ForgeX Files
ForgeX Files is forging the future of Account-Based GTM + AI.
Davis Potter, CEO & Co-Founder @ ForgeX welcomes thought leaders, fields AMAs, critically evaluates vendors, and shares research-backed insights for you to elevate your programs and career.
Join us as we explore the latest trends and strategies in ABM, and learn how to build a holistic go-to-market strategy that drives growth.
ForgeX Files
FxF 14 - Inside ForgeX’s 2025 State of ABM Report | What GTM Leaders Must Know
In this week's episode of the ForgeX Files, host Davis Potter welcomes Marcus Hiles, SVP of Strategy at Just Global. They break down ForgeX's State of ABM 2025 Report (sponsored by Just Global), exploring the data-backed insights shaping the future of ABM. The discussion covers emerging trends, operational challenges, and what GTM leaders need to start thinking about for 2025.
Key Takeaways:
1.) The Definition Dilemma: Lack of clarity around ABM definitions and deployment models is stunting internal alignment and sales collaboration.
2.) Strategy ≠ Tactics: Most companies jump straight to flashy campaigns without ICP definition, internal documentation, or a COE, and then wonder why they’re struggling.
3.) ROI Lives in Enterprise ABM: Why 1:1 and 1:Few programs are delivering the highest returns.
Closing Note:
Marcus's insights into ABM maturity, program structure, and the impact of AI expose why most teams are stuck and what top practitioners are doing differently. Whether you're a VP of Marketing or building your first ABM charter, this episode gives you the insights to get it right the first time.
Welcome back to another Forge X-Files. Today we have a special guest and a topic that been talking about a lot, but haven't had the opportunity to truly break down in the depth it deserves. So today I'm psyched to have on Marcus Hyles, who is the SVP of Strategy at Just Global. And we're gonna break down our recent state of ABM report for 2025. this is something sponsored by just Global, And it is, my opinion, and from what I've seen the most comprehensive. ABM report in market today. We're gonna break down what we can and the time that we have, we might need a part two But very excited to have you on and welcome, to the show.
marcus-hiles_1_06-18-2025_151612:Super. Thank you for having me. Looking forward to today's session. It's gonna be good.
squadcaster-17g8_1_06-18-2025_091613:So off, something I wanted to address right off the bat. Which is what the market is feeling in terms of the top ABM challenges When we look at the top three, you have insufficient budget, which wasn't really a major surprise, but the following two are a lack of understanding the distinct ABM deployment models. So this being enterprise ABM growth, ABM deal acceleration, or. Some of you might know them as one-to-one, one to few, one to many, and then a lack of internal alignment and understanding around the actual definition of ABM. Those last two, I did not think were going to be as high they were ranked. Marcus, what? What were your initial thoughts around them?
marcus-hiles_1_06-18-2025_151612:I think the thing that surprised me the most was the, I think that there was a section in your report that talked around like the different naming clauses that companies are using for ABM as well. And you know, the, the cons, like from my perspective, you know, we've gone into a number of ABM engagements where. You know, there's reluctance to bring, for example, the sales team in to too early. They wanna make sure that kind of the program's baked out before they can get them involved. I, and I think a lot of those types of conversations typically come up because the sales team have experienced ABM before and it, it hasn't landed, you know, the, the way they're expecting to essentially. So. I think, you know, there's, there's a lot of work still to be done to make sure that, marketing and sales are kind of aligned on the, you know, what, what the ABM is for the organization. Obviously ABM varies quite a lot from company to company, so what it means for your organization, essentially, and, you know, and, and what the working processes are within that. And if, if there have been prior experiences where it hasn't worked effectively, trying to understand that early on so that you, you don't make those kind of mistakes. Particularly if you're new in the role, kind of jiving in with all your existing kind of history behind your role, then like you're going into a situation where you, you're gonna make a big difference, but actually there might be a lot of legacy, experience with ABM that you need to kind of over overcome. Essentially, I.
