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Top Account Based Marketing Examples [ABM Strategy 2025]

Iker Morales
ABM Strategist | LinkedIn ads, Outreach Linkedin, Cold email et Cold call

The ultimate ABM playbook to close high-value enterprise deals — before intent signals even show up.

Before vs after ABM: 1000 cold emails vs targeting top 10 strategic accounts

What You’ll Learn in This Guide

This guide is built to help you launch a real ABM strategy to close your Top 10 strategic enterprise accounts — even if they’re showing zero buying intent — by the end of 2025.

Why focus on the Top 10?

Because your Top 10 = Tier 1 of your enterprise TAM.

This approach easily scales to Tier 2 and Tier 3, but Tier 1 remains your highest priority — so that’s where we’re putting our focus.

Ultimately, you’re looking at a Top 100 TAM to close, but your Top 10 is where the biggest wins are.

Pro Tip: Depending on your team size and sales capacity, aim for 10 top accounts per sales rep.

What Do We Mean by “Enterprise”?

Typically, when we talk about Enterprise, we’re referring to companies with:

  • 250+ employees (usually 500 to 1,000+)
  • Multiple BUs, legal entities, or subsidiaries
  • Long, political, and complex buying cycles
  • Several personas involved (3–10 stakeholders)
  • Structured organizations with IT, Procurement, Security, Compliance, etc.

That said, this guide also applies to any ultra-priority accounts involving multi-persona decision-making — not just classic “enterprises”.

Your Tier 1 targets could also include:

  • Large startups or scale-ups
  • Major agencies or consulting firms
  • Strategic SMBs

In Pronto’s case study (which you’ll see later), their Tier 1 isn’t “classic enterprise” — but the ABM strategy still applies 100%.

ABM Tiers 1 = Top strategic accounts

Let's do it in 5 steps

✅ Deploy a unique outbound strategy

→ You’ll learn how to go beyond basic targeting and build a fully orchestrated, multi-channel, hyper-personalized ABM approach. This isn’t about sending a few cold emails or making calls. This is a strategic sequence that actually converts.

✅ Score accounts before acquisition

→ You’ll discover how to identify your most strategic accounts before any outreach begins, by analyzing:

  • Business potential
  • Intent signals
  • ICP fit

✅ Account mapping

→ You’ll see how to pinpoint and map the decision-making ecosystem inside a company (operators, influencers, and decision-makers), so you can personalize your outreach at every touchpoint.

✅ Sync LinkedIn Ads, LinkedIn outreach, cold email & cold call

→ You’ll build a true multi-channel playbook:

  • Warm up targets with ads
  • Trigger intent through targeted content
  • Engage via LinkedIn
  • Follow up by email
  • Lock meetings through cold calling

All in a coordinated flow — not random hustle.

✅ Align inbound & outbound teams around one shared goal

→ We’ll show you how to align marketing (to warm up the field) and sales (to close deals) so you don’t operate in silos — and instead amplify your collective impact.

What is Account Based Marketing?

Account-Based Marketing (ABM) is a B2B strategy that focuses marketing efforts on specific high-value accounts rather than a broad audience.

In an ABM program, marketing and sales teams work closely to create personalized marketing campaigns and content marketing tailored to each target account.

This approach uses specific marketing tactics and a strategic marketing approach to engage decision-makers. ABM is especially effective for B2B marketers looking to close complex deals, and successful initiatives often include real-world account-based marketing examples.

The Biggest Myths About ABM 

❌ Confusing ABM with basic firmographics

→ Building a list of “strategic accounts”, pulling random leads from those companies, then dumping them into an automated sequence? That’s not ABM.

❌ Thinking a one-shot campaign qualifies as ABM

→ ABM is a long-term strategy, not a one-off campaign. 

❌ Believing ABM = premium content

→ A whitepaper or a personalized landing page is cool. But without deep insights or the right timing, it’s just noise.

