Full-funnel ABM for B2B brands with 5+ figure deals | Co-Founder @ FullFunnel.io

You need more pipeline that turns into revenue. But:
- Most marketing leads never convert to deals
- ⁠Outbound is in continuous decline 
- All the investments in trendy programs, agencies or tech didn’t move the needle. 

It’s time to try implementing full-funnel sales and marketing programs. 

Why? 

So you can:
- Accelerate this quarter’s revenue while building the future pipeline
- ⁠Convert 5-15% accounts to pipeline
- ⁠Bring marketing and sales teams together to drive the KPI that matters the most: sales velocity. 

We helped dozens of B2B tech companies implement full-funnel marketing and sales programs with 10%+ account-to-pipeline ratio. 

We will take your team by the hand and together, implement a scoped pilot program with clear milestones to prove the key KPIs, before investing in operationalization and scaling. 

To learn more or ask me anything, connect with me here or visit our website at fullfunnel.io



Vladimir Blagojević

Most marketing plans:

- Start with channels and tactics (syndication, events, SEO, ads, outbound, newsletter...)
- Layer in content and copywriting to "match the audience"
- Run campaigns 
- Measure results based on CPL, MQL

Then wonder why the leads aren’t converting. 

Marketing built the full-funnel way: 

1. FOUNDATION

- Ideal Customer Profile: Priority use-cases and clusters, firmographics and technographics, (dis)qualification criteria, account segmentation & prioritization and buying committee structure
- Buyer journey: where and how they learn, discover and buy a solution like yours
- Messaging, value proposition, content strategy
- Alignment of GTM teams (on KPIs, ICP, buyer journey, messaging and content strategy)

2. FULL-FUNNEL ARCHITECTURE 

Evergreen, consistent programs across the full-funnel to: 
- Drive brand awarnes with out-of-market buyers on places where they hang out and learn 
- Sow the seeds and generate demand by providing solutions to their priority challenges
- Capture the demand (both inbound on high-intent channels, and allbound in collaboration with sales)
- Accelerate demand capture and pipeline for high-value accounts 
- Drive customer success and expansion
- Never stop nurturing 

If you ignore one of them, you either: 
a) Squeeze out maximum of in-market accounts and sacrifice future pipeline
b) Create "engagement" that isn't converting to revenue
c) Deal with a huge churn and the need to re-compensate revenue with new customers

3. INFRASTRUCTURE 

- Dedicated, aligned, cross-functional teams with clear responsibilites
- Documented, repeatable playbooks 
- Lean tech stack with clear owners
- Key metrics and reports 
- Revenue and marketing ops 

4. TACTICS AND DELIVERY 

- Tactics (social, podcast, ads, outbound, events...)
- Content, copywriting, creatives

--- 

How and where you deliver your marketing message matters. 

But if that message isn’t landing — or converting?

The issue is usually deeper:
- Shaky foundations
- Misaligned teams
- Missing programs

If you notice cracks, check the foundation and structure first.

Full-Funnel ABM and Demand Gen For B2B Companies w/ High ACV | Co-Founder @ FullFunnel.io

Here's why so many good CMOs get fired. 

Leadership wants:
- faster results
- bigger numbers
- cheaper acquisition 

...all of that at once. 

This short-term ROI pressure pushes CMOs to do what gets measured: 

When forced to choose under pressure, CMOs are 5X likely to pick demand over brand. 
(recent study by Jon Miller, Ray Rike /Benchmarkit, Bill Macaitis and Carilu Dietrich). 

But this creates a structural problem.

- We put all our effort into meeting this quarter's number
- We don't invest in long term programs that build awareness and trust 

A few quarters later, the pipeline dries up. 

The numbers back this up: we're spending $2.00 to acquire $1.00 of net-new ARR. And the CAC payback time has been constantly increasing by 12.5% at median since 2022 (Pavilion).

Why is this happening? 

Leadership still believes that marketing is like a gumball machine: you put in $ and get $$ out (credit: Jon Miller). 

We know that reality is different: 
- Non-linear, complex buying journeys
- Early influence matters: more than 80% of buyers short list products they discovered before the buying process

But our attribution hides the early influence, and the "credit" goes to the last touch was before the deal, which reinforces the gumball machine thinking. 

