Author: Shira Abel Category: ABM & Pipeline URL: https://hunterandbard.com/resources/blog/lead-a-seamless-campaign-the-scale-framework-for-abm
Now that we have covered the strategic planning , preparation and tactic creation portions of the S.C.A.L.E framework, it’s time for the “L” — launching and...
A seamless ABM campaign requires tight alignment between sales, marketing, and the account team. This post covers the operational mechanics that make multi-touch campaigns work.
Now that we have covered the strategic planning, preparation and tactic creationportions of the S.C.A.L.E framework, it's time for the "L" — launching and leading your ABM campaign.
At this stage, having a close relationship with the sales team pays dividends. To ensure a seamless campaign, it's essential that sales and marketing are working closely together. This may seem obvious, but the right hand needs to know what the left hand is doing. If your sales and marketing teams aren't aligned, they could undermine the others' efforts, making the company look like a hot mess and potentially losing a deal. It's essential for marketing and sales to take the time to understand the other's efforts and expectations during the campaign to make sure that your strategy, tactics and goals are all aligned.
We developed the S.C.A.L.E. framework to help companies get a fundamental understanding of the strategic ABM process. S.C.A.L.E. stands for:
This blog post will focus on the L of S.C.A.L.E. – Leading a seamless campaign. This is the fourth in a series of posts that explain our framework.
Getting started in ABM requires a level of change management in your organization. It's hard conceptually to go from thousands of (often crappy) leads to a few dozen strategic ones. This shift can make a sales team nervous, especially now that we're heading into an economic downturn.
This means you need to find the right partners to be successful with ABM on your sales team. It's typically obvious who the friendly salespeople are, and the ones most likely to be a real partner in an organization's first ABM test run.
Change management is only successful when it goes both top-down (the executives give a directive) and bottom-up (the team chooses to execute that directive instead of sabotaging or ignoring it). Finding your first follower makes getting buy-in from the rest of the team significantly easier, so find your leader in sales to team up with in the beginning. Then look for someone who shows interest, the first follower, and invite them to the weekly review meetings to see the results of the program.
Below is my favorite video explanation of change management in less than 3 minutes.
Even if the results aren't immediate or stellar at first, the learnings will be important to sales. Knowing who isn't interested can occasionally be as important as knowing who is. It can help sales from wasting their time.
Don't worry, once you start seeing signs of success, everyone will get on board.
Since collaboration with sales is so critical for ABM to succeed, make sure the sales team feels comfortable with the process. This can be achieved by planning together, drawing on their expert market knowledge from a sales perspective, and by actively encouraging their participation. Doing this will help the sales team buy into and fully understand the marketing messaging/strategy. In addition, it will reinforce the notion that you are not only simplifying their jobs, but also helping to build their network and their brand.
While it's important to involve your salespeople early in the process, be careful not to overdo it. They're busy too, and it can be counterproductive to overwhelm them. Having a weekly accountability check-in is useful. During these meetings, you can offer your salespeople touch point materials, such as scripts for follow-up emails, or relevant case studies, if necessary. Also review the accounts showing high intent signals, as that's a great time for sales to pick up the phone.
After every campaign, it's useful to conduct a post-mortem with your salespeople, and discuss what went well, what could have been better, and how to improve the process going forward.
Even with a good partner, it's hard for the sales team to know what information is important and what isn't, so don't be concerned if the first go-around of an ABM program doesn't bring exemplary results. This is where the lessons come from so that can make the next campaign a raging success. As always, test and iterate.
Tapping into your salespeople's insights into the purchasing journey from the customer side, then incorporating what you learn into your approach, is an excellent strategy. Customers are looking for solutions to problems. Having an awareness of how they go through the discernment process in selecting those solutions can help you be strategic in how you approach them. Software such as Bombora or 6Sense are an excellent way to uncover customers who are actively researching intent topics that are relevant to your business. Drawing on the strategies outlined in the advanced targeting tactics stage means you can tailor your approach and close the deal.
Reverse-engineer your best and worst closed win's. Seeing the path your customers take can help you spot who really is interested, and who is just kicking the tires. You'll discover patterns that show who is interested in what, which will inform future collateral and engagement strategies.
Hunter & Bard is a San Francisco-based B2B strategy consultancy founded in 2011 by Shira Abel. We help deep-tech and enterprise SaaS companies fix their positioning, sharpen their messaging, and close $100K+ deals.
We work with B2B leaders who are tired of being overlooked, underestimated, or mistaken for their competitors. Our specialty is turning complex, technical products into clear, compelling stories that win enterprise deals.
We believe that perception drives revenue. If your buyers can't tell you apart from the next vendor in 30 seconds, you have a positioning problem — not a marketing problem. We fix that.
Perception = (Story × Visibility) ÷ Noise
This framework drives everything we do. Your story has to be sharp. Your visibility has to be strategic. And you have to cut through the noise — not add to it.
Shira Abel — Founder & CEO. Kellogg MBA. 20+ years in B2B marketing. Former CMO. Keynote speaker. Published in Forbes, HuffPost, and Wired. Specialist in enterprise positioning and perception strategy.
Daina Reed — Founding Designer & Partner. 15+ years in product and brand design. Former Senior Product Designer at Dun & Bradstreet. Specialist in enterprise UX, visual identity, and design systems.