Account-based marketing, built for pipeline
Most ABM gets sold as a platform decision. Buy the tool, upload the target list, switch on the ads, and the meetings arrive. They rarely do, because the programme is won or lost long before the first impression serves, in the work most teams skip.
Spanb2b runs ABM the other way round. We get the foundations right first, then point the media and the sales motion at a list worth spending on, and measure against the pipeline it produces.
This is what we call the Account gap: the space where a named set of companies either turns into revenue or turns into a spreadsheet nobody opens again. Closing it is our core work.
What we do
The starting point looks different depending on where a company is.
Bought the platform, no pipeline
A business that has bought an ABM platform and a target list and is wondering why the pipeline has not followed. The tooling was never the missing piece. We go back to positioning and the list, and the programme starts working.
Sales and marketing chasing different accounts
A sales and marketing team running from different definitions of a target account, so marketing chases companies sales does not want. We validate the ICP against what actually closes, stays and expands, and rebuild the list on evidence rather than aspiration.
Inherited a stale account list
A named account list inherited from a previous team, full of dead domains, companies acquired eighteen months ago and contacts who have long since left. We cleanse and enrich it, map the real buying committees and tier what survives before a pound goes to media.
Air cover with no follow-through
A programme that is all air cover and no follow-through, where accounts get touched but never worked. We connect the media, the content and the sales cadences so named accounts actually move, rather than just registering as engaged.
How we run it
The sequence matters, and we run it deliberately.
- 01Positioning first — so the message is unmistakably yours and pointedly relevant to the account, rather than a company name pasted on top of generic copy.
- 02ICP validated against evidence — so the list is built on the companies that genuinely convert rather than the ones that look good in a plan. A validated ICP is usually tighter than the one you started with, which is the point.
- 03List cleansed, enriched and tiered — so spend concentrates on accounts with a real reason to buy, and the buying committee is mapped rather than reduced to a single stale contact.
- 04The programme, tiered to account value — One-to-one for the handful that justify it, one-to-few for coherent clusters, and one-to-many for the broader validated set. Channels are chosen around how each buying committee actually buys, spanning programmatic, LinkedIn, content syndication, paid search, paid social, connected TV and video, with content and sales enablement built to match.
Why our ABM is different
35+ years across the whole B2B chain
combined experience across B2B marketing, media and sales, gained in-house, agency-side and in adtech, so we have seen where ABM programmes go wrong and built to avoid it.
Evidence-first
we validate the ICP and cleanse the list before we spend, because a programme pointed at the wrong accounts fails no matter how good the media is.
We run the media ourselves
ABM lives or dies on whether spend reaches the named accounts, and we plan and buy the channels that make that happen rather than handing it off.
We connect marketing to sales
the programme includes the follow-through, the cadences and the enablement, so accounts get worked, not just reached.
We leverage technology and AI
faster signal detection, list building, testing and optimisation, with senior judgement on what to build and what to trust.
How we measure it
Before we spend a pound of media budget, we agree the KPIs with you: what matters to you and your business, and what you actually need to see. From there we measure and report against your needs rather than a generic template.
In practice that usually means account-level answers: how many target accounts we have reached, how many have moved into and through pipeline, what each opportunity cost, and how that compares to your baseline before the programme. This is where marketing and sales share a definition of success, or spend the quarter disagreeing about it, so we agree it up front.
Frequently asked questions
What is account-based marketing?
ABM concentrates marketing and sales on a defined list of named target accounts, treating each as a market of one or a market of few, rather than casting wide for volume. Done well it is a coordinated programme across positioning, media, content and sales, not a single channel.
Do you run one-to-one, one-to-few and one-to-many?
Yes. We tier the programme by the value of each account, from one-to-one for the accounts that justify it, through one-to-few for coherent clusters, to one-to-many for the broader validated set.
Do you build the target list, or do we?
Either. Most often we validate your ICP, then cleanse, enrich and tier your list, or build one from scratch against the evidence. A clean, accurate list is the single most important asset in the programme, so we treat it as one.
Which channels do you use for ABM?
Programmatic, LinkedIn, content syndication, paid search, paid social, connected TV and video, plus content and sales enablement. The mix is chosen around each account's buying committee and your sales motion.
How does it connect to sales?
Directly. We build the follow-through into the programme, including sales enablement and outbound cadences, so named accounts are worked rather than just marketed to. Shared measurement keeps both sides pointed at the same accounts.
How many accounts should we target, and how soon do results show?
It depends on your deal size, sales capacity and the evidence behind your ICP. We will help you right-size the list rather than inflate it to look ambitious. ABM is a considered-purchase motion, so we set the measurement and timeline expectations honestly at the start.
Talk to the people who will run it
If you have the platform but not the pipeline, or you are standing up a programme and want the foundations right before you spend, we should talk. You will speak to the senior operators who will actually build and run it.