So, without clear attribution to early and middle-funnel activities, leadership doubles down on short-term ROI.

And when the pressure doesn't bring results, CMOs get fired. 

The cycle repeats. 

--- 

As long as we stay in this loop, things won't change. 

But ripping out the entire infrastructure and starting from scratch is not an option either. No leadership will support it. 

The solution is an evolution, not a revolution. 

It all starts with a small-scoped pilot: 
- No new hires, a small cross-functional team 
- No extra budget, scoped down to a small set of accounts we have 'the right to win'
- Attribution: the team gets the credits for the pipeline created 
- The main goal is not volume, but effectiveness. By working together, from awareness to pipeline, that we can turn a higher % of high-value accounts into deals

If you want to dive into the weeds, join Andrei Zinkevich and me during our Full-Funnel Summit.

Get your free ticket here: 
https://lnkd.in/dec4k53c

Here is how full-funnel marketing balances short-term ROI pressure with long-term brand programs:

Pre-conditions:

-Setting up a cross-functional team
-Repurposing what's been created
-Joint planning and accountability
-Agreement with leadership on allbound attribution

Short-term solutions:

-Developing account prioritization model with sales: account engagement level, signals, account sourcing, revenue potential, relationship with buying committee group, product need evidence
-Working on deal acceleration (1:1 account plans) and buyer enablement for early-stage pipeline
-Prepare personalized content hubs and content
-Set up account retargeting ads using demand capture budget

Balancing short-term ROI with long-term brand programs:

-Repurposing existing content for thought leadership / Enabling sales rep to share content
-Boosting top-performing content with thought leadership ads to target account list
-Define and capture engagement signals
-Co-create webinar narrative together with sales
-Promote webinar via partners, communities and ads
-Set up weekly meetings inviting RevOps and CS to discuss:

* Captured signals and account insights
* Planning next steps with the engaged accounts
* Planning content

-Set up post-webinar content hub, tracking content engagement, and planning next activation steps

Track:

-Engaged strategic accounts (highlight strategic accounts sales tried to engage, but never got a reply)
-Brand metrics
-Accelerated deals
-New pipeline opportunities
-Total ALLBOUND pipeline value/revenue

This "bare minimum" model enables you to show real pipeline influence while setting up fundamentals for long-term brand programs:

✅ Creating awareness of the invisible 95%
✅ Nurturing the buying committees early 
✅ Building credibility in peer networks (where real decisions happen)
✅ Co-creating account prioritization and engagement with sales
---
Most marketing teams are trapped in a brutal false choice: hit quarterly numbers or build long-term brand value.

Leadership screams for pipeline NOW. Brand programs take months to show impact. 

The "default" marketing function:

❌ Receive pipeline targets from leadership
❌ Spread budget across "demand gen" and "demand capture"
❌ Publish generic blog articles for SEO
❌ Host product-pitching webinars
❌ Hand over "leads" to sales

This playbook optimizes for the 5% of accounts actively buying TODAY while completely ignoring:

- What gets you into the consideration set of that 5%
- What creates the pre-conditions for deals to happen
- What actually influences buying decisions

But the result is always the same: being blamed for lack of revenue contribution and not enough pipeline.

The only way to get out: balancing real short-term pipeline results with long-term brand programs.

But it requires you connecting the dots between different activities across the buyer journey through cross-functional collaboration.

---
We'll share a deep dive at our Full-Funnel Summit: 
https://lnkd.in/dec4k53c

How to survive as a B2B CMO, and drive revenue in 2026 
- a year of AI and long sales cycles? 

(14 masterclasses by 17 B2B leaders)

1. Use AI to drive real results, not "do more with less"

Learn how to:

- Use AI workflows at every stage of the ABM funnel with Steve Armenti (who built the program generating $2B+ in pipeline at Google)

- Redesign your marketing operating model as an AI-native CMO with Tim Rutten

- Turn AI-powered account scoring and hyper-personalized messaging into actual pipeline with Leanne Chescoe

2. Win long and complex sales cycles 

Leadership wants faster results, bigger numbers, and cheaper acquisition—all of that at once. But buying cycles have lengthened, budgets are tighter, and market noise is deafening. 

