As we continue to interview business leaders about driving sustainable success in a world driven by change, we were lucky enough to sit down with the woman who wrote the ABM book – literally – Bev Burgess.
Now the Managing Principal of Inflexion Group, Bev has had an illustrious career in the B2B marketing space, including senior marketing roles at British Gas, Epson and Senior Vice President at ITSMA where she now acts as Senior Advisor.
With over 20 years as a marketing technology services leader, she is also the author of the critically acclaimed ‘A Practitioner’s Guide to Account-Based Marketing’, in which she outlines a clear, step-by-step process for harnessing ABM tools and techniques to set up ABM programs.
That last couple of years has been a whirlwind time for ABM, and Bev discussed how this ‘explosion’ has positively impacted companies on a global scale. To her mind, the pandemic has opened up sales and marketing leaders’ eyes to the potential of ABM, and what it could deliver to their organization. And whilst great, this leads to the challenge of achieving scale without compromising on outcomes, or indeed the ‘true’ nature of ABM.
She also honed in on the defining principle of ABM, the Pareto Principle, and how this cornerstone idea of an 80/20 split – 20% of your accounts providing 80% of your profitable revenue – is playing out in marketing today. How do companies align with these top accounts in order to retain and grow them? And how do companies decide where to go deep, while still considering profitability?
Finally, Bev touched on the enduring trend of increased humanity through all communication, whether high touch or high tech, and believes that respect in our treatment of individuals will live long beyond the pandemic.
Thank you Bev. It was great, as ever, to discuss the growth and future of ABM, and look at all the exciting things that are to come. To listen to the video in full, click here.