❌ Targeting too many accounts 

→ Working 300 accounts and calling it “ABM”? That’s not Account-Based Marketing — it’s broad industry targeting in disguise.

Some of the worst “ABM” ideas we’ve seen out there:

❌ Buying generic lists

Nothing is less “Account-Based” than a cold, generic contact list you bought without knowing why.

→ No qualification. No intent. No precision. It’s blind outreach.

❌ Treating all accounts the same

No tiering = bad strategy.

→ You spread yourself thin, waste your team’s time, and lose all impact.

ABM and the “Lead Experience”

A Clear, Simple Definition

Account-Based Marketing (ABM) is a B2B strategy where you focus on a small number of high-value accounts with ultra-personalized, coordinated sales and marketing actions — all perfectly aligned.

Instead of casting a wide net, you treat each target account as its own market.

Who Should Be Doing ABM?

Here’s who ABM is really made for:

B2B startups whose top ICP includes enterprise-level accounts.

B2B SaaS companies that have nailed their go-to-market and are now looking to land bigger deals and boost brand awareness.

Agencies and consultancies targeting large corporations.

Enterprises selling to other enterprises in B2B environments.

You’re a strong fit for ABM if your sales model includes:

  • High average deal size (€30–50k and above)
  • Complex buying cycles with multiple stakeholders involved
  • Niche markets or highly specific targets
  • Up-sell or cross-sell goals on existing accounts
  • A mission to break into “untouchable” key accounts that cold outreach just can’t crack

ABM Benefits

1️⃣ Better ROI

→ With fewer accounts in your sights, ABM delivers more revenue per dollar spent.

→ Strategic accounts usually come with longer lifetime value — meaning bigger returns over time.

2️⃣ Less energy wasted

→ Stop chasing unqualified leads. Focus on the ones that truly matter.

3️⃣ Higher conversion rates

→ With ultra-personalized messages and offers, your prospects are more likely to engage — more replies, more meetings, more deals closed.

4️⃣ Stronger client relationships

→ The “key account” mindset builds trust, improves how clients perceive you, and opens the door for upsells and cross-sells.

Lead Experience

In ABM, lead experience is all about designing a smooth, personalized, and coordinated journey for every interaction with your target account and its decision-makers.

In plain terms:

👉 It’s not just about “sending a message” or “running an ad” — it’s about crafting a full experience where every single touchpoint (content, email, ads, call, meeting) feels aligned and intentional.

Here’s what that looks like in practice:

  • Every message is consistent and tailored to the account’s stage in the buying journey.
  • Timing matters: no random cold outreach. Instead, you warm up leads with the right content and targeted ads.
  • Interactions are role-specific: decision-makers, operators, and influencers each get messaging that speaks to their unique priorities.
  • The goal is a premium experience: not just generating a lead — but leaving a strong impression that builds a real relationship.

Want a real-life example? Here’s a sequence we built at Pronto for a Marketing Director persona: 

Mindset & Prerequisites

Account-Based Marketing starts with a mindset

One that needs to be shared across marketing, sales, and leadership.

👇 Here are the core principles to embrace:

1️⃣ Think in accounts, not leads

ABM is about thinking company-first, not contact-first.

→ The goal is to understand the global and specific needs of each stakeholder within the company — their strategic priorities, internal dynamics, and what truly drives their decision-making.

2️⃣ Prioritize quality over quantity

Ten hyper-qualified accounts scored and targeted precisely will outperform a generic list of 1,000 unqualified leads.

→ Your time — and your team’s — is limited. Focus on the ones with real value potential.

3️⃣ Align sales and marketing (and even product) teams

ABM fails without alignment.

→ Sales understands the on-the-ground blockers. Marketing crafts the right assets to open doors. Together, they create a coordinated strike.

4️⃣ Think long-term

ABM is not a sprint — it’s a strategy of patience.

