I recently compared notes with Kelvin Gee, Sr. Director of Modern Marketing Business Transformation at Oracle, on myth’s on Account Based Marketing.  Even though Oracle owns Eloqua, his points are quite valid across any size company using any automation platform.

• Kelvin: The first myth is that account-based is only for big accounts, and while that might be true, that’s where the account-based is most intense, with the data and processing technologies today we can scale account-based all the way down to pyramid. So not just the tip of the pyramid but the middle layer and the bottom layer. So account-based at scale is what we’re trying to prove out today.
  • Jon’s opinion: Kelvin makes a great point for non-transactional, b2b purchases, in theory ABM can extend throughout the funnel.  The challenge is scaling in a personalized way throughout the funnel, as well as prioritizing the most meaningful accounts in the funnel.

• Kelvin: The second myth is that account-based is just a tactic. Sometimes people think that, oh if we just run an executive event or dinner for particular account, that’s account-based, but no, account-based is actually a strategy, a fundamentally different way of how marketers do business and it takes a different approach in terms of who you’re focused on, the tactics that are in play, the orchestration with the sales and then how you measure your stuff is completely different. So that’s why it’s really a strategy and not just a series of tactics.
  • Jon’s opinion: another great point here by Kelvin and one where we see a number of other outside agencies ‘muddying up’ the tactics of ABM vs. defining a true ABM strategy.  Thinking through the right plays and right treatment for types of accounts is a much different thought process than executing a tactic.

• Kelvin: The last myth is that most people call it ABM, and what we’re trying to do is change the nomenclature internally because if we just say account-based marketing or ABM, sales will just think, it’s just another marketing campaign, it’s the campaign of the month or campaign of the day and again, if account-based is truly a strategy that aligns different parts of the organization including sales and customer success teams, as well as other parts of the organization, service as well, we can’t call it account-based marketing, because it implies only one part of the house and it just reinforces the fact that this is another campaign and we don’t wanna do that so we’re fundamentally calling it account-based or account-based strategy, so those are three myths that we’re trying to debunk here at Oracle.
  • Jon’s opinion: the definition of ‘account based’ can vary wildly by company.  It’s wise to get sales and marketing in a room to really define what the account based definition is, what the treatment is, and what the expectations are.  Measurement helps, too.

What kinds of myths are you busting?