Learn how to:

- Build a B2B marketing playbook purpose-built for long sales cycles with Andrei Zinkevich and yours truly 

- Create GTM Focus Cycles that translate ambitious revenue plans into clear, executable priorities with Ashley Lewin

- Drive predictable pipeline in a chaotic market through orchestration and culture with Matt Heinz

3. Create content that stands out in AI noise and builds trust before the sale 

Buyers evaluate your credibility before they ever talk to sales. Most content teams are still producing for clicks, not trust.

Learn how to:

- Build a content flywheel that compounds over time instead of burning out your team with Sara Stella Lattanzio and Diandra Escobar

- Become famous in your niche and attract business through LinkedIn video and organic distribution with Tycho Luijten

- Create ads for boring products that actually stand out, with Shlomo Genchin

4. Sell like a human in a world of automation 

AI has made it easier to scale outreach. It's also made it easier to be ignored.

Learn how to:

- Practice human-first social selling when AI is accelerating faster than any previous technology shift, with Lauren Goodell

- Use human-centered marketing in the age of AI to evolve the buyer's journey from a funnel into a playground with Ashley Faus

5. Prove the ROI and get budget for long-term programs 

The pressure to show attribution has never been higher. The tools to do it honestly have never been better.

Learn how to:

- Crush LinkedIn Ads in 2026 and prove it to leadership with Justin Rowe

- Run account-based revenue programs that tie directly to bookings with Davis Potter

--- 

B2B teams have a choice in 2026.

Keep running volume plays in a market where buyers are already overwhelmed, skeptical, and using AI to filter out noise faster than you can produce it.

Or learn from practitioners who have figured out what actually works.

All sessions are live.  Don't miss it: 

https://lnkd.in/eD7JZXxT

Here is how AI is ACTUALLY being used by 44 enterprise marketing leaders: 8 new use-cases. 

1. REPLICATE SUCCESSFUL CAMPAIGNS

Proven patterns + target market insights = replicating success. 

“We’ve been building AI-based tools to duplicate ABM campaigns, and they seem to be working well so far” — Kayleigh Duggan.

2. EMBED IN WORKFLOWS 
“The real play is embedding AI into workflows that already solve real problems. 

Start with: what’s slowing us down today? 

Some of the strongest use cases are unsexy but powerful: keeping CRMs up to date, hygiene no one wants to do, layering in insights from calls, lead qualification, personalization, and research.” 

- Sara Stella Lattanzio (biweekly expert-tested AI workflows at The Workflow).

3. SALES COACHING

“I built ‘MarkGPT’ to analyze transcripts from won vs lost deals. It confirms patterns, surfaces new insights, and provides live coaching on active deals — flagging risks like missing an economic buyer or suggesting objection handling.” — Sam Kuehnle, Loxo

4. MARKETING OPERATIONS

“Our ‘secret’ AI MarOps tool that not many people know about is Jigso.ai, which I think more companies should try.” — Ruth Favela, Tomorrow.io

5. EVENT FOLLOW UP

“We added an AI SDR that is booking meetings and running pre- and post-event follow-up.” — Carrina Ekvall, Recurly

6. ADAPTIVE NURTURING

“We use dynamic sequences: depending on engagement, the next step changes.” — Lujan Quintero, PSignite

7. QUALIFY & PROGRESS LEADS FASTER

“One of the most meaningful uses of AI we’ve found is in lead qualification and funnel progression. AI assistants engage earlier, ask smart questions, and route prospects faster. The result is higher-quality pipeline, improved conversion rates, and shorter sales cycles.” — Nicole Gates, Varonis

8. CONVERSION OPTIMIZATION

“Where I’ve seen AI make a real impact is in conversion, not just production. For example, improving outreach using decision triggers.” — Sheri Otto, Redwood Software

The most common use-case: ENRICH ACCOUNTS, PRIORITIZE & PERSONALIZE AT SCALE

For example, “Research accounts & create messaging tied to their needs for 1:1 messaging at scale.” — Matt Dowis, OPEX Corporation

Other notable patterns:
- CREATE ACCOUNT CLUSTERS BY PAIN POINTS
- USE SALES & CUSTOMER CALLS TO TUNE STRATEGY & MESSAGING
- OPTIMIZE FOR THE NEW SEARCH FRONTIER (SEO → AEO)
- AUTOMATE BUYING SIGNALS CAPTURE
- ACCELERATE MARKET RESEARCH

Special thanks to the Dealfront team, especially Jamie Pagan and Simone Schiavo - for such a rich contribution. 

