At which stage should we involve Sales when setting up an ABM/ABX pilot?

Q: 🔓 The Marketing team at our company (B2B tech vendor) has been tasked with setting up an ABM/ABX pilot. At which stage should we involve Sales?

A: 🗝 As early as possible!
Don’t wait until your ABM/ABX strategy is fully formed to involve Sales leadership. Bring them to the table from day one, firstly, to help you shape the 👉 GOALS for your ABM program 👈. Aligning with Sales will help you lay the foundation for a more targeted and effective approach. I always find that getting the buy-in early gives the Sales team a sense of ownership, leading to much more harmonious collaboration.

The advantages of engaging Sales leadership from the outset:

1.     Alignment on goals and objectives of your ABM pilot or program: the overall business and sales goals connected to Strategic accounts should be the North star of your ABM strategy. This is absolutely critical for driving the right results.

2.     Selection of target accounts: Sales leaders have deep insights into which accounts hold the most potential and are usually invaluable in helping to define the Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). Ensuring the selected target accounts closely resemble our ICP increases the likelihood of success and minimises wastage of effort, time and budgets.

3.     Sales & Marketing alignment: achieving buy-in, support and a sense of ownership. Involving Sales early fosters a sense of ownership and commitment to the ABM strategy. This is essential for ensuring that Sales teams are fully engaged and supportive of the initiative.

4.     Continuous ABM program improvement: By working together from the planning stage, Sales and Marketing can establish shared goals, metrics and a process for continuous feedback, needed for ongoing optimization of the ABM strategy.