How Inflexion Group helped Arup’s marketing team diagnose, redesign and embed an account-based marketing programme to support its global key account strategy — moving from good intentions to practical, outcome-focused action with Scenario ABM.
The inflexion point
Arup is one of the world’s most respected independent engineering, architecture and consulting firms, known for its deep expertise across disciplines from transport and energy to environment and buildings. In recent years, the firm has made a significant investment in key account management globally; a firm-wide commitment to driving sustainable, long-term growth with its most strategically important clients.
Account-based marketing (ABM) is the natural marketing approach to support that ambition, and Arup had already invested in training marketers in how to design and deliver ABM plans. But embedding ABM at scale was proving harder than expected. The complexity of the firm – with teams aligned across portfolio service areas, markets and four global regions (APAC, Americas, Europe and UKIMEA) – meant that a globally integrated programme was difficult to activate. Many ABM-trained marketers were stretched across other responsibilities and did not have the dedicated capacity, clarity or confidence to deliver consistently.
At the same time, the UKIMEA marketing team was working to integrate its existing ABM programme into a newly structured function, and there was a clear need to evolve ABM’s role in support of the global key account management programme. Arup needed an external, objective perspective: an honest assessment of what was working, what was not, and a practical path forward.
Our engagement
Arup invited Inflexion Group to work alongside them across two connected phases of activity, led by Vicky Jones, UKIMEA Head of Clients.
Phase one: ABM diagnostic
The first phase was a short, sharp diagnostic to understand Arup’s growth strategy and current approach to ABM. Working with a cross-regional group of stakeholders, we reviewed internal documentation and conducted discovery interviews, speaking with the key account management programme lead, key account managers, marketing leaders across the four Arup regions, and UKIMEA marketers with hands-on ABM experience.
Drawing on our framework for ABM programme success – which spans objectives and governance, strategy and account coverage, activation processes, infrastructure, and talent and funding – we benchmarked Arup’s approach against best practices from other leading professional services firms. The output was a consolidated diagnostic report setting out the relative strengths and areas for development in the current programme, together with clear recommendations for improvement.
We then prepared and facilitated an enablement planning workshop, bringing together key stakeholders to explore the diagnostic findings and agree on priorities. The workshop addressed:
- The case for change: the vision, business goals and benefits sought from an evolved ABM programme.
- Priority areas for development, including objectives, deliverables, timescales and ownership for each.
- Budget, resources, governance and operating model needed to embed change effectively.
- Stakeholder engagement requirements across the firm’s four regions.
The workshop outputs were captured in a full ABM programme enablement plan.
Phase two: Enabling Scenario ABM
With the diagnostic complete, the same Inflexion Group team continued to work with Arup into a second, more hands-on phase. Building directly on the diagnostic findings, the second phase of our work introduced a new approach: Scenario ABM. Rather than designing bespoke ABM plans account by account, Scenario ABM enables marketers to deliver support based on the specific business outcome a client relationship manager is trying to achieve, using pre-tested sequences of activities, making the approach faster to activate and more directly connected to business priorities.
In an initial design workshop, we worked collaboratively with Arup’s team to identify and prioritise five outcome-based scenarios to focus on in the second half of FY26. In a second workshop, we worked with the team to design each scenario, creating a complete overview of Arup’s Scenario ABM approach that could be shared across the firm. Each ABM scenario sets out the steps involved and the success metrics marketers can use to track progress.
“Inflexion Group helped us see our ABM programme clearly and honestly — not just what we’d achieved, but where the real opportunities were to make it work harder for the business. The diagnostic gave us the foundation we needed, and the scenario approach has made ABM much more relatable to the business and has helped relationship teams clearly understand how ABM can support and drive their own account ambition.”
– Vicky Jones, UKIMEA Head of Clients, Arup
Key outcomes
Working with Inflexion Group across both phases of the engagement, Arup’s marketing team has made meaningful progress in transforming ABM from a well-intentioned capability into a practical, business-outcome-focused programme.
The key results of the engagement include:
- An evidence-based picture of the current ABM programme’s strengths and priority areas for development, benchmarked against best practices in professional services.
- A practical ABM enablement plan, agreed and owned by a cross-regional stakeholder group, setting out the steps needed to embed ABM effectively across all four of Arup’s global regions.
- Successful integration of the UKIMEA ABM programme into the regional marketing team, with greater clarity of roles, processes and priorities.
- Scenario ABM as a new approach that connects marketing support directly to the business outcomes client relationship managers care about most, making it easier, faster and more relevant for marketers to deliver.
- Five prioritised scenario designs, complete with marketing sequences and success metrics, providing a consistent framework that can scale across the firm.
“We now have a shared language and a practical approach for ABM across the firm. The Scenario ABM approach has given our marketers the confidence to start conversations with client relationship managers and have a genuinely useful offer, grounded in the specific situation the account is in. The clearer focus and tighter timescales have been a real benefit too — our marketers are noticeably more agile and pacey in how they deliver.”
– Vicky Jones, UKIMEA Head of Clients, Arup
Read our previous client impact stories to find out how we have helped other global organisations with ABM.
