We’re back with another look at our alumni’s answers to one of our favourite questions: if you could give aspiring ABM-ers one piece of advice, what would it be? This third edition brings together five more voices from the ABM Academy community, practitioners from Universal Robots – Teradyne Robotics, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Kyndryl, NTT DATA, and SAIC, sharing wisdom that’s practical, hard-won, and worth taking into your next ABM plan. Whether you’re new to ABM or well into the work, there’s something here for you.
Our alumni’s advice:
Stop thinking like a marketer and start thinking like a business leader. ABM works when it helps buyers decide and sales close — everything else is secondary.
– Samuel Sánchez Fernández, Head of Marketing and Growth, Universal Robots – Teradyne Robotics.
Three pieces of advice, but short ones. Keep it simple. Get started. And communicate, communicate, communicate — never get tired of repeating yourself. Get something out there, learn from it, adapt, and keep going. Everything else will work itself out.
ABM isn’t about perfection – it’s about progress, partnership and persistence.
– Anna Pfeifhofer, ABM Lead – Global ABM PMO, Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
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!
– Katrin Marquardt, Associate Director, ABM and Field Marketing Manager, Kyndryl.
First, focus on people, not processes. Try to establish cross functional trust. This is your superpower!
Spend time understanding your client’s world. Their pressures, priorities, and what success means to the buying committee before you even think about tactics or campaigns. Then help your internal teams see the client through the same lens. That shared clarity is what turns marketing into client experience and makes teams pull together. When people are aligned, everything else follows. And with this we experience better client conversations, better decisions, and – finally – better pipeline!
– Ulrike Wanner, Head of Account Based Marketing, Global Insurances, NTT DATA.
Be curious. Really curious. Ask questions to ensure you understand the customers your accounts are serving and what they’re trying to achieve. Then turn that same curiosity inward, digging into your company’s capabilities, what makes them unique, and how they can genuinely help. ABM is really just curiosity applied in both directions.
– Tara Pritchett, Executive Director, Customer and Digital Marketing, SAIC.
The companies are different, the journeys are different, but the message is remarkably consistent: great ABM starts with understanding people. Whether that means thinking like a business leader, staying relentlessly curious, or communicating until it sticks, the advice here is less about tactics and more about the mindset that makes them work. If you’re looking to build or deepen your own ABM practice, the ABM Academy is designed to do exactly that.
Find the right course for you at our ABM Academy.
Read the full interviews with our ABM alumni:
- Alumni Spotlight: meet Samuel Sánchez Fernández
- Alumni Spotlight: meet Anna Pfeifhofer
- Alumni Spotlight: meet Katrin Marquardt
- Alumni Spotlight: meet Ulrike Wanner
- Alumni Spotlight: meet Tara Pritchett
Want more ABM advice? Take a look at our previous advice article where we hear from Reena Jagtapat at Henkel, Sloan Newman at NTT DATA, Inc, Vicky Jones at Arup, Selina Moutia at Red Hat, and Kelly Schermerhorn at, Pega. (link)