squadcaster-17g8_1_06-18-2025_091613:It. It's interesting too because when you look at the deployment model names that are out in market and the way in which even people are describing them internally, we've seen, we've seen a few situations at some of the really large, you know, multi-billion dollar organizations where they'll have a dedicated ABM team who has been deploying some form of one-to-one and one to few. ABM, and this is what what we define at for X as enterprise ABM, where this one-to-one is actually a pure, true, hyper-personalized deep research backed where everything is bespoke or tailored. Just for one individual account covering multiple business units within that account. identifying several buying groups. Usually there is a full dedicated sales team just on this one account, and that is what they'll call one-to-one. And what you'll see is with the downward pressure for these organizations to, adopt some form of a holistic account based go-to-market strategy. The integrated campaigns team, or demand gen, whatever they're called internally, is thinking about, okay, how do I start building some form of an ABM campaign or an ABM strategy throughout my integrated campaigns, throughout my demand gen function? And they will start using these terms like one-to-one with their sales teams when they're actually referencing a flavor of. ABM operational model where they're covering of accounts in some form of tiered approach, that one-to-one in which they're defining is lighter personalization at scale. And then you have these sales teams who are hearing from the dedicated ABM team. We're doing one-to-one. You have this integrated campaigns or demand gen team who's getting account based, they are calling their, what's, what's really a form of one to many, one-to-one, and it's creating mass confusion
marcus-hiles_1_06-18-2025_151612:Yeah. Yeah. I think the, the objectives that, you know, marketeers place on the different types of programs that are running as well. Whether you are going in to try and generate new business or you're going in just to build out decision making unit, like, depending on the, the type of engagement is quite key to that as well. So depending on how sales have been. Engaged on those kind of programs. yeah, it's, it's really key to kind of understand that kind of context really before planning. Planning, I think.
squadcaster-17g8_1_06-18-2025_091613:What's also unique is the definition of ABM. What have you seen in your clients? I mean, this is the number two ranked, or, or the number. This was the number three ranked challenge. you seeing internal teams continuing to struggle with this and some of your clients and, and how are they overcoming it?
marcus-hiles_1_06-18-2025_151612:Yeah, I think it, it, like, as I say, like every company's very different in how they go to market, particularly within the, the ABM sphere. And you know, some clients struggle from a, often, from a resource capacity to be honest. That's tends to be one of the main things that we come up against is, you know, they've got ambitions to do. I dunno, one to few at scale, like, you know, going into multiple different, business issues or industries depending on how they, they slice and dice it. But, it often gets constrained by just the sheer number of people that you need internally to actually run and manage these programs and keep them going work with sales. And I think there's, there's often, People often underestimate the amount of work involved with an ABM program, and it's not until you start working through it that you start to kind of uncover that. so being realistic and kind of what, you know, what you can actually achieve, particularly in that kind of first pilot phase, I think is quite important. I mean the, the budget, the funding behind, it's always a, a kind of an area to kind of, you know, review as well. You know, when we're, we are working with clients, we always try to understand, you know, what, what, capacity have they got internally to undertake the ABM programs. You know, have they got their own content creation teams? Have they got their own, research teams, et cetera. So like, that's, that's always a good place to start. It's not a a one man band. ABM, you've gotta pull in. Lots of different, team members across your organization for it and, and your third party, you know, consultants and partners on that front as well. So, yeah, I think, you know, budget, resource constraints, all of that, you know, try and drive efficiency with, with your existing estate is key. Okay.
squadcaster-17g8_1_06-18-2025_091613:You mentioned the timing it takes to actually, and timing and resources to actually build these programs, and we found that on average or the, the number one selected answer for the question around how long it took for these organizations to fully set up
marcus-hiles_1_06-18-2025_151612:Hmm.
squadcaster-17g8_1_06-18-2025_091613:most recent ABM program was four to six months. Did that surprise you?
marcus-hiles_1_06-18-2025_151612:Yes and no. So, you know, there, there are programs that you can, depending on the way that you go to market, again, like you, you can be doing a programmatic, you know, one to many type program, and you can run those quite effectively. I mean, some clients will go as far as saying that a T based program becomes ABM. So, you know, in that instance, you can take an existing campaign, you can take it to a, to an existing or to a, that you've developed quite effectively and take that out quite quickly. But I think, you know, the, the more sophisticated, you know, enterprise style programs, so like the pointy end of, of ABM, essentially, they, they take a lot of planning. you know, you need to work with the sales team, you've gotta get everyone on board. There's all that kind of internal, you know, collaboration that's needed upfront on that. you know, things like, whether you decide to build a center of excellence within your organization, so some of that you might need to do is kind of set up essentially before you then get into a program, activation. But then again, there's like the, there's the research, there's the content development. So it does vary, but what I, I would like to think is that as organizations get more sophisticated in, in rolling out ABM, that they do start to see kind of a, a compounding effect. And like the efficiency becomes a bit of second nature of think at that point as well. So. I think if you're embarking on the journey for the first time, it's naturally gonna take quite a bit of time to, to kind of get your head around it and, and start testing the, the kind of the marketplace. But then as you scale and you get more, workflows in place to help you with that, you get a really solid team behind you, activating. Then I think at that point you'll start to see the time come down quite a bit. So I think that was one area in the survey where we weren't quite sure on the. You know how much we can drill into that data to try and understand like, are those existing, organizations that have been doing ABM for like three years, for example, or are they quite new to the ABM scene essentially?
