies, and more.

Skills Required: Content creation skills, understanding of the target account's industry and needs, ability to personalize content for different accounts, and creativity to develop engaging and relevant content.

4. Execute Targeted Marketing Campaigns 

Now that you have a tailored content strategy, the next step is to execute your targeted marketing campaigns. This might involve various channels including email marketing, social media, events, webinars, direct mail, and others, depending on the preferences of your target accounts.

Skills Required: Knowledge of various marketing channels and their best practices, ability to create personalized campaigns, project management skills to oversee the execution of campaigns, and creativity for campaign development.

5. Align Sales and Marketing 

ABM requires a high level of alignment between sales and marketing. The marketing team needs to work closely with sales to ensure they're ready to engage with target accounts once marketing generates interest. They need to ensure they’re aiming for accounts with the same characteristics. The two teams should be coordinated on messaging, timing, and approach.

Skills Required: Communication skills for collaboration between teams, understanding of both sales and marketing processes, leadership skills to facilitate alignment, and strategic thinking to coordinate efforts.

6. Measure and Analyze 

Measurement and analysis are crucial in any marketing strategy, and ABM is no exception. Use key performance indicators (KPIs) like engagement rate, lead generation, conversion rates, and revenue generated to measure the success of your ABM campaigns. Additionally, it's crucial to analyze this data and use these insights to refine your strategy.

Skills Required: Strong data analysis skills, proficiency in using analytical tools, ability to translate data into actionable insights, and understanding of relevant key performance indicators (KPIs).

7. Review and Optimize 

Finally, use the data and insights gathered during the measurement and analysis phase to review and optimize your ABM strategy. This is an ongoing process, as you'll want to continually improve and adapt your strategy based on feedback and performance.

Skills Required: Problem-solving skills to address issues, ability to implement changes based on data-driven insights, analytical skills for reviewing results, and adaptability to refine strategies as necessary.

Remember, successful ABM is not a 'set and forget' process. It requires continuous monitoring, testing, and refinement to ensure you're effectively engaging your target accounts and achieving your desired results.

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What to Look for in an ABM Manager (Hint: It’s Not a “Traditional” Marketing Job)

The role of an ABM Manager goes beyond the conventional scope of a marketing job. Hiring for ABM isn't just about bringing in the right people; it's also about establishing and overseeing the right processes. The ABM Manager is often seen as the conductor of an intricate symphony that is an ABM campaign, and much of their time is spent on two essential aspects:

Project Managing the Many Touchpoints of an ABM Campaign: ABM involves multiple touchpoints, each requiring careful orchestration to ensure a cohesive and personalized experience for the target account. The ABM Manager is essentially the project manager for these touchpoints. They coordinate various team members, ensure tasks are executed on time, and maintain a consistent message across all interactions.

Ensuring Alignment Across Teams: A successful ABM strategy requires strong alignment between marketing, sales, and customer success (CS). The ABM Manager plays a critical role in building and maintaining this alignment. They not only ensure synergy within their own team but also foster collaboration with other departments in the wider organization.

In light of these responsibilities, here's what to look for in a potential ABM Manager:

• Strong Project Management Skills: Given the number of moving parts in an ABM campaign, excellent project management skills are a must. The ABM Manager should be able to plan, organize, and manage resources effectively to bring about the successful completion of specific campaign goals and objectives.
• Effective Communication and Collaboration Skills: The ABM Manager will be collaborating with different teams and team members. They need to effectively communicate the goals, strategies, and progress of the ABM campaign to ensure everyone is on the same page.
• Knowledge of collaboration challenges among commercial teams: The ABM Manager will lead a team with diverse roles. They need to understand the strengths of each team member, delegate effectively, and foster a productive and collaborative environment.
• Strategic Thinking and Analytical Skills: ABM is a strategic approach, and the ABM Manager needs to understand the bigger picture while also diving into the data to guide decisions and measure campaign effectiveness.
• Experience with ABM Tools: Familiarity with ABM platforms, CRM systems, and marketing automation tools is essential to manage the technical aspects of ABM campaigns.