→ You're building relationships, navigating complex team structures, tracking buying signals. This isn’t a quick-win play — it’s deep work.

5️⃣ Personalize with insight, not gimmicks

Personalization isn't just using someone’s name or job title in an email.

→ It’s showing that you understand the account: their market, pain points, opportunities. Every interaction should feel like it was made for them.

6️⃣ Design a seamless experience

Don’t treat channels as silos.

→ Ads, content, emails, calls, meetings — they all need to feel like part of the same thoughtful, coordinated journey for each stakeholder.

Pillars of account-based marketing strategy

👇 The Operational Foundations of ABM

ABM isn’t a marketing trick — it’s an organizational capability.

It requires process, resources, and tight coordination.

Here’s what you need before you roll it out:

1️⃣ A CRM or ABM-ready tech stack

→ You need a central hub to:

  • Track accounts, interactions, and buying signals
  • Align sales and marketing efforts
  • Measure progress at the account level, not just contact level

Tools we like: HubSpot, Pipedrive, Folk

2️⃣ A structured tiering and targeting framework

→ No ABM without a clear list of priority accounts, segmented by tiers:

  • Tier 1 → top-scoring VIP accounts, ultra-personalized campaigns — this article focuses entirely on Tier 1.
  • Tier 2 → mid-to-high scoring accounts, non-VIP, handled with semi-automated campaigns.
  • Tier 3 → low-scoring, fully automated.

3️⃣ Dedicated human resources

→ ABM isn’t something you do on the side.

You need:

  • Marketers who can produce tailored content
  • Outbound experts trained to personalize deeply
  • SDRs and AEs for targeted cold calls
  • A strategic lead (like a Head of Growth or GTM lead) to orchestrate the motion

4️⃣ Custom content assets

→ You'll need assets tailored to every stage of the buying journey:

  • Awareness: ads, LinkedIn posts, blogs
  • Consideration: case studies, webinars, benchmarks

5️⃣ Sales/marketing sync processes

→ In real terms, that means:

  • Weekly or biweekly meetings to align pipeline and priorities
  • Clear handoff rules: who does what, and when
  • A shared reporting system with full visibility for both teams

6️⃣ A solid feedback loop

→ You must be able to measure:

✅ Which accounts are progressing

✅ Which touchpoints are landing (or not)

✅ Where to adjust your focus (content, channels, messaging)

Pro Tip: Without analytics and iteration, ABM turns into a black box. Keep the loop tight — and keep improving.

Real-World ABM: The Pronto Case Study

This guide was commissioned by Pronto — so naturally, we’re putting the spotlight on their strategy first.

Objective

Help Pronto target and convert Tier 1 enterprise-level accounts, specifically:

→ Scale-ups with more than 10 SDRs and the ability to invest a minimum annual budget of €40K.

Funnel

Role Assignment Breakdown – Who Targets Whom?

Here’s how Pronto structured its ABM team to strategically cover all personas across Tier 1 accounts:

Pronto Prospector Target Type
Theos Growth & Outbound
Pierre SDR Cold Call
Nicolas Marketing & Ads
Mathieu Sales
Iker ABM Strategist

Sequencing Overview

What are the main steps to Account Based Marketing?

Definition & ICP Scoring

🔤 Back to basics

Your ICP – Ideal Customer Profile – is the blueprint of your dream client. It’s the type of company that will get the most value from your product and generate a strong ROI for your business.

Let’s be clear: we’re talking about companies or segments here, not individual people.

👉 Don’t confuse this with personas. Personas are the individuals inside the company — buyers, users, influencers, decision-makers. We’ll cover them later.

For now, it’s all about defining your ICP: the companies.

🏗 How to Build Your ICP

Not all ICPs are created equal.

Not every company is equally valuable.

Not every target is worth your time.

Too often, we hear, “My market is huge.”

Oh really? How convenient.

Going too broad will either choke your team or waste precious energy chasing accounts that never had a chance.