squadcaster-17g8_1_06-18-2025_091613:And I found this data point so important
marcus-hiles_1_06-18-2025_151612:Hmm.
squadcaster-17g8_1_06-18-2025_091613:well because you'll see a lot of organizations who are just starting their first ABM program and think they're gonna get it up and running in two weeks
marcus-hiles_1_06-18-2025_151612:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
squadcaster-17g8_1_06-18-2025_091613:a month. when you look at this, you know, even, even the second most. Ranked question or the second, the second highest response for an answer was one to three months. So, you know, you have this, this pocket in here where it's actually showing that representation that this is something that requires your team to go in, like you said. Do extensive research. Really be thoughtful and intentional with how you're deploying your headcount and your resources behind it. And it's not something you can just stand up overnight or in a week and expect it to be as successful as the the great stories that you'll see on LinkedIn or in some of these case studies.
marcus-hiles_1_06-18-2025_151612:Yeah. Yeah. I think as well that it depends on the, the flavor of ABM because. You know, we, we work with clients in, in APAC as well, and, and they're very much more geared around like an agile ABM framework. So they'll work very closely with the sales team. They'll identify a specific sales play for a certain number of accounts, and they keep agile. They just get something in the market very quickly, see how it's performed, sit down with the sales team directly. And then iterate off the back of that so you can get to market quite quick with that type of mentality. You know, it could literally just be a, a, a series of, of sales plays that you are, you're kind of developing with the, the sales function or if you're looking to develop the full blown campaign with, you know, personalized content hubs and, you know, curated content and all the rest of it, that, that obviously takes quite a bit longer to, to do so.
squadcaster-17g8_1_06-18-2025_091613:Yep. Yep. Totally agree. And transitioning over from, you know, okay. We understand that it takes, a decent amount of time to truly build a successful program. We're seeing that these organizations, the top three challenges are budget, understanding the definition of ABM internally, and then also selecting the proper ABM deployment model. When we look at the current usage trends market right now for the deployment models, and again, we have growth ABM, which is a operational model for one to many, you have one-to-one and one to few. Which we define as enterprise ABM, and then deal acceleration, which is instead of going after a full and entire account covering multiple business units, multiple buying groups, you are adding supplemental support on one deal. What? And typically that deal is, is already a active opportunity, but we'll also see this applied where an opportunity is. Just about to be created. Maybe it's not quite there yet, and they're adding that additional support there as well. And so when looking at how often organizations are using these different deployment models, we see 75%. Or using growth ABM, the operating framework for one to many. You have one to few is at 65%. One to one is 53%, and deal acceleration is 45%. So one to many. commonly used. You have one to one to few, and one-to-one, which are common or used selectively. And then deal acceleration is still emerging. There are a lot of companies that are trying to figure out how do we actually build this and leverage it in our program. Marcus, what were your thoughts on these usage trends when you first saw this?
marcus-hiles_1_06-18-2025_151612:Yeah, I, I mean, it, it is, it's not really surprising to me that the growth abms got the, the largest adoption within that. I think that's kind of expected just because it's quite straightforward to kind of move from your existing kind of demand gen model to kind of that, that kind of type of framework. I think, you know, the. what surprised me most actually was the number of organizations running the one-to-one ABM because typically that would be for a large enterprise type organization. so, you know, it's, it's clear that a lot of companies are finding ways to kind of scale and drive efficiency at running quite targeted programs. typically we would normally see like the average deal size being quite. high essentially to run a, a, a kind of an a one-to-one ABM. So, I suppose it really comes down to kind of who we're asking that question to within, within the survey results. but the, the deal acceleration, you know, that's relatively low compared to the rest, you know, thoughts around that maybe around. that actually, you know, it, it, when, when does the marketing team actually get brought into the deal, for example, and how much can they support in that process? So depending on how an organization set up and the, you know, the, the collaboration with marketing, it may be that marketing can only input a certain degree into that type of operation, whereas they're brought in a lot earlier. You know, there's a lot of work that they can kind of do to support that process, essentially.
