🕵🏻♂️ ABM pilot (the 1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-10 framework)
We share how to launch a succesful pilot ABM program and the role of marketing lead in the pilot
Earlier this year I had a call with a fellow VP of marketing who shared how they launched ABM.
They purchased a well-known expensive ABM platform, built a list of 2.5k accounts, targeted it with programmatic display ads and LinkedIn cluster content, and followed up with cold emailing from SDRs.
Guess what results that program produced?
Luckily, they decided to revamp it early. But most B2B companies usually continue stubbornly the program, wasting the budget and praying for the results.
Why does it happen?
This is what we are going to cover today.
3 phases of developing an ABM motion
The 1-1-1-1-10 framework for a pilot ABM program
The role of CMO in the pilot
Let's dive in!
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12 modules covering step-by-step ABM strategy development: goal decomposition, ICP, account list building, ABM team, warm-up and activation playbooks, reporting, scaling ABM and building a cohesive ABM & demand gen function.
Short explanation videos and "how to" examples. We believe it's better one time to see a practical example then listen to the theory hundreds of times.
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Live case studies and examples of the campaigns we implemented with the clients of Fullfunnel.io in the past few years
17 templates to simplify your ABM strategy launch: ICP, revenue analysis, intent data tracking, account warm-up cadence, customer research, account scoring and prioritization, ABM budget planning and forecasting, account planning, reports, personalized offers, and many more.
Planning & Presenting a Pilot ABM Program to Execs and Sales Framework
Minimal viable stack recommendation and guidelines on how to use it to avoid ramping up budget and being pressured to show ROI for the purchased $50k software
3 stages of ABM motion
There are three phases to develop an ABM motion:
Pilot program (we recommend a quarter program)
Operationalization and scaling
We have a detailed guide about developing an ABM strategy. So I’m going to focus more on pilot.
ABM Pilot
When the strategy is in place, you can move to plan the pilot program.
Follow the 1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-10 framework.
This framework stands for:
1 market
1 vertical
1 SDR
1 marketer
1 source of intent data (check this guide where we explain how to use it)
1 warm-up tactic
1 tier
1 goal (expansion, net new revenue, acceleration, renewal)
10 accounts (3 buying committee members per account) max
Why?
The Pilot program is an experiment. You make hypotheses about your ICP, do preliminary account research and learn a lot about target accounts.
You need to apply learnings to improve account qualification criteria, account research process, and activation processes.
The goal is to launch a campaign fast with minimal resources to avoid losing momentum and trust from execs and sales.
The key to a successful launch lies not in a big budget or stack. It lies in a dedicated team that:
goes through all ABM processes manually
documents the processes
step-by-step develops an ABM center of excellence
sets up the right expectations
define leading and lagging indicators, and tracks them regularly
leverages what they already have without ramping up budget.
shares any small wins to keep the momentum.
documents pipeline/revenue results and presents the pilot deck to your stakeholders and sales.
This is how you win support and buy-in in the organization.
Don't do during the pilot:
Including lots of accounts in the pilot program, you won't be able to run ABM properly.
Adding a wish list of accounts instead of engaged accounts.
Allocating big budget (here is how to budget ABM)
Involving the entire sales team. You need 1 SDR who'll be your Champion in the sales team helping to scale the program later.
Here is a post where we cover typical mistakes that kill ABM programs.
Drive pipeline THIS quarter with a full-funnel ABM programs.
If any of these challenges sound familiar:
You are aligned in theory with sales but don’t do anything in practice aside from receiving wish lists from sales and sharing with them your marketing plan. In reality, you work in silos and miss the revenue targets and are being pressured by your executives.
You understand that your marketing and sales playbook is broken (mqls, gated content) but despite many attempts you don’t know how to fix it
Your outbound, paid ads and organic pipeline drastically decreased while CAC increased mostly because most of your market is problem unaware and not buying.
You lack brand awareness among target accounts and sales can’t get even a reply.
