What does it take to move marketing from the sidelines to the boardroom? For Katrin Marquardt, the answer lies in curiosity, courage, and a relentless focus on the customer. As Associate Director for Account-Based Marketing and Field Marketing Kyndryl, Katrin leads ABM strategy for major financial services clients in Germany – designing programmes that go far beyond campaigns to shape relationships, revenue, and reputation.
With more than a decade of marketing leadership experience across Kyndryl and IBM, spanning cloud, AI-enabled solutions, supply chain technologies, and customer engagement platforms, Katrin brings a rare combination of strategic rigour and human-centred thinking to her work. She is known for her empathetic leadership style, her ability to bridge marketing with broader business priorities, and her conviction that the best ABM happens when you truly understand your accounts from the inside out.
A graduate of the ABM Academy, Katrin sat down with us to share how she got into ABM intentionally, the daring initiative that set a new benchmark for customer engagement, and why fancy dashboards are the most overrated tool in B2B marketing.
The interview
You’re at a dinner party and someone asks what you do – how do you explain ABM?
I help our most important financial services and insurance customers solve their biggest challenges by bringing together the right expertise, insights, and innovations from across Kyndryl. ABM is about deeply understanding an account and orchestrating a tailored, strategic engagement that opens new conversations, accelerates value, and strengthens long-term partnership. An ABM-er is part strategist, part orchestrator, part provocateur.
How did you get into ABM? Was it intentional or by accident?
My path into ABM was intentional. I chose ABM because I wanted to influence revenue, relationships, and reputation – not just run campaigns. ABM is where marketing has a seat at the table, works very closely with sales in the field and can directly shape business outcomes. For me it is the best job in marketing because it has all the things that energize me.
What’s the biggest risk you’ve taken in your ABM career, and did it pay off?
One of my most daring initiatives was proposing and executing the “Future in Tech” roundtable for female leaders of a global insurer – this was an entirely new kind of customer engagement for the account. The project was highly visible and included board-level involvement. The enthusiasm and engagement from both teams made all the challenges worthwhile. This effort required collaboration across different functions, joint narrative development with the client, and a willingness to try something untested. After the roundtable, we launched a mentoring program for top female talents between the two companies. Ultimately, this experience deepened our relationship and established a blueprint for future high value engagements.
What was your ‘lightbulb moment’ during the Academy course?
Realizing that ABM isn’t a “marketing initiative” – it’s an organizational strategy. Seeing how deeply sales, delivery, executives, and partners shape success was a turning point. You can’t run ABM from the sidelines. You have to build trust through insights and then you earn the seat at the table. And focus and work with account teams who also want to work with you. Don’t waste your time.
What’s in your ABM toolkit that you couldn’t live without – and what’s the most overrated thing everyone raves about?
For me the synthesis of insight is essential – transforming intricate customer, market, and internal data into a coherent, actionable strategy that serves as the foundation for meaningful human interactions, such as interviews, co-creation workshops, and focused discussion groups. These activities foster valuable conversations that drive remarkable customer experiences and lasting trust.
Most overrated: fancy dashboards. Useful, yes – but without context, stakeholder alignment, and a story behind the numbers, they’re just decoration.
Fast-forward five years – what does success look like for you?
Success means being recognized as a strategic partner to top accounts and helping shape Kyndryl’s broader growth strategy. I’d like to lead an expanded ABM function that drives meaningful, measurable impact across Germany and beyond. Leading teams. Shaping flagship customer relationships. And being known for breaking new ground – not following trends.
If you could give aspiring ABM-ers one piece of advice, what would it be?
Be endlessly curious about your customer. The best ABM work happens when you connect dots others haven’t seen yet. Speak up, be bold, push ideas forward, and own your seat at the table!
Final thoughts
Katrin’s journey is a compelling reminder that ABM, done well, is so much more than a marketing discipline – it is an organisational mindset. From pioneering the “Future in Tech” roundtable that sparked a cross-company mentoring programme, to her conviction that insight synthesis is the true engine of meaningful customer experience, Katrin exemplifies what it means to be a strategic partner to an account.
Her advice to aspiring ABM practitioners is straightforward: be endlessly curious, connect the dots others haven’t seen yet, and own your seat at the table. Looking ahead, Katrin has her sights set on leading an expanded ABM function that drives measurable impact across Germany and beyond – shaping flagship customer relationships and, true to form, breaking new ground rather than following trends.
We are proud to celebrate Katrin as part of the ABM Academy alumni network, and we look forward to seeing what she pioneers next.
And if you want to hear more, Katrin will be speaking about Pursuit Marketing at the European ABM Conference in Amsterdam on the 26th of March.
Ready to start your own ABM journey? Explore our ABM Academy courses and find the programme that’s right for you.
Read our previous Alumni Spotlight where we chatted with Anna Pfeifhofer who is an ABM Lead, within the Global ABM PMO at Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