squadcaster-17g8_1_06-18-2025_091613:And what what? What was also interesting here is greater than 50% of ABM programs are using at least two deployment models simultaneously.
marcus-hiles_1_06-18-2025_151612:Yeah, and I think that's quite common actually. you know, we, we work, it's interesting'cause there's a lot of organizations we work with at the, the one to many end, but then we'll also be doing one to few with them as well. and there have been a number of instances where we'll start with one to few and then we'll scale it to one to one. Or you start at one-to-one with maybe a bank for example, and you end up scaling that program down to have maybe five or six other organizations within that as well. So there are ways to kind of, I think one, you know, once you set up a, a one to few or one-to-one type program, there are ways to drive efficiency and scale, something like that. Whereas obviously one to many you could scale like quite quickly, essentially on that front. So.
squadcaster-17g8_1_06-18-2025_091613:Have you seen a lot of deal acceleration or what is it? What is it like when these companies are building these programs and whether they're calling a deal acceleration, pursuit, marketing, deal-based ABM? There are so many different terminologies
marcus-hiles_1_06-18-2025_151612:Yeah, I often, for us it tends to be more around like the term bid support. so it tends to be, you know, the marketing team has been made aware of a really big deal going through. that deal may take a number of months to, to progress through, obviously engaging different stakeholders within their business throughout that period. but we, we typically get involved from, You know, surrounding that account, surrounding the decision making unit, and then working with the, the stakeholders to understand who's in the decision making unit structure essentially. And, you know, is there work at that point that can be done to understand those core stakeholders so that when the sales team goes into the meeting and they actually speak to these individuals face to face, they've got a bit more context behind what are the drivers for those individuals in the meeting room, and how can they angle their solution to cover those, those, business benefits for, for each person, essentially.
squadcaster-17g8_1_06-18-2025_091613:Completely. And what what's also interesting in some of this data is when we look at the ROI, practitioners are realizing from these deployment models, they ranked one-to-one in one to few as delivering the highest. Are you seeing that as well?
marcus-hiles_1_06-18-2025_151612:Yeah, it's, it's really like from an agency perspective, it's a little bit tricky because the one-to-ones, the, the deals that we typically work on. You know, can be anywhere up to kind of 18 months out, for example. but I think it's evident, you know, from your previous, statement about like the uptake of the, of the one-to-one programs that, you know, organizations are seeing, you know, fruit of the reward there, essentially. So it, it wouldn't surprise me that those, one-to-one efforts are. Generating the biggest impact for their business. I mean, they're typically going after the, the, like, you know, the lions and the king accounts essentially. So you, you're diamond tipped to accounts essentially. So you know, if you're gonna, if you're gonna win any account, that will be the one, typically multimillion dollar contracts in that kind of sphere. So, when you do win those accounts, it is, it is a really good rub on the back for ABM and the efficiency of it. And you do get other salespeople then coming to you wanting to kind of, try out themselves as well, which is really good.
squadcaster-17g8_1_06-18-2025_091613:Yeah, this, this data point wasn't very surprising
marcus-hiles_1_06-18-2025_151612:Yeah.
squadcaster-17g8_1_06-18-2025_091613:either. Especially when, when you look at, you know, some of the, the really large companies who are deploying, let's say one-to-one, you know, their deals are a hundred million dollar. If not,
marcus-hiles_1_06-18-2025_151612:Yeah.
squadcaster-17g8_1_06-18-2025_091613:seen billion dollars deals. So if you close a$300 million deal as part of your ABM program, just thinking about, you know, your. Headcount costs internally. The ABM program costs. You know, you've, you, you have a pretty decent leeway in terms of ROI there.
marcus-hiles_1_06-18-2025_151612:Yeah. And I think, you know, with all things, it's like the Pareto law, isn't it? The 80 20 rule. Essentially, if you're gonna focus on, you know, the, the accounts that are gonna have the biggest impact for your business, naturally, when you get that right, that's gonna have the biggest jump for your fee revenue ultimately. So.
squadcaster-17g8_1_06-18-2025_091613:And throughout this year, as you know, ABM practitioners are thinking about what additional deployment models should we be leveraging? And they're really reviewing how, how they're operationalizing account based, the two. Deployment models that they are really working to expand our one-to-one and one to few, so they're bringing the highest. ROI practitioners are thinking about how do I either expand my existing program or how do I launch this, this year? Was, was that a data point that you are seeing consistently or what, what are your thoughts around that?