---

Without a clear strategy, AI just helps you produce more of the wrong thing faster.

Sara said it best: “If your ‘AI strategy’ is tossing lazy prompts into an LLM, congrats you’ve just scaled mediocrity.”

But more and more teams successfully embed AI into a GTM. 


During our Full-Funnel Summit, we have a complete track on how to use AI to drive revenue, not just do more with less. 

Get your free ticket here: 
https://lnkd.in/dec4k53c

AI in real B2B Companies

Here's the pattern every CMO recognizes.

You're pressured to pour everything into hitting this quarter's number. You squeeze every last drop from the existing pipeline and demand. 

By meeting this quarter's number, you've depleted next quarter's pipeline. You didn't get to invest in the activities that build awareness and trust six to nine months out.

And leadership happily raises the bar. 

We're trapped in a system that punishes long-term thinking but demands long-term results.

"I'll survive this quarter, show ROI, and next quarter will be better."

No, it won't. That's rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. The cost of non-strategic decisions compounds: 

1. ATTRIBUTION

65% of CMOs struggle proving marketing's revenue and pipeline contribution. This is the reality of last touch-attribution. 

Deals take months, sometimes years. Buyers might read your content, attend an event, see you on LinkedIn, talk to a partner, and only then reach out to sales.

But in the CRM, all that early influence disappears. The "credit" goes to the last touch before the deal.

Instead, consider a blend of self-attribution, account-based attribution, and customer interviews. Look for qualitative signals, not just quantitative ones.

2. PROGRAMS

Jon Miller's research: "when faced with budget cuts, marketing leaders are 5X more likely to protect demand gen budget than brand.

Odd, given 73% of companies agree that brand investment is a long-term investment that makes demand generation more efficient."

Instead, we need programs that balance long-term brand awareness, future pipeline development, and this quarter's goals

3. TEAMS

In most B2B orgs, there's a lack of cross-functional collaboration with sales.

Even with best intentions to work together, misaligned incentives get in the way. 

But without an orchestrated effort across GTM teams, it becomes impossible to influence the complete buyer journey. 

4. TECH/AI

Leadership hears "AI" and imagines instant pipeline at lower cost.

Yes, we can create more content than ever. Pull public data points and "personalize" at scale.

But all we're doing is scaling tactics that didn't work in the first place. 

Instead, AI should scale processes we have proven and refined through many iterations:
- Pilot → document & refine → train AI 
- Show AI what 'good looks like' with examples of high-quality output (quality benchmarks)
- Use deep insights and research about the target ICP segment as input for AI

---

The way out? 

1. Strong fundamentals (brand narrative, differentiation, positioning, ICP, buyer journey...)⠀
2. Full-funnel programs: awareness → demand capture → pipeline → Buyer enablement→ CS & expansion
3. Balanced time horizons 

Understand customers. Shape the journey. Build brands buyers choose.


If you want to dive deeper, join Andrei and me, and 14 B2B leaders during our Full-Funnel Summit.

Get your free ticket here: 
https://lnkd.in/dec4k53c

"I have $20k budget. How many leads do you guarantee?"
Sorry, what is called "demand gen" today is a rotten, broken marketing playbook that costs CMOs their jobs.

Old school demand gen aka waterfall marketing indoctrinated B2B companies that there is a predictable revenue model:

-Design gated content
-Run ads and send cold marketing emails aka "nurturing"
-Capture MQLs
-Handover to sales
-Analyze MQL to SQL conversion rate
-Figure out which channel generates more MQLs at lower CAC
-Calculate how many MQLs do you need to hit revenue targets based on the current conversion rate
-Request budget

B2B companies and VCs loved the idea of predictable revenue so much, so they completely recreated GTM around the new broken model.

The core of the new model:

Marketing & sales control the buyer journey and can push buyers.

This immediately widened the definition of target addressable market (TAM) and made companies forget about ICP.

Faster. Predictable. Scalable.

And within this nonsense we started seeing how B2B CMOs tenure is plummeting to 16 months in 2025.

