Introducing our ABM Academy alumni spotlight series
Every two weeks, we’ll be celebrating the exceptional ABM practitioners who are part of our ABM Academy alumni network. These are the people pushing boundaries, challenging conventions, and driving real results with account-based marketing.
For our inaugural spotlight, we’re thrilled to feature someone whose ABM journey is as unconventional as it is inspiring.
Meet Avishek Chakrobarty
Avishek is head of global ABM centre of excellence at Kyndryl, the world’s largest IT infrastructure services provider. His path into ABM wasn’t planned – he stumbled into it completely by accident in 2018 whilst transitioning from enterprise sales to marketing. Today, ABM is the only marketing philosophy he knows, and he’s built an entire centre of excellence around it at a Fortune 100 company.
From taking risks at SaaS start-ups to leveraging AI for ABM efficiency gains, Avishek’s career reflects both the opportunities and challenges of building sophisticated ABM programmes. We sat down with him to explore his journey, his boldest moves, and what he’s learnt along the way.
The interview
You’re at a dinner party and someone asks what you do – how do you explain ABM?
I basically stalk companies – professionally. I figure out what they care about, then make sure our marketing speaks directly to their soul. It’s like matchmaking, but for enterprise deals.
How did you get into ABM? Was it intentional or by accident?
It was pure accident. I had prior to 2018 been in pure-play enterprise sales (hunting and farming roles) and I got an opportunity to interview for a marketing role at Infosys, where I had asked “being a non-techie, what is expected from me in this role?” And the answer was that they were building ABM focused marketing team, and my sales experience would be helpful to drive sales alignment and connections. That was my first exposure to marketing and ABM. In fact, ABM is the only marketing philosophy I know.
What’s the biggest risk you’ve taken in your ABM career, and did it pay off?
After learning the ropes in Strategic ABM, I decided to take up a role which focussed on building a growth ABM function from scratch in a small SaaS start-up. In terms of success, I would say partly, because I did have success in running pure-play ABM campaigns that contributed to ~40% of ARR from marketing, but also a failure because I could not break the misconceptions of founders around ABM and get them to invest the time, money and focus needed to do it the right/sustainable way.
What was your ‘lightbulb moment’ during the Academy course?
The “lightbulb moment” for me was understanding the detailed and structured 5 step process of ABM and then extrapolating on how efficiency and speed could be achieved across many of these steps by leveraging AI tools. Practical deployments of this idea have shown significant benefits in reducing time to launch, man-days saved and scale of output.
What’s in your ABM toolkit that you couldn’t live without – and what’s the most overrated thing everyone raves about?
Currently, for me Co-pilot is the one tool in our ABM tech-stack that I cannot live without, call me an AI Junkie if you will! A potentially controversial statement I guess, but “intent data” as majority know it, to me would be the most overrated thing marketers rave about. Just a bunch of intent signals with no layering, scoring or programmatic outcomes is not worth the hype.
Fast-forward five years – what does success look like for you?
To have been able to build a GTM function that runs on ABM principles as its core philosophy with hunters, farmers and field marketers working in tandem to drive revenue, relationships, and reputation.
If you could give aspiring ABM-ers one piece of advice, what would it be?
Keep things simple, focus on first principles. At its core ABM is about building and nurturing relationships. Cut out the noise and jargons and do what it takes to build relationships and reputation with your audience; revenue is bound to follow.
The takeaway
Avishek’s journey reminds us that ABM success isn’t about having all the answers from day one – it’s about staying focussed on what matters most: building genuine relationships with your target accounts. Whether you’re just starting out or leading a centre of excellence, his advice rings true: cut through the noise, focus on the fundamentals, and let the results speak for themselves.
Want to start your own ABM journey? Our next ABM Academy cohort is now enrolling. Discover our upcoming courses here.
Keep your eyes peeled for our next alumni spotlight in two weeks, where we’ll be featuring another exceptional ABM practitioner from our community.