marcus-hiles_1_06-18-2025_151612:Yeah, I, I think, you know, as we've discussed, like when you win an account in that one-to-one sphere, it is naturally gonna mean you want to pick on another account to, to replicate that success. The, and, and that is, that's quite common. We, we've seen that a lot obviously with within our, the companies that we work with. The thing I think is worth, kind of stressing, which is really the start of our conversation, was around the sales team alignment to this. Because often, you know, when you start to see success. Other people naturally want to, to, to share some of that. and and just being really rigorous around the vetting of the accounts that you do bring into the, into that fold is, is really key to it. So making sure that, you know, you, it's, it's the right fit account essentially, and you have the proof points that demonstrate that you can win that organization and that, you know, you've got the right engagement from the sales team to support on that front as well, I think is quite key.
squadcaster-17g8_1_06-18-2025_091613:Yeah, totally agree. And, and this one, this one to me was not surprising. Because you see a lot of success stories around one-to-one and one to few. But it's also something to, to deeply consider for your organization before you actually launch it. You have to look at your, you know, if, if you only have average contract value of let's say, you know, 90 k deploying a like ABM one-to-one probably not. Strong or a, a, a suitable strategy for your ABM program. The return is just not there. And I think, you know, a, a lot of practitioners are considering, okay, you know, if I just get really, really deeply personalized in this account, this is going to, this is going to, you know, help our significantly when in reality, you know, you have to make sure that it actually is right for the way in which you, you go to market.
marcus-hiles_1_06-18-2025_151612:Yeah, and I think, you know, a lot of the MarTech platforms out there are very good now in helping to. Funnel, the right type of account into the right program. there's still a lot of reliance on intent and that was something that was in the, the report as well, that it is become a bit of a commodity now within the B2B sphere. and one of the areas actually that we, we should be really focusing on sort of more around the influence that we have within the account. So, you know, making sure that we understand the decision making unit and that we, we have that as part of our qualification criteria. The, the revenue metrics that we are going after the, the alignment with the sales team on those kind of OKRs that we want to go after as well, so,
squadcaster-17g8_1_06-18-2025_091613:Completely. And, what's interesting too is, even throughout the year. We have teams that are continuing to expand, but only 57%
marcus-hiles_1_06-18-2025_151612:Hmm.
squadcaster-17g8_1_06-18-2025_091613:had a dedicated ABM role in place, which personally I th I, I thought was going to be a little higher, than just 57%.
marcus-hiles_1_06-18-2025_151612:Hmm.
squadcaster-17g8_1_06-18-2025_091613:half of those teams that have that dedicated ABM role are expanding their teams. And then you have 16% of organizations that don't have a dedicated ABM role that are. Actively working or have already brought one on this year
marcus-hiles_1_06-18-2025_151612:Yeah, it's interesting, isn't it? There's, You know, if they haven't got dedicated ABM roles, then you, you're probably gonna question whether there's the alignment within the organization as well, in terms of how they're driving efficiency between the, the various, you know, teams within ABM. So yeah, I think that's, that's fascinating. I think the other thing that's really interesting is around the center of center of excellence as well and how many organizations are deploying that and actually where you have a center of excellence, you will see. A greater ROI on your, on your, ABM programs as well. So, you know, it kind of shows that like, you know, getting the foundations rights really important for, for the success here.
squadcaster-17g8_1_06-18-2025_091613:What do you see organizations typically define a COE as?
marcus-hiles_1_06-18-2025_151612:It, it varies wildly. the more sophisticated ones have entire, departments with, you know, dedicated personnel within that who are, you know, creating playbooks essentially. you know, providing the right governance around it. you know, have, have the kind of the right steering committee within that as well. And then you have field marketing teams essentially leveraging that COE but contextualizing it for the, for the right market dynamics. and then you have other examples of organizations which may be a bit newer to ABM and, and for them it may just be a, a one sheet pager that just talks through like how to run ABM for your business. So it, it varies from organization to organization.
squadcaster-17g8_1_06-18-2025_091613:Yeah, we see the same exact thing. And you know, e even on that, that point of it just being a document, the way we look at it, from the Forge X lens is. Just start even if you, even if it's a Google folder or you know, in, in your drive and you're just starting to templatize all of the different tactical assets, building the documents that list how you're doing all of these pieces so that you can scale so that you're starting to have that infrastructure for when you bring on additional ABM headcount when you scale across global regions as well. and only 22%. said that they had an established center of excellence, which is, which is very low.
