Account Based Marketing is a strategy which needs the collaboration of both sales and marketing. It is becoming widely adopted (87% say it delivers according to ITSMA) and is perhaps a more formalised process for high value accounts.

Robert Norum of McDonald Butler provided a great insight at B2B Intech into what is involved in an ABM plan, importantly he focussed on who you are going to target. 

This makes a brilliant checklist for when you initially approach an account:

- Company profile - SWOT, business model

- Opportunity analysis - where your organisation has an opportunity to engage with the account

- Stakeholder identification and relationship mapping - key contacts, hierarchy and past/present relationships with contact details

- Executive profiles - employee structure, background, career overview

- Industry overview - key trends, market size

From this position, the checklist provides guidelines to enable your team to produce and deliver content that will resonate with the target account.

Importantly the outcome of this insight exercise needs to be shared with the entire team involved (even your partners) who are working toward a revenue outcome.