I once attended a meeting where Head of ABM at a well-known (63k+ employees) B2B company presented to head of demand gen of one vertical team the idea of a cross-functional program.

The first thing she heard:

I don't have time for this. I can give you $20k for air cover. How many leads do you guarantee?

We must stop it.

The only way to generate B2B revenue for enterprise products is shifting to revenue marketing.
---

We invited Matt Heinz, who has been advocating for it for a long time, to join us, and other 15 B2B marketing leaders on our Full-Funnel Summit.

Get your free ticket here: 
https://lnkd.in/dec4k53c

What is ABM?
How out industry completely messed it up.

It all started with ABM platforms selling the enterprise pipeline miracle:

-Buy an ABM platform
-Get a list of dream accounts from sales
-Launch programmatic display ads
-Build dynamic landing pages where the account name and logo will be automatically changed based on the domain or IP
-Create personalized outbound cadences

Easy to launch. 100% measurable. 0 work from sales.

The hype was picked up by many marketing agencies with junior marketers who NEVER had an experience of working, selling, or even talking to Enterprise B2B buyers.

They saw a new "predictable revenue model" that could be labeled as a high-ticket service. You just need to sound smart.

Technically, what I described above can be defined as ABM, because the accounts and the personalization is there.

The problem?

It's very different from how enterprise B2B buyers buy.

The facilitation of that model created a false expectation that ABM is 100% marketing initiative where sales, product, CS, and subject-matter experts should do nothing.

It 100% matched executive expectations because it is just a small upgrade of a lead gen program their company ran for the last decade.

It doesn't require any change management, while in reality it does!

ABM is a cross-functional program that requires significant change management:

- Having an engaged marketing leader who is willing to drive change.

- Incorporating ABM in your Go-To-Market strategy, not creating a new, siloed function

- Structuring teams from horizontal silos to cross-functional operations: marketing, content, client success, sales (SDRs and AEs), subject-matter experts & product

- Changing KPIs from MQls and SQLs to account engagement, penetration, progression, pipeline value, velocity, and revenue, and ask both teams to track them regularly

- Adjusting sales processes to run account research, full buying committee mapping and regular engagement, leveraging marketing initiatives and content for nurturing, using 1st party and 3rd party signals to add value to the conversations and facilitate opportunity creation

- Readjusting content strategy from "SEO-first" to "buyer needs first"

- Investing A LOT in brand awareness by engaging industry thought leaders, communities and partners via educational thought leadership programs

- Creating account plans based on 1st party research insights, not generic GPT research

- Having regular planning and review meetings

The success of ABM lies not in your stack or budget, but in making necessary changes, setting up cross-functional teams, adjusting their KPIs, and enabling them to focus on meaningful account engagements.



If you want to dive deeper, join Andrei and me, and 14 B2B leaders during our Full-Funnel Summit.

Get your free ticket here: 
https://lnkd.in/dec4k53c

How seasoned B2B leaders deploy AI to scale revenue instead of broken playbooks. 
Problems + solutions + the underlying framework. 

PROBLEMS

1. Tragedy of the commons

We can create more content than ever. Pull public data points and “personalize” at scale.

The result? 

Jon Miller said it best: "every prospect now receives content specifically IRRELEVANT to them" 

We're just teaching buyers to ignore us faster.

"Marketers will use and then abuse any tactic until it becomes ineffective", said Jon.

2. The expectation gap

Leadership hears “AI” and imagines instant pipeline at lower cost.

But reality's different: 

“AI still requires quality data, strategic direction, and human judgment. Without alignment to pipeline metrics, it becomes just another shiny object” - Hanna Kvamme.

3. Hidden taxes

Review Tax: “AI made content faster, but shifted the bottleneck to senior reviewers. Reviewing takes twice as long” - Giorgia Guantario. 

Learning Tax: "On top of everything marketing is responsible for, we are now also responsible for figuring out AI" - Briana (Manrique) Casey.

Raised Bar Tax: "I thought it would free up time for strategic, creative work. Instead, it's increased the pressure to deliver more, faster" (Tarek Fayed)

4. Strategy vacuum → more work, not less

Many companies are deploying AI without a clear strategy.