marcus-hiles_1_06-18-2025_151612:it is. Yeah. But I think it, it is really important because, Things, unexpected things do happen and often, you know, you we, we work with some of our clients for very long periods of times and, you know, throughout our course with, with some organizations, there have been, you know, periods of economic uncertainty and obviously changes in staff happening around that. I. So having the right documentation to enable new people to be onboarded quickly, and to have that knowledge retained in an organization is really key.'cause it can easily be lost if you're not documenting it and kind of working through, you know, shared resources and things like that. So,
squadcaster-17g8_1_06-18-2025_091613:documentation around ICP two, this was, this was another point where only 40% companies said that they had a very well defined ICP, which again, with, you know, all of the different tools that we have from ai. Perspective coming out. They should be massively
marcus-hiles_1_06-18-2025_151612:Hmm.
squadcaster-17g8_1_06-18-2025_091613:to align all of the teams. And just from a go to market strategy perspective overall,
marcus-hiles_1_06-18-2025_151612:Yeah.
squadcaster-17g8_1_06-18-2025_091613:not only should your marketing deeply understand who your SAP is, but same as customer success, same as sales. Your product team, your product marketing team should be really involved even in your ABM program alone. All of this connecting back to your companies. go to market strategy. And so 40%, you know, there, there's absolutely an area of an o opportunity there. and then even going back to your point, Marcus, too, around when you're scaling your team, having that, that, you know, clear infrastructure and that clear SOP in place for, making sure that you have quality. As you're onboarding new members, 33% of organizations actually have an ABM charter. So there is just this, this real gap of maturity standardization, which is also impacting scale. and so, when, when it comes to ABM, yes, it's been around for 20 plus years, but so many organizations are still trying to, trying to implement the basics. I.
marcus-hiles_1_06-18-2025_151612:I think the ICP ones are probably the scariest stat for me there.'cause if, you know, the, the 40% who have got, an ICP very well defined, you know, that they obviously, they have a much more laser focus in terms of who they're going after. If you don't have an ICP. You know, we've seen examples where the marketing team are going after one set of accounts. The sales team are going after another set of accounts, and then marketing doesn't understand why the sales process isn't working. Like to, to connect the dots, for example. And, you know, it like getting just that basic, you know, who are we targeting as an organization, right? That enables you to then, you know, move through these ABM motions of then working out, okay, well, who should go into a one to few or a one-to-one program, but without getting that, you know, in initial, these are the accounts we're gonna go after. Right? and the reasons behind that. you, you, you're probably gonna fail at the first hurdle to be fair. So I,
squadcaster-17g8_1_06-18-2025_091613:And it's like, okay, if you don't really, if you don't have a well-defined ICP, what is your target account list going to look like?
marcus-hiles_1_06-18-2025_151612:yeah.
squadcaster-17g8_1_06-18-2025_091613:that is, that is if not the most important piece. Of account-based marketing of, of go to market
marcus-hiles_1_06-18-2025_151612:Hmm.
squadcaster-17g8_1_06-18-2025_091613:It, you know, we defined it as account-based go to market because it, it, it truly brings in your entire company and the way in which you sell and deliver, retain and expand your clients. And if you don't have a really good idea as to who your best fit clients are from a marketing standpoint. There's gonna be marketing and sales disconnect. Regardless if your target account list is just going to be a money pit where you're throwing dollars from a tactical standpoint in accounts that are, are not either ready to buy or will, will never buy your solution
marcus-hiles_1_06-18-2025_151612:Yeah, and it, you, you don't necess, it doesn't necessarily mean you are not gonna sell to companies that are outside of your ICP. It just, it's more about focusing. Your marketing, your sales resources around the right accounts for your future growth, essentially. So, you know, if an organization has that, that mentality, it's naturally gonna succeed in, in going after the right customers and winning them essentially. So, you know, I think, you know, that, as you say is, is the first step in getting, everyone around the table defining exactly what the ICP looks like, not just from like a. You know, who's, what's the type of company that we want to go after, but actually what are the right, personas that we need to be engaging? And, you know, what, stop what pro, at what stage in the buyer journey should we engage the different stakeholders? So mapping that whole process out essentially, is a brilliant foundation, really. And then you go into, as, as we cited, like the, your charter and your COE and all the rest of it.
squadcaster-17g8_1_06-18-2025_091613:And this gets overlooked so much, especially in the pilot phase for ABM. You'll have these really large companies who have maybe, you know, 12 plus business lines and they're just choosing an industry. Or a segment to pursue for their pilot.
