Account-Based Marketing (ABM)
GLOSSARY
Definition
Account-based marketing flips the traditional funnel. Instead of generating a large volume of leads and filtering down, you identify the specific accounts you want to win and build personalized campaigns for each one. Marketing and sales work the same target list from day one.
Why it matters
ABM works best in B2B with long sales cycles and high deal values — enterprise software, financial services, consulting. The technology layer (Terminus, 6sense, Demandbase) handles identification and orchestration, but the strategy part is mostly organizational: getting marketing and sales to share a target list and agree on what 'engaged' means. Companies that treat ABM as a software purchase rather than a process change tend to be disappointed.
Tools in this space
Related terms
CRM · Marketing automation · MQL / SQL · Customer journey · Lead scoring