There have been many ABM frameworks and processes shared over the 23 years since this powerful B2B marketing approach was conceived. At Inflexion Group, our experienced team has developed and tested a simple five-step approach, which applies the end-to-end marketing management process into a single account or group of accounts, helping ABM-ers everywhere to deliver measurable results.
Detailed in Bev Burgess‘ latest book, ‘Account-Based Marketing: The Definitive Handbook for B2B Marketers’, published by Kogan page, this framework guides you through the critical phases of building and executing your ABM plan, from initial discovery to sustained activation.
Step 1: Ambition
Every successful ABM plan begins with clarity. The Ambition phase establishes the foundation for your strategy through discovery interviews with account directors, confirming both the account’s potential and your organisation’s goals for the relationship over the longer term.
This initial step ensures alignment between sales and marketing, plus executive sponsors and delivery leaders where they’re involved. By understanding what success looks like from the outset, you create a shared vision that guides all subsequent planning and execution.
Step 2: Insight
Understanding an account as a market is fundamental to ABM success. The Insight phase transforms available data into actionable intelligence.
Through a combination of internal and external information plus primary research interviews with both your account team and the client, you develop a comprehensive understanding of the account’s structure, context, challenges, and opportunities. This deep insight reveals where your organisation can create the most value and identifies the growth opportunities that will shape your strategy.
Step 3: Focus
With insight comes the ability to make strategic choices. The Focus phase determines who you will target within the account, which propositions will resonate, and how you will competitively position your organisation.
Developed through collaborative workshops with your account team, this phase creates clarity around priorities. Not every stakeholder or audience group is equally important, not every offering is relevant, and not every positioning angle will land. Focus ensures your resources are directed where they’ll have the greatest impact.
Step 4: Plan
Strategy without execution is merely aspiration. The Plan phase translates insight and focus into concrete action.
Through campaign planning workshops, you develop objectives and create detailed plans for positioning your brand within the account and engaging buyers and influencers throughout their journey. These plans centre around your priority propositions, with content and touchpoints designed to move stakeholders towards decisions. Critically, this phase includes aligning your internal teams, so everyone understands their role in the programme’s success.
Step 5: Activation
The final phase brings your ABM programme to life. Activation is about managing resources and budgets to execute your marketing plan whilst maintaining the agility to adapt activities based on results.
Through a clear execution plan and performance dashboard, you monitor impact and adjust your approach in response to what you learn as each activity lands. Effective activation is about sales, marketing, and executive engagement teams staying adaptable and focused on outcomes.
Building on solid foundations
This proven five-step process reflects the reality that ABM is both strategic and iterative. Each phase builds on the previous one, creating a plan grounded in insight, focused on what matters, and designed for measurable impact.
Whether you’re launching your first ABM programme or refining an existing approach, these five steps give you a proven structure for success. We’ve used them to help organisations across sectors and around the world build ABM programmes that create lasting value.
Want to dive deeper into this five-step process? Our Advanced ABM Practitioner course, starting March 12, is led by ABM Academy Director Louise Jefferson and Senior Consultant Catherine Ahern, and brings the process to life as you work through it to build your ABM plan.
Ready to explore how this framework could work for your organisation? Learn more about our ABM consulting services or connect with our team to discuss your specific challenges.