Remember, your ABM Manager will play a pivotal role in shaping the success of your ABM strategy. While the role requires a solid understanding of marketing principles, the focus on project management and cross-functional collaboration makes it a unique position within your organization.

Can a single marketer implement ABM?

If you're wonder, "can a single marketer effectively implement ABM?", rest assured that the answer is a resounding yes. Especially when you're just dipping your toes into the ABM pool, a lean task force can do wonders.

Initial Stages: One Marketer, One Salesperson

During the initial stages of ABM, a compact team consisting of just one marketer and one salesperson can be highly effective. Their roles include:

• Marketer: Understands target accounts and crafts personalized marketing strategies.
• Salesperson: Engages with and sells to these accounts using the marketer's personalized approach.

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Scaling Up: Prioritize Sales

As your ABM initiatives grow, your team structure should adapt accordingly. Remember that scaling doesn't necessarily mean multiplying marketers with the increasing number of salespeople or accounts. The golden ratio often looks like:

• One marketer can typically align with up to 10 salespeople.
• Each salesperson can manage up to 10 accounts effectively.

"The beauty of ABM lies in its scalability. You can start small, with a team of one marketer and one salesperson, and gradually expand as you see success and growth."

Keep in mind the key ingredients to a successful ABM strategy - strong alignment between sales and marketing, personalized engagement with each account, and constant optimization based on feedback and results. With these elements, a single marketer can indeed make a significant impact in the world of ABM.

A note on Account-Based Everything (ABX)

As we’ve described it, Account-Based Marketing is primarily marketing driven with support and deep alignment across other teams. 

Account-Based Everything (ABX or ABE) takes the principles of ABM and extends them across the entire organization, including finance, product development, engineering, and the executive team. It's not just about marketing anymore; it's about coordinating personalized efforts across all departments to drive engagement with, and conversion of a targeted set of accounts.

Defining Attributes of ABX

ABX is defined by five attributes:

• Targeted, High-Value Accounts: Organizations align to a defined ideal customer profile (ICP) and focus all efforts across the organizations against ICP accounts.
• Data and Intelligence-Driven Programs/Campaigns: Data and intelligence are the lifeblood of account-based programs. Account intelligence shared across multiple organizations informs account personalization.
• Orchestration Across Marketing, Sales Development, Sales, and Customer Support: Organizations run multichannel, multitouch, multi-organization campaigns to drive initial customer acquisition and eventually upsell/cross-sell revenue.
• Valuable and Personalized Buyer Experiences: In ABX, the number of accounts is more constrained and requires that vendors deliver relevant, personalized campaigns to those buyers.
• Coordinated, High-Frequency/Effort Outreach: The entire organization is committed to continuing the high-touch, high-frequency campaigns toward the target accounts over time until they become a customer.

"ABX is a comprehensive, coordinated approach that focuses on high-value accounts and uses data and intelligence to drive personalized campaigns and valuable buyer experiences."

The future of ABM hires

As organizations solidify and expand their ABM initiatives, two crucial areas of support will emerge: leadership that understands the overarching strategy and can work cross-functionally, and marketing operations professionals with a deepening knowledge base.

In the future, the recruitment process for ABM will involve seeking out individuals who can seamlessly collaborate across different functions, grasp the holistic view, and are dedicated to a targeted, account-based approach. The roles and skills we've outlined in this guide will continue to be vital, but there will also be an increasing need for professionals who can effectively scale ABM principles throughout the organization.

The bespoke nature of ABM outreach will increasingly necessitate marketers who possess a profound understanding of automation, generative AI, and other emerging technologies. This knowledge will be key in driving personalized and efficient engagement with targeted accounts, further enhancing the effectiveness of ABM strategies.Find the top 2% of freelancers worldwide here at MarketerHire to jumpstart your ABM efforts.