marcus-hiles_1_06-18-2025_151612:Yeah.
squadcaster-17g8_1_06-18-2025_091613:at a gut feel, it's like, oh, I think maybe we have a little more content for this one. Or, there's so much opportunity that we think as a marketing team,
marcus-hiles_1_06-18-2025_151612:Yeah.
squadcaster-17g8_1_06-18-2025_091613:from our, our, our feelings. Let's go start our ABM pilot, let's actually hire a dedicated practitioner just for this role. We're gonna put hundreds of thousands of dollars into this pilot. All in a segment that we didn't one have a conversation with sales around.
marcus-hiles_1_06-18-2025_151612:Yeah.
squadcaster-17g8_1_06-18-2025_091613:we didn't review our internal data. We didn't review marketing conditions, external data. We didn't roll this back up into our overall company go to market strategy. We just picked a segment and said, Hey, we're gonna, we're gonna test it out and see what happens.
marcus-hiles_1_06-18-2025_151612:Yeah, and we're, we're still, if a company decides to take that approach for, for a one-to-one engagement, so a net new one-to-one, for example, campaign, that the, the success rate on those is. I suspect a lot, lot lower than working with an existing customer to drive, you know, cross sell, upsell. so, you know, understanding that market context, whether they're actually even in market, you know, is their potential for renewal to happen, or if they just signed a deal for five years and, you know, you're, you're out the window kind of thing. So yeah, it's, it's really important to kind of, put the, the due diligence in and, and determine like, are they a good fit for our business and, There's lots of ways companies can do that now. Look, there's, there's high uptake on intent. That's certainly one way to identify accounts that are in market. You know, there's, there's data sources where you could, like we work in, often work of organizations in the SaaS realm. So, you know, working and identifying which companies have got high it, expenditure within certain areas like analytics or cybersecurity. But appending that to your target account list is, is like, is crucial to, you know, segment and determine which accounts you should focus on. again, if you're expanding overseas and looking at different territories, you know, working out which markets are actually growing at the fastest rate for your solution area, it's a really good way to prioritize and put the right budget investments behind, things like that as well. So it is all kind of ICP related, like knowing where the ship's sailing essentially, and, and making sure that you're sailing with the wind and not against it, I think is really key.
squadcaster-17g8_1_06-18-2025_091613:Completely agree. And it's interesting too when you look at budgets for this year, the majority are expected to remain about the same for 2025. And the two, the two buckets that are seeing the largest growth are campaigns and content.
marcus-hiles_1_06-18-2025_151612:Yeah. Yeah. I mean, is, is that surprising in the age of ai? So, you know. We, we need, we need more content out there for, for, for content. Especially if you're going down the one-to-one route, you're, you're naturally gonna be producing more content, for that anyway. But, you know, I think as the, as the landscape shifts with, with greater AI adoption and, you know, stakeholders researching in the large language models and all the rest of it. We need more content as an industry to support that and we need to make sure it's geared towards the large language models as well. So there's the ABM side of it where we're targeting the, the individual accounts, but then there's also making sure that we can be found when those stakeholders are doing the right research for us in, you know, in that shifting landscape that we're seeing. So,
squadcaster-17g8_1_06-18-2025_091613:Completely. And, and especially as ABM continues to scale in
marcus-hiles_1_06-18-2025_151612:exactly.
squadcaster-17g8_1_06-18-2025_091613:know, personalization is something that is not, you know, oh, we're going to build this quote unquote custom landing page, slap the company's logo on there, put their name in a dynamic chip, in a few slots on this page, and then, oh, our conversions are gonna go up by 10% or some crazy amount. You actually have to spend the time. To build bespoke content
marcus-hiles_1_06-18-2025_151612:Yeah.
squadcaster-17g8_1_06-18-2025_091613:doing one-to-one, to your point. And then also as organizations continue to adopt this holistic account base, go to market strategy is just expanding throughout the entirety of their, their company and, and their teams are aligning accounts. They're prioritizing their resourcing and investments in specific target accounts. Campaigns and are going to naturally
marcus-hiles_1_06-18-2025_151612:Yeah.
squadcaster-17g8_1_06-18-2025_091613:where your, your, your budget is flowing.
marcus-hiles_1_06-18-2025_151612:Yeah, I do. I do think it's important though that organizations, they kind of take stock of the work they've done today. So do, do, do a thorough audit on what you have developed to take to market. Previously, it might not fit the use case for the one-to-one and the one to few that you're going after, but typically you can take like an 80 20 rule on, on the content and the side of it. You know, you, you only need to tailor a certain proportion of that content to frame it in the right way for a target account or so, you know, refer it in the right, you know, way for a segment that you want to go after. So.
