High Performance ABM Capabilities Benchmark Report

Introduction

Demand Metric has researched the practice of Account-Based Marketing (ABM) for nearly two years. Like other analyst firms, Demand Metric has established that the adoption of ABM is occurring at a rapid rate and awareness is very high. While not all B2B organizations have an ABM program deployed, almost all either have a distinct plan to deploy one in the near future or are considering it. The adoption of ABM is secure and the practice holds a solid place in the future of B2B marketing strategie
 
Through this impressive adoption of ABM, the critical question has now shifted to understand how ABM is best implemented. To define how to shift this proven interest and adoption to real marketing performance, are there best practices and maturity milestones that lead to a greater revenue impact? Is simply including ABM in the marketing technology stack enough to ensure its success?
 
The ABM Consortium, a collection of thought leaders and vendors in the ABM solution space, has developed an ABM Capabilities Framework. The purpose of this framework is to serve as a resource and guide to attain the best possible performance from the practice. This framework, which is presented later in this report, represents the collective wisdom of ABM Consortium members. The research hypothesis for this study was based on this question: does compliance with the ABM Capabilities Framework result in greater revenue impact from ABM? 
 
The research collected responses from over 500 survey respondents, more than half of which are currently using ABM.  The results of the study confirm the validity of the research hypothesis.  This report will present the framework, the maturity milestones it represents, recommended actions to achieve maturity with ABM and therefore maximize its revenue impact.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Executive Summary
3. The ABM Capabilities Framework
4. ABM Revenue Impact Segments
5. Perceived Compliance with the Framework
6. Maturity of Each ABM Framework Capability
   1. Account Selection
   2. Insights
   3. Content
   4. Orchestration
   5. Delivery
   6. Measurement
7. Analyst Bottom Line
8. About the ABM Consortium
9. About Demand Metric
10. Appendix – Survey Background

Research Methodology

This 2015 High Performance ABM Capabilities Benchmark Study survey was administered online during the period of November 11 through December 4, 2015.  During this period, 568 responses were collected, 501 of which were qualified and complete enough for inclusion in the analysis.   Of this sample, 288 indicated they are using ABM, and their responses were the focus of the analysis.  Only valid or correlated findings are shared in this report.