"If your ‘AI strategy’ is tossing prompts into an LLM, congrats you’ve just scaled mediocrity" (Sara Stella Lattanzio)

And this creates more work, not less: "Without a clear strategy, AI can feel like another demand instead of a time-saver" (Mindy Johnson)

SOLUTIONS

1. Tie AI to GTM outcomes, not output volume

"AI works best when tied to GTM outcomes like conversion rates, sales velocity, or deal size" (Kathleen Booth)

2. Scale what’s proven

Prompt AI with detailed playbooks based on processes you've proven: Pilot → refine → document → prompt.

Real processes augmented by AI: 
- Cluster accounts by pain points (Stuart Coulton)
- Research account insights & signals (Tim Rutten)
- Qualify & progress leads faster (Nicole Gates)
- Sales live coaching on active deals (Sam Kuehnle)
…

3. Use deep ICP research & transcripts as input

Request quotes to prevent hallucination and preserve buyer language. 

4. Show AI what good looks like with examples of high-quality output

5. Build detailed quality checklists

It's always fun to see AI evaluate its own results, back-paddle & fix its own work. 

--- 

Most B2B leaders aren’t struggling with AI.

They're asked for faster results and bigger numbers... with growing cycles, lower budgets, higher CACs & a deafening noise. 

During our Full-Funnel Summit, we have a complete track on how to use AI to drive revenue, not just do more with less. 

Get your free ticket here: 
https://lnkd.in/dec4k53c

AI That Scales Revenue (not broken playbooks)

Not all types of intent are created equal: 

𝟏. 𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐓 
"I want to be better at my job"

Buying intent: -/low.

Example journey:

1. I'm interested in up-skilling myself, learn the best practices and industry trends
2. I discover good content from a brand, and start following them 
3. I read something very relevant for our situation, and start binging on the related content
4. I get curious about your solution, and check it out
5. I may even reach out to you for a demo in order to understand how it works, and the potential benefits for our brand 
6. I might even try to sell it internally, but quickly realise this is not a priority 
7. I ignore your follow ups 

𝟐. 𝐒𝐎𝐋𝐔𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐓 
"We need a solution to a high priority problem"

Buying intent: +-/medium.

Example journey:

1. Something happens in our business that shifts our priorities to solving a specific challenge
2. I start exploring solutions, by searching, asking my network, in niche Sclak groups 
3. I discover your content our your brand (e.g. someone recommends it)
4. I explore your solution multiple times, and have internal discussions with my team 
5. Since it seems like it might be the right type of solution, I may reach out to you for a demo, so that I can uderstand it better
6. Meanwhile, we're exploring alternatives 
7. We decide we can solve it intenally, or to go for a different solution category 
8. I ignore your follow ups 

𝟑. 𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐎𝐑 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐓 
"We want a solution like yours"

Buying intent: +/high.

Example journey: 

1-6: same as for (2.)

7. I evaluate you as a vendor 

8.a) Bad fit: I remove you from a consideration set and start ghosting you
8.b) Good fit: you end up on the short list 

9. I try to build an internal consensus 
10. We review our needs and purchase criteria, and the available alternatives 
11. I introduce you to my colleagues and we dive deeper 

12.a) We decide a competitor is a good fit
12.b) We agree that we: 
- Understand the total cost , and we believe this investment would yield a significant return
- Expect impact Y within Z time 
- Have a clear plan, right people and infrastructure to implement the solution
- Understand the change management required and feel confident we will be able to do it
- Understand the main risks, and have a plan for a proof of concept to de-risk our decision. 

13. You are vetted by our procurement department 

--- 

Not every intent signal is the same. Not even all the hand raisers are ready to buy from you. 

Study previous deals, identify the red flags and the real buying signals. 

Translate those into criteria and questions you need to ask during the buying process. 

But, the fact that someone was not ready to buy right now, doesn't mean they won't become ready in the coming quarters. 

Never. Stop. Nurturing.

If you want to dive deeper, join Andrei Zinkevich and me, and 14 B2B leaders during our Full-Funnel Summit.

Get your free ticket here: 
https://lnkd.in/dec4k53c

An AI question we got from the CMO of a $300 mil SaaS company: 
"Which parts of ABM will get automated, and which parts are the real human IP?"

Great question. Here's what Andrei Zinkevich and me told him.

