GTM Glossary · Motions & Plays
Account-Based Marketing (ABM)
Treating a named list of high-value accounts as individual markets, with coordinated marketing and sales effort per account.
[01]What It Means
ABM inverts the funnel: instead of attracting many and filtering, you select a defined list and orchestrate touches across the buying group. It works when deal sizes justify the effort and the account list is genuinely finite.
[02]Why It Matters
Most European enterprise and public-sector markets are small enough to name. When the realistic target list is two hundred companies, account-level orchestration beats volume marketing on both cost and credibility.
[03]Where It Goes Wrong
Running ABM without sales agreement on the account list, which produces marketing activity nobody follows up.Personalising the wrapper while the offer stays generic.Applying ABM to deal sizes that cannot repay the effort.
[04]Related Terms