You clearly see that you're already behind your revenue targets
We can help.
We'll develop a custom full-funnel ABM strategy aligned with your resources, budget and stack and execute it together to drive results THIS quarter.
Role of ABM lead in the pilot program
Here is a checklist we recommend CMOs or ABM Leads to follow for a successful ABM pilot (aka POWERFUL checklist 😀).
1. 𝗣𝗟𝗔𝗡 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗶𝗹𝗼𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝗱𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹: 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲, 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲𝘀, 𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘀, 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸.
Don't tell your team: "We are going to implement ABM".
Show:
what are you going to achieve
what exactly you are going to do
who'll be involved
what is expected from them
Be clear and avoid ambiguity.
2. 𝗢𝗡𝗕𝗢𝗔𝗥𝗗 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗶𝗹𝗼𝘁 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗲𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝘂𝗹𝗹 𝗽𝗶𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲.
Explain to each of the pilot team members what their tasks and main responsibilities are, and how they contribute to the program implementation.
Make sure your team sees the full picture, not a piece of the puzzle.
3. 𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗞𝗦𝗛𝗢𝗣𝗜𝗙𝗬 𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗸 𝗺𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗴𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝗱𝗱𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗿𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗶𝗹𝗼𝘁 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺.
Ask everybody to submit ideas:
Why do they think this program might not work: what pitfalls and bottlenecks they foresee?
How do they think these bottlenecks might be handled?
What do they suggest making this program successful?
Refine your pilot program with the collected feedback.
4. 𝗘𝗡𝗔𝗕𝗟𝗘 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝗻 𝗽𝗶𝗹𝗼𝘁 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺 𝗴𝗼𝗮𝗹𝘀, 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀, 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘀.
Make sure both marketing and sales agree on the key program elements and their responsibilities.
Ideally, adjust the KPIs of the pilot team to avoid having controversial KPIs.
5. RUN weekly pipeline review, retrospective, and planning meetings with sales.
- Review account status and collected insights
Example.
Sales share insights from a call with the internal Champion and an introduction made by the Champion to one of the decision-makers.
Marketing reports that the account visited several case studies on the website and spent 15 minutes and actively engaged with the demand gen ads.
- Plan the next steps.
What can we do next as a team to influence every reviewed account?
Example:
Marketing will prepare a content hub including all relevant industry case studies and references.
The sales team will receive feedback from the champion and ask if there is anything else to add. They will then share it with a new member of the buying committee. Sales will start engaging with their LinkedIn content as well.
- Review leading indicators.
Did we hit our targets? If not, what slowed us down, and how can we eliminate it in the future?
Example:
Marketing produced 2 fewer posts because the content marketer was involved in another project.
- Retrospective.
What’s moving us forward and what’s holding us back?
Define the things that work and discuss how to double down on them.
Define bottlenecks and challenges and discuss how to handle them.
- ABM pipeline update.
What accounts should be added and removed from the campaign?
Review the qualified and researched accounts that were added from the intent and engagement data sources. Define those that should be added to your program.
In the same way, review all the accounts that don’t engage, stopped responding, or were disqualified to remove them.
6. 𝗙𝗔𝗖𝗜𝗟𝗜𝗧𝗔𝗧𝗘 𝘀𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝘄𝗶𝗻𝘀 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗸𝗲𝗲𝗽 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘂𝗺.
Every small win counts as it generates positive momentum and helps team maintain the program even if it doesn't produce immediate ROI or revenue.
7. UTILIZE existing stack and time, and avoid multitasking.
Don't bother the team with a new technology - there will be a learning curve, and it will distract them from the execution.
Make sure they focus on the program implementation and avoid useless meetings or being involved in multiple programs with completely different objectives.
8. LEAD by example and actively participate in the program execution.
The tribe follows its leader. Period.
In this episode of Fullfunnel Live we cover how to launch an ABM pilot.
The 1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-10 framework
What your pilot program must include
The minimal viable stack
How to evaluate pilot performance if it didn't drive revenue
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