The number of agencies that provide genuine account-based marketing (ABM) services is less than you might believe, and the overwhelming majority do not highlight that capability on their website.
The truth about this question is a little more difficult to handle. While the term “account-based marketing” has become very popular in B2B circles since 2020 and therefore every agency that generates B2B leads has included it in their list of services, the buzz has spread much faster than many of the actual capabilities. Consequently, when an agency tells you “we do ABM” they often mean “we can upload a list of companies to LinkedIn Ads” which can be compared to possessing a stethoscope and being able to practice medicine.
If you are asking yourself which B2B Lead Generation Agency truly has expertise with ABM, it is likely because you are trying to sell larger deals than usual, you have a larger number of members on your buying committee, and using spray and pray lead generation methods is no longer generating successful sales. Your instincts are correct. This guide will show you how to differentiate between a true ABM marketing agency and those that have simply uploaded lists of companies, what real engagement looks like, and where Oxper fits into the picture.
First, What Does “Specializing in ABM” Actually Mean?
Traditionally, the funnel has worked like this: products sell more at lower prices than at higher prices, but sales occur in higher volumes than at lower prices. In contrast, with account-based marketing, you start with the best-fit accounts (likely 50-300) and develop a strategy that includes both personalized sales and marketing approaches for all the buyers within those accounts.
In order for an agency to engage in true account-based marketing, certain capabilities must exist that most lead-generation agencies do not possess. Some of these include:
Account intelligence, not just contact data.
Understanding how your target businesses are structured, what their priorities are, the technologies they are using, and what triggered them to consider or purchase your product.
Committee-level orchestration.
If six people comprised the buying committee, you are not going to tell them the same story. Each of those individuals has different interests in the outcome of the purchase. The CFO is going to want to see ROI information and the user of the product will want information about productivity improvement. Therefore, fewer people will believe your ads if all of your ads are the same.
Coordination of effort between sales and marketing teams
Without this, there is no environment for ABM lead generation to flourish. MARKETING preps the account, SALES engages the account at the appropriate time, and both work off the same prospect list with the same message. An agency that never speaks to the client’s sales teams is running ads, not doing account-based marketing.
Patience infrastructure.
Infrastructure supports patience in relation to the accounts being solicited. Enterprise accounts make decisions over quarters, not weeks, and, therefore, genuine account marketing specialists develop metrics to measure account engagement and their account progression through the funnel. Consequently, it uses the number of leads generated per month to measure progress against transitioning from a prospect-to-customer account through nine months of selling activity.
Should an agency fail to explain how they deliver on all four (ABM – Account-Based Marketing) components, it is safe to assume they have only substituted traditional lead generation terms with ABM lingo.
Six Signs a B2B Lead Generation Agency Truly Specializes in ABM
Use this checklist in your very first call. It works embarrassingly well.
- They ask about deal size right after you introduce yourself. Because ABM makes sense from a business perspective only when your contract value is above a specific threshold, a true specialist will disqualify you as a lead if you do not meet this threshold while a pretender will try to sell you an ABM solution regardless of your qualification(s).
- They discuss an account list as compared to leads generated. Pay attention to the wording of your conversation with them. A specialist will use the terms “target accounts”, “buyer’s committee”, “engagement scoring” and so forth; whereas, a generalist will use the terms “marketing qualified leads (MQL)”, “cost per lead” and “volume” when having this type of discussion with you.
- They schedule a meeting with your sales team. This is non-negotiable. If the proposal does not incorporate sales alignment workshops or if there is not a collaborative/account view integrated into the proposal, the ABM initiative will falter during the transition from the agency back to your organisation.
- They run B2B demand generation alongside targeting. This is important because cold contacts do not convert solely due to seeing an ad. True ABM initiatives build a volume of education around the prospects target accounts so that when the buyer interacts with the seller, they can connect the brand attribution. Conversely, agencies that do not create awareness around the target accounts are merely retargeting their existing client base.