What AI can do well:

1. Account research - once you know what information matters and what's noise, where to find it, how to use it - and have a benchmark of what good looks like
2. Account love letters and personalized outreach — once you have a good format, examples and insights
3. Content creation — if you feed it proprietary frameworks and real knowledge, it can generate solid drafts.
4. Signal detection - once you know which signals matters, and how to act on them

None of that is where the value is anymore.

Where the real IP lives: 

senior profiles with in-depth knowledge, relationships and planning. 

1. Senior profiles 

The quality and seniority of people becomes even more important with AI, not less.
- Subject matter expertise 
- Customer knowledge - especially being in contact with customers regularly and knowing what lives in the industry NOW 
- Knowing what good looks like - including empathy for what customers will consider superficial dribble vs real insight
- Deep understanding of the complete (ABM) process

For example, we could only generate useful AI drafts after we had 
- Clearly defined the ICP through dwon & loss deal analysis and in-depth workshops with SMEs and AEs who talk to customers daily 
- Understood the specific challenges of a narrow segment (e.g. $1B+ industrial manufacturers with export dominant business)
- Integrated deep subject matter expertise their head of strategy, founder and their CMO have built over the last 20+ years

Without that work, we'd end up with b.s. buyers would ignore. 

2. Relationships

You can use AI to write tons of LinkedIn comments and connect to people 'personally', but that would be fake and negatively impact everyone. 

Multi-threading, genuine engagement (not standard automated emails) and relationship building (people-to-people) are the key.

3. Strategic planning

The cross-functional workshops are where the magic happens. Bringing together people from product, sales, and marketing means everyone looks at buyer personas and jobs-to-be-done from different angles. 

This produces an unbiased, multi-angle narrative that no AI can replicate on its own.

For example, when a team member suggested specific outomated outreach for DACH, the AE pushed back saying certain approaches wouldn't resonate culturally. That kind of nuance only comes from human judgment in a collaborative setting.

--- 

You'll probably need fewer people. But more senior ones.

The job changes, but critical thinking, discernment, and deep market knowledge become THE differentiators. 

Those are precisely the qualities hardest to find in people.

And they're what matters most in an AI-augmented world.

Account score is the new MQL. A metric that gives your team false confidence that the account is sales-ready. But by the time sales reach out, you already lost. Here's the fundamental problem:

The account score tracks 1st party interactions and 3rd party signals (hiring, funding, exec interviews, etc.). But it completely ignores:

- Relationship
- Vendor awareness
- Product need evidence

Marketing and sales wait until the account hits an engagement threshold to act on it, ignoring that:

- It might be too late. You're evaluated as vendor #5 and as a backup if the first 4 options won't be a fit.
- The score could be driven by irrelevant contact or signals (I've seen this a couple of times)
- The engagement behind the signals doesn't mean the buying intent.

The utopian idea behind the account scoring is that when an account reaches a certain score:

- Marketing did their job of creating awareness
- Sales should start outreach

There is no system. Sales just do the standard outbound, maybe, a bit more personalized. But the problem is: buyers don’t know them, and there is a completely different level of intent (e.g. just to learn, not to select the vendor).

It's very similar to the ugly and broken MQL handover playbook we all are fed up with.

We've replaced account scoring with account prioritization framework that groups accounts into three buckets by likelihood of creating a sales opportunity with them this quarter:

1) Cluster ICP: <5%. Cold accounts that don't know us and we don't know if they are in the market. 

Goal: Engage Champions and create internal awareness.

2) Future pipeline: <30%. Accounts with early engagement but unknown product need evidence. 

Goal: build a relationship with the buying committee, validate buyer journey stage and product need evidence. 

3) Active focus: > 30%. Accounts with the relationship and known need. 

Goal: Create a personalized solution and generate an opportunity.

Each bucket requires a different engagement strategy where both marketing and sales:

- Define the level of intent behind the signal
- Create marketing and sales playbooks aligned with the level of intent
- Run personalized engagement with Future Pipeline and Active Focus accounts to boost internal awareness and facilitate nurturing

I just finished reading Influ2 research about contact-level ABM. Two fascinating facts:

1) Group decision carries the most weight when selecting a vendor. But if you look at who raises most objections, you immediately see IT and finance. 

