The SMART approach to setting objectives and expectations in your ABM pilot

The foundational awareness phase of our ABM pilot has been live for a few weeks now and this has been focused on generating top-of-funnel engagement through digital advertising and email marketing. Whilst we finalise the content and activation plans for the demand generation phase, I wanted to share some insights on how we’ve approached the very crucial topics of objectives, KPIs and setting the expectations of internal stakeholders.

Embarking on an ABM pilot can be an exciting but also a daunting endeavour. You’ve had to define your strategy, secure buy-in from leadership, commit resources, select an agency and educate internal stakeholders – and that’s all before you start on the real work. As with any high-value, resource-intensive initiative, setting clear objectives, KPIs, and expectations from the start is crucial. Let's delve into some of my key learnings over the past few weeks and months (shamelessly by being SMART!).?

Be specific

When setting objectives for your ABM pilot, specificity is paramount. By being specific, you provide clarity to both your internal stakeholders and your agency, ensuring everyone is aligned on the ultimate goal.

Clearly define what you want to achieve - whether it's increasing engagement with senior contacts, supporting large deals, or expanding the size and shape of the pipeline. I’m a strong advocate of leveraging the 3 R’s (Relationships, Reputation and Revenue) to guide your decision-making and you can use that approach to define your objectives over the short- (0-6 months), medium- (6-18 months) and long-term (18 months+).

For our pilot, we know that what we aim to sell can be complex, can involve dozens of influencers and decision-makers and can take a year or more. With that in mind, our short- and medium-term objectives are very much focused on expanding awareness of our brand, driving engagement with new senior contacts and supporting major in-flight events and opportunities.?

Be measurable

Clearly your objectives should be measurable to track progress and evaluate success. Research and evaluate all of the tools and systems you already have in place which can help you track changes in your contact database, web traffic, digital engagement and pipeline. What data points can they report on? What can’t they report on? If you can’t measure it then can you do it manually? Can your agency help? If not, then avoid setting specific objectives around them.

Once you’ve established what metrics you can track and what your KPIs will be, you should then tackle how you will report on them. Some organisations will leverage their sales automation system. Some will have a CRM platform that can do this. And some will use data visualisation tools like PowerBI and Tableau. Engage with your internal stakeholders who manage these tools to see if they can help in your efforts.

We are in the process of implementing a new CRM platform so we’ve partnered with our agency to build a custom dashboard based on data points from their MarTech stack combined with pipeline data from our sales automation system as well as others that we’re tracking manually. There is always a way!

Be achievable

While it's essential to aim high, your objectives must also be achievable within the constraints of your resources and capabilities. Your inhouse marketing stakeholders might only have limited time and attention to support you (especially with a pilot). The account teams you’re supporting might be focused on closing the quarter or working on a number of key deals and therefore cannot dedicate a consistent amount of time and effort every week. Your inside sales team might experience busy periods of the year where they’re working on follow-up to major events. In short, assess your resources and set realistic goals that challenge your teams but are attainable with the right strategy and effort.

Be relevant

Your objectives should be relevant to your overall business goals, specifically the objectives of senior leadership and those of sales. If your objectives are too focused on top-of-funnel marketing activities, don’t show clear alignment with sales objectives in account plans, and don’t align to corporate priorities then you may face a lack of engagement or even scrutiny from senior internal stakeholders further down the line. By establishing relevance from the outset, you ensure that every effort in your pilot contributes meaningfully to your business' success.

Be time-bound

Finally, ideally your objectives should be time-bound, with deadlines for achievement. Whilst you might want to avoid over-committing to specific deadlines – especially with a pilot - establishing a timeframe (it could be a month or a quarter) creates a sense of urgency and accountability, driving momentum. Whether it's supporting a relatively short-term priority, such as a key meeting that sales are having with decision-makers, or a long-term strategic initiative, such as securing a client’s commitment to a case study and PR, setting timeframes communicates your ambition and focus.

In the next edition of “Diaries of an ABMer”, I will go into more detail about the demand generation phase of our ABM pilot, specifically how we’ve armed our account teams with the content, data and activation tools needed to generate engagement around our core ABM “plays”.

Before then, I’d love to hear from you on what your experiences have been in establishing goals and KIPs for your ABM programme. What goals have resonated best with internal stakeholders? What tools have you found most effective in tracking and reporting on your KPIs? What challenges have you faced and how have you overcome them? Please share your experiences and insights in the comments below??

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