- They can show tiering logic.They can illustrate tiered logic for Personalization (1-to-1 for top 10 whale accounts, 1-to-few for vertical clusters, or 1-to-many in the entire population of target accounts) – multi tiered with different levels of personalization and distinct economic impact across multiple tiers / kinds of personalization created. Companies without any tiering lack a valid methodology.
- Their case studies measure pipeline, not impressions. Their case study’s success is measured based on pipeline creation as opposed to impressions or engagement increases with regard to respective target accounts / lists (how many moved into opportunity from target list, how much did velocity of deal flow change, if all answers are vague as “it’s to do with engagement lift” than that would easily be considered a dead giveaway).
If a B2B Marketing Agency can exhibit 6 separated items then it’s one which you would want to consider on your near-term shortlist. Most other agencies likely will be able to verify only 3 of them.
Why Most Lead Generation Services Fail at ABM
Understanding the reason behind market failure through the lens of the structure of providers helps us understand why ABM has produced disappointment for so many companies. Traditional lead generation services are manufactured to create high volume leads (they’re volume-based machines). The economics, tools, reporting methods and even the incentives of staff at these companies are geared towards creating as many low-cost leads as possible. The very opposite is true for effective use of ABM, which is focused on creating fewer targets, doing deeper research and providing longer-term customer relationship-building through customisation of marketing content. When purchasing ABM from a volume provider, it is similar to asking a fast-food shop to prepare a tasting menu – while the ingredients will likely be the same, the systems/processes used to prepare the final product are entirely different.
The question in the title of this article illustrates this point. You are not really asking who does ABM; instead, you are asking who has built systems for ABM.
A second reason for failure with providers is that there are pure-play ABM boutiques that do nothing except ABM. While these businesses have expertise in ABM and build credibility through their track record, they often lack other services (such as SEO, landing pages and integrated marketing automation) that lead to successful execution of ABM. Account-based marketing is not an independent entity. Instead, it operates best when incorporated within an entire B2B marketing services infrastructure. Unfortunately, most boutique agencies lack the breadth of services that allow them to support their clients’ accounts-based marketing goals.
Where Oxper Fits: ABM Inside a Full Growth Engine
Oxper is a full-service B2B lead generation agency that specializes in data-driven account-based marketing (ABM) and does not treat it as just a service to be added on for the sake of keeping up with the competition. Instead, we see ABM as the foundation of everything we do and how we run high-impact programs. We begin with work to define ideal customer profiles (ICP) and select accounts to target through workshops. Our team will meet with each target account and its buying committee to define the roles of each of their members. Once we’ve identified the role(s) of each member of the buying committee, our team will tier each account to prioritize the selection of our media. Our team will execute targeted campaigns using LinkedIn and Google to the identified roles with specific messaging while providing B2B demand generation content to warm the target accounts.
Our core differentiator from other boutique-style ABM marketing agency providers is that everything needed to successfully execute an ABM program is completed by different teams at Oxper. Each of the landing pages that each target account will visit, as well as the nurture sequences that will be sent to them, are all created in collaboration with our web design, UI/UX design, marketing automation, and search engine optimization teams. When multiple teams contribute to these programs and everything is centrally managed by one agency, there will be one version of the truth (one scorecard/pipeline number).
Using a data-driven, integrated ABM lead generation approach will provide a steady stream of fewer, but better quality, sales leads. If your average sales price requires you to focus on quality versus quantity, then Oxper will be the right choice for you.
Choose the Operating System, Not the Buzzword
There is a specific B2B Lead Generation Agency that has a focus on Account-Based Marketing (ABM) and they stand out by asking about your deal economics, meeting your sales team before commencing work, segmenting their clients based on cost and revenue before spending, and measuring the outcomes of their activities before celebrating success. The simple checklist above could help you quickly narrow down to a few options.
Oxper is confident that we can also pass this test.
Contact Oxper today for a free assessment on your company’s readiness to implement Account Based Marketing. We will conduct a one-hour working session to assess whether your current deals would support the implementation of ABM, create a list of your primary target accounts, and outline how a 90-day pilot would be executed. If we determine that ABM does not make sense for your accounts, we will recommend alternatives.