The takeaway: if you are not doing multithreading, you drastically decrease your chances to win the deal.

2) Even a simple personalized marketing air cover to the contacts sales are targeting uplifts pipeline conversion by 118%:

2.44% meetings booked rate with 1 click and 15+ impressions compared to 1.40% without ad exposure.

The report + how to orchestrate ABM at the contact level is here: https://lnkd.in/edT9kdWX

Most CMOs know the short-term B2B playbook is broken - but it’s the only type of program the leadership accepts. 

Here's how to get buy-in for long-term full-funnel programs.

PROBLEM BUY-IN

1. Map and engage internal buyers
- Identify and interview key stakeholders about their challenges and priorities, and their experience as B2B buyers
- Start creating problem awareness and nurturing stakeholders by sharing best practices, anecdotes and asking questions
- Identify change agents across client-facing teams, they will help you co-create the pilot and are candidates for your future a cross-functional pilot team

2. Collect evidence that the current playbook is broken
- Analyze where the revenue is coming from and the characteristics of top revenue-generating, strategic accounts 
- Analyze performance of the current programs both in terms of pipeline and revenue generation, but also in how effective they are in generating deals with strategic accounts 

3. Show that the problem is worth solving now
- Connect the problem to leadership's top business priority
- Show the cost of doing nothing

SOLUTION BUY-IN

1. Diagnose root causes and define measurable requirements
- Run a full-funnel GTM audit across 12 key areas to identify what's working, what's not, and how challenges connect to each other
- Bring your change agents into the process — share your findings, get their input, and co-create requirements: what needs to improve, why, and how you'll measure it
- Define a small-scope pilot program to try a new program (without budget increase or additional resources, using the current marketing and sales mix)

2. Align on the approach. Prepare to defend four core requirements for high ACV and long sales cycles:
- Efficiency over volume: show that strategic accounts drive most revenue, calculate the current account-to-pipeline ratio and present the comparison between the current playbook and the more efficient approach you're proposing
- Document the actual buyer journey for your best deals to show the multi-touch journey across different channels that’s required (and the mismatch with the current approach)
- Run the CFO quiz to get agreement that last-click attribution doesn't reflect the reality of complex, multi-touch deals
- Make the case for a cross-functional pilot team with allbound attribution and aligned incentives

3. Get the approval
- Create a pilot project memo: challenges, cost of inaction, high-level pilot plan, expected results, team structure, risks, and a clear ask
- Present it to leadership and formally ask to approve the pilot

---

It might feel that the only path forward requires ripping out the entire infrastructure and starting from scratch. New systems, new metrics, new team structures.

But no leadership will support it. Revolutions get marketing leaders fired. 

The solution is an evolution, not a revolution of your marketing mix and how your team works.

And it starts with these two buy-ins.

Director of Marketing Strategy & Operations | Martech Leader | Speaker

Author and speaker. Co-host of the Humans of Martech Podcast.

Subscribe to the Marketing Operations Leader newsletter for MOPs strategies and insights every week: https://darrellalfonso.substack.com/

Highlights: 
- Ranked as one of the Top Marketers in the US by Propolis 2022
- Named one of the "Top Martech Marketers to Follow" 2020 by Martech Alliance 
- Keynote speaker for Martech Conference and Get Stacked B2B Marketing Conference 2021
- Awarded Fearless Marketer 2018 
- Marketo Champion 2018 and 2019 
- VP of Communications American Marketing Association - 2017-2019
- Marketo User Group Leader 2017-2019
- Leading Program Manager for Connect@Amazon (35,000 member Amazon organization)
- Frequent Martech Speaker and Author 
- Marketo and Salesforce Certified 

Posts are my own and do not reflect the views of my current or former employers.

Darrell Alfonso

Excited for this discussion! 

Will be great to see John Kosturos, Rachel Bryant, Manda S., and Mike Rizzo dive deep into the data discussion that supports all AI initiatives. 

They'll talk about:
- Why AI acts as a force multiplier, not a repair tool
- What must be true before automation actually helps
- Why human judgment is required before scaling

Make sure to attend for free, link in the comments. 

#marketing #martech #marketingoperations #ai

PS: Thanks to Tamara Gomes and Traction Complete for supporting the event and making it possible.

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