squadcaster-17g8_1_06-18-2025_091613:And, and another piece on that point is for your content. Yes. Having it, you know, personalized and putting in some, putting in the flashy logos and, and the, the company name. Yeah. That, that can definitely be great in terms of personalization, but it's the messaging on the actual content itself and what the content represents. That should be the main focus before you're actually going into, oh, we're going to start, you know, making this look like it was built specifically for one account.
marcus-hiles_1_06-18-2025_151612:Yeah. that also like the, the MarTech ecosystems is vast these days. I'm not even gonna try and put a number on it anymore in terms of vendors in that space. But, you know, there's, there's a lot of companies that we work with where. There's MarTech kinda hidden within the organization. And actually by getting a really good view of what that MarTech looks like, you can look at stitching these programs together in a very kind of authentic way. You know, things like the Adobe target for personalization when someone lands on your landing page versus then a Marketo flow or you know, various channels that people might engage with, remarketing, et cetera. So like do, doing that kind of stock on the campaign side, is really key. the other thing to, to bear in mind is when, when you have got the right message for the account, obviously do your research, do your insights, et cetera, develop your value props, but then, you know, the channel selection is just as important with within here as well. And then contextualizing the message for the channel too. you know, if you're gonna use LinkedIn, it's highly saturated. We know, you know, it, it is one of the, you know, I suppose the preferred channel for being able to target at a, decision making unit, lens, but. The programmatic vendors have got plugins now with, you know, tools like Bombora so that you can get to decision making units and, and things like that. So yeah, challenge just as a, a key now to, to engage in these audiences.
squadcaster-17g8_1_06-18-2025_091613:And Marcus, before we jump, my last question for you is around ai.
marcus-hiles_1_06-18-2025_151612:Hmm,
squadcaster-17g8_1_06-18-2025_091613:How do you see AI playing an impact in. for 2025.
marcus-hiles_1_06-18-2025_151612:that's a really good question. I think, I mean, AI is now encompassing so many different elements of it. There's, there's the traditional side with the predictive analytics and the, you know, all the platforms that we've traditionally been using marketing from, you know, the bombs, the analytics, platforms, path factory and all the rest of it. So there, there's that kind of side of it. But the generative side has obviously been making huge waves. the ability con to contextualize at scale is, is like, there's, there's a massive area in there. We, we've seen a lot of tools already coming out that help with that. The, the thing that it does, create though, is it, it is a lot of content and obviously we've seen that as one of the areas that the reports kind of highlighting for growth, but making sure that you've got consistency over the content, that, that essentially, you know, a bias to your brand narrative and, and kind of governance within that. That's an area I think that marketers are gonna need to get really close to, particularly with, all the data, data protection acts coming through, but how do you make sure that that, is all being done ethically within your organization, et cetera. So I think that's probably an area to watch. There's a lot of tools that allow you to take, to use it from a research perspective in, in one-to-one, for example. And it's fantastic at doing that. but it, it still needs validating. You still need to kind of have that human eye over essentially. but yeah, I think, I think that's quite, that's quite a good area for growth. the, interestingly, there was some research I was doing, or looking through from Deloitte, which was actually the only. 34% of, organizations are satisfied with their ar ai initiatives at the moment. And less than 50% of businesses are actually, using clear KPIs to measure gen ai, performance essentially. So if you're gonna use it, great, but like, why are you using it? You know, what, what is the benchmark for success look like, with those tools as well, there's something to consider.
squadcaster-17g8_1_06-18-2025_091613:it, crazy'cause that, those stats are consistent with what we found as well. Only 19% of organizations have an actual roadmap for AI in their account based go to market programs. Well, Marcus, thank you so much for joining us today. Where is the best place for our listeners to go get in touch with you or, you know, learn, learn more about your insights.
marcus-hiles_1_06-18-2025_151612:Yeah, so, they can email me directly if they'd like at Marcus dot Hiles, at just global.com. or there's always LinkedIn. You can track me down in there as well. So, yeah.
squadcaster-17g8_1_06-18-2025_091613:This was awesome. Make sure to go download our state of ABM 2025 report if you haven't already, for all of the insights that we covered today and look forward to our next four Jex files. I.
marcus-hiles_1_06-18-2025_151612:Thank you Davis. Thanks everyone. Bye.