🕵🏻♂️ New enterprise pipeline ABM programs
How to develop and budget new ABM function to generate new enterprise pipeline
We never saw such a high demand for ABM than in the first half of 2024. From 92 inquiries we have received, 90% said that they want to build an ABM function.
When we asked about motions (new logos, expansion, renewal), most companies mentioned they want to focus on new enterprise logos to build a successful proof of concept.
The biggest challenges they faced were:
how to plan the program properly according to team capacity and budget
how to understand how many accounts is actually enough
how to select accounts that are likely to become sales opportunities
how to align with sales on playbooks and activities, and avoid doing obsolete lead gen in a new wrapping
Today we’re going to cover:
How to create an ABM function to acquire enterprise accounts (new pipeline)
How to define the right # of accounts for your program to hit revenue targets while being aligned with your team’s capacity
How to budget and forecast your program
Join our IN-PERSON ABM workshops in Amsterdam (30th Sep) and London (3rd Oct)
Join us in Amsterdam (30th Sep) or London (3rd October), for an in-preson practical workshop where you’ll take one of the ABM roles and work with your peers on ABM program planning under our guidance.
What you’ll learn and work on during the workshop:
How to align your leadership, sales and subject-matter experts on your ABM program and get their buy in
How to define the right clusters or verticals where you have higher chances to run a successful program
How to structure your ABM team: functions, roles and responsibilities
How to segment and prioritize accounts your ABM team should focus on by opportunity likelihood
How to create awareness among the buying committee members and engage them
How to identify accounts that are likely to become sales opportunities this quarter, warm them up and generate a sales opportunity
How to nurture and engage accounts that are not currently in market but might become sales opportunities in the next 6-9 months
How to personalize your interactions with prioritized accounts
How to track your program performance: reports and metrics
Minimal viable stack you’ll need to execute an effective ABM program
Save your spot below by clicking on the city where you’re interested in joining us.
Overview of New Enterprise Pipeline ABM program
This diagram might create a wrong perception that the buying process is linear, which is not true.
The goal is to visually demonstrate how different stages of the buying process could be influenced through ABM.
If you want to land enterprise deals, make sure you have a clear understanding of:
how your enterprise clients buy
how is involved in the research and account evaluation
what influences their decisions
Then, align your ABM program with the collected insights.
Here are 7 steps we use at Fullfunnel.io to create an ABM function to land enterprise deals and generate new pipeline.
1. ABM fundamentals.
Start with:
ICP: firmographics, buying committee, account qualification criteria, jobs-to-be-done, tier segmentation
Customer research through 1–1 interviews to enrich ICP and understand different buyer journey scenarios
Segment-based and role-based marketing messages
2. Capacity planning and goal decomposition.
You can craft the best possible program, but what's the purpose of it if you don't have the capacity to launch and maintain it properly?
Start by breaking down revenue goals between ABM motions:
expansion
acceleration
renewal
new logos
Then, plan how many new logos from different tiers you can include according to your team's capacity.
Here is how.
You start with analyzing sales pipeline velocity and revenue metrics (ACV, win rate, sales cycle length) among the 3 tiers.
Next, you do a revenue analysis of the last 12 months between new logos, expansion, and renewals.
Based on the analysis, you start breaking down revenue goals among motions and accounts.
Example.
Revenue target - $18mln.
- New logos: $1mln
- Expansion: $1mln
- Pipeline acceleration: $1mln
- Renewals: $15mln
New logos: $1mln
Tier 1: ACV - 100k, win rate - 30%, sales cycle length - 180 days.
Planning: 10 SQOs - 40 contacts - 3 new logos = 300k in revenue
Tier 2: ACV - 50k, win rate 50%, sales cycle length - 120 days.
Planning: 20 SQOs - 60 contacts - 10 new logos = 500k in revenue.
Tier 3: ACV - 25k, win rate 40%, sales cycle length - 90 days.
Planning: 20 SQOs - 40 contacts - 8 new logos = 200k in revenue.
* Hint: The same breakdown you need to run for expansion, pipeline acceleration, and renewals.
Based on that analysis and your team's capacity, you can re-allocate # of SQOs you expect in each of the tiers or re-allocate revenue goals among motions.
The final step is to establish a budget for each account in each tier.
You can do this by taking a bottom-up approach and setting a budget per account for each tier, or by allocating your budget among tiers and then setting a budget per account.
If you are interested in budgeting and forecasting ABM, let me know in the comments, and I’ll write a next newsletter about it.
GET ACCESS TO A NEW FULL-FUNNEL ABM 2.0 COURSE
What's included with the course access:
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.
5 orchestrated and ready-to-use ABM playbooks and a detailed explanation
Report dashboard for 4 types of ABM programs: new revenue, pipeline acceleration, expansion and churn prevention
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. Account selection and prioritization.
With your limited resources, make sure you focus not on the wish lists, but on the accounts with a high probability to purchase your product.
Consider these criteria to select and prioritize accounts (Opportunity Likelihood Assessment):
Engagement data including website intent
Product need evidence
Relationship
Business triggers: money raised, hiring for a specific position, legacy stack, common connections that can make an intro, etc.
Based on your insights you'll end up with two lists:
Active Focus - accounts that are likely to be converted this quarter -> 1:1 Account development
Future Pipeline - accounts that fit ICP but there is low brand awareness and no clear product need evidence -> 1:Few Account nurturing
We explain the difference here:
Later, as a result of your activities, you'll have the third list - Declared intent → automated, immediate booking with the right AE to work on opportunity development.
4. Account research.
Gather and analyze all the publicly available information about the target accounts' key initiatives and strategies.
The next step - map out the buying committee and gather insights about their involvement in the key initiatives.
Pay attention to:
Their role in the defined initiative
KPIs/OKRs/Jobs-To-Be-Done
Challenges
Goals
5. Value proposition mapping.
Match your marketing message with the identified KPIs, goals, and challenges of every buying committee member + account key initiatives.
6. Program planning.
Assign accounts to buyer journey scenarios and create nurturing content that aligns with the goals and needs of members of the buying committee.
Next, create a multichannel warm-up and activation playbook, including
Social engagement and selling
Cluster-based nurturing ads
Personalized Content hubs
Content collaboration
Personalized Direct mail swags
Micro-events, etc.
The playbook should be adjusted to 3 leads I've shared above.
Here are the examples.
a. Cluster-based Account Nurture (1:Few).
The goal is to nurture and develop relationships with multiple buyers, and qualify the need.
1:Few programs with cluster-based content and messaging
Connect and engage with the buying center
Involve in cluster-based programs to create multiple meaningful touchpoints
Leverage these touchpoints to collect sales insights and close the blind spots (progressive profiling)
KPIs: account-to-convo ratio, account penetration (buyer convos per account)
Leading metric: account engagement
b. Account Development (1:1) for Active Focus List.
1:1 account development planning
Account research and buying center mapping
Expand the relationships with the buying center
Create personalised offers
The goal is to book a discovery call with an AE (declared need).
KPIs: account-to-pipeline ratio, pipeline velocity
c. Opportunity Development for declared intent list.
The goal is to develop a sales-qualified opportunity, drive consensus in the buying committee, and eventually win the deal.
KPIs: won net-new revenue, ACV and win rate
7. Analysis.
Define a program report and leading indicators to measure your program performance.
We published a detailed guide about measuring ABM here:
For regular review, plan weekly ABM meetings to discuss:
Target account engagement and updates
Next actions per account
What accounts should be added and removed from the program
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.