You probably see the term “account-based marketing” (ABM) pretty frequently of late. The hype has grown over the past 12 months, with hundreds of articles, blogs, webinars, podcasts, videos and events devoted to the topic. At least a few dozen new vendors have sprung up with solutions focused on ABM, adding to the noise.

Even with all that noise, most organizations are unclear about whether and how to implement these strategies. So this post will give you a high-level sense of what ABM is all about, give you concrete criteria on whether you should consider it for your organization, help you decide what type of ABM would be appropriate, and give you a couple of practical steps to get started.

By Candyce Edelen

This post originally appeared on the Propel Growth blog.

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It is universally understood in the marketing community that sales and marketing alignment is crucial to hitting revenue goals. Alignment around shared goals, technologies and processes allows you to monitor and optimize every stage of the buying cycle. Reports like this one from Marketing Advisory Network suggest that sales and marketing misalignment is not just a buzzword: companies are truly struggling with this reality.

But how aligned are sales and marketing teams at investment management firms, specifically?

We were curious. 

We hosted a private Marketing Roundtable discussion with sales and marketing leaders from top investment management firms. We wanted to learn more about the state of sales and marketing alignment at investment management firms. Here are a few notable takeaways we’d like to share:Read More

By Carson Conant, CEO at Mediafly

The following is a guest post by Carson Conant, Founder and CEO at Mediafly. It addresses the quickly-evolving enterprise mobility trend, what it means for B2B salespeople, and how Marketing and Sales can work together to transform the customer experience.

Buyers are changing, and rather than recoil at headlines like “Death of a (B2B) Salesman,” companies need to face that changing landscape head-on. I want to take a moment to look back at 2015’s industry trends, how we see the role of the B2B salesperson evolving into 2016 and beyond, and how companies can transform and not get left behind.Read More

There’s a real temptation in most aspects of life to focus on the headlines and not pay close attention to the subheadings, caveats, and gory details.

We see this in politics; The candidate says he or she will cut taxes or fund free yoga lessons for everyone (yeah!) but the guy talking about the programs that will go wanting or where the revenue will come from is a downer and his voice gets lost in the news cycle.

We see this in entertainment; The arena-filling rock band puts on a show for the ages, but there is no attention given to the artists mixing the sound to make it really rock in the acoustically-disastrous venue. Or, the logistics teams that figure out how to get nine semi-trucks full of equipment and crew from St. Louis to Chicago and setup for the next gig in 48-hours. (In one of my future-life alternate careers, I personally want to work in logistics for a multi-purpose arena and help organize its conversion from NBA setup, to hockey game setup, to Monster Truck setup, to rock venue and back again to NBA configuration – all in a 12-day period.)

We see it in the financial services business…Read More