The Evolution of Strategy

Since our survey in 2020, the number of well-established strategies has risen by less than 10%, suggesting late adopters are still in the process of refining and evolving their ABM practices.

A significant portion of companies (26%) consider themselves either in the early stages of ABM or scaling up, with only a quarter stating their efforts are fully synced.

Senior ABM and marketing professionals were divided in their responses regarding the ROI of ABM compared to other marketing and sales activities. While around one-third believed that the ROI was significantly higher, another third believed it was only slightly higher, and the remaining third believed it was lower than other activities.

This could suggest, those still in the process of establishing their ABM strategies are yet to see the same returns of more advanced players. As ABM focuses on building long-term engagement, this flags the importance of setting the right expectations. However, 26% of respondents cited ‘misunderstanding the time it takes to see ROI’ as a key challenge when planning and executing an ABM strategy.