Think of your market like a giant ham. You can’t eat it all at once. You slice it. Thin. Then you savor it.

GIF using ham slicing metaphor to illustrate building a precise Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

Get it?

Slice your market to build your ICP.

Here's how 👇

1 - Start with your current portfolio

  • Who are your biggest clients (ARR / average basket)?
  • Who’s most satisfied?
  • Who had the shortest/most efficient sales cycles?

2 - Identify patterns using key criteria

  • Firmographic: company size, revenue, industry, digital maturity
  • Technographic: tech stack compatibility
  • Behavioral: buying behavior, intent signals, main pain points
  • Geographic: country, region, language

3 - Then, build a scoring table.

Let's take the Pronto case.

In this scenario, the following factors are key differentiators:

  • Type of company
  • Type of pain point
  • Ability to resell the tool
  • Average basket
ICP Name Industry Core Pain Point Avg ARR
Growth Agencies B2B Marketing / Acq Scaling outbound without increasing headcount €20–50k
Scale-Ups B2B SaaS Lack of structured outbound strategy €50–150k
B2B Industrial SMBs Manufacturing No outbound process, relying on word-of-mouth €30–80k

Add a scoring system to your criteria:

For example, here’s how we set up the scoring system:

Pain Level Referral Potential Growth Tool Culture Avg Ticket Size
Very High = 50 High = 50 Strong = 50 Min €50k = 50
High = 30 Medium = 30 Good = 30 Min €30k = 30
Medium = 10 Low = 10 Average = 10 Min €20k = 10
Low = 5 Very Low = 5 Weak = 5 < €20k = 5

You can score based on:

  • References in industry
  • Estimated sales cycle
  • Average ticket size

Use what matters most for your business.

For Pronto, here are the most relevant factors:

  • The relevance of the pain point
  • The referral and distribution potential of the product
  • The company’s culture around using growth tools
The goal of the scoring system is to create clear gaps to easily spot the top contenders.

❌ Don’t go with a smooth or proportional scale.

✅ Use bold differences between the highest and lowest scores to make your champions stand out.

Scoring Pronto

ICP Name Pain Referral Culture Ticket Total
Growth Agencies 50 50 50 10 160
Scale-Ups 30 5 50 50 135
SMBs 30 5 5 30 70

Conclusion: Pronto focuses on Growth Agencies.

Structuring Your Tiering

You’ve now defined and scored your ICPs.

Time to take prioritization one step further.

ABM tiering is all about ranking your target accounts by priority and value.

Why? So you can tailor how much time, energy, and personalization you dedicate to each one.

Pronto's Tiering example

Tier Target Description
Tier 1 Top-priority Growth Agencies
Tier 2 Secondary Growth Agencies
Tier 3 Scale-ups, freelance growth experts, B2B SMEs

🏗 How to Build Tiers That Make Sense

Don’t throw everyone into Tier 1.

Tier 1 should include your ultra-priority, strategic accounts — and that means more effort.

Say Pronto identifies 100 “Growth Agencies” as potential fits. The goal isn’t to target all of them at once. You need a clear differentiator to narrow it down to your top 10.

Alternatively:

→ Select 10 at random, launch your campaign, then review performance after 3–6 months to keep or replace them.

Some accounts can be placed on standby in Tier 2 while you focus on your top 10.

Your total tiering structure — Tiers 1, 2, and 3 combined — should represent 3% to 10% of your overall TAM.

Still unsure how to narrow things down or choose the right differentiators?

1️⃣ Look at potential value:

Think ARR potential, upsell/cross-sell capacity, strategic logo value, location relevance, partnership/referral leverage…

2️⃣ Tap into your unfair advantages:

Does your team already have warm intros to key personas? Any existing connections you can activate? That’s gold.

3️⃣ Resource check:

If you're considering expanding beyond 3% of your TAM, be honest about available time, budget, and team capacity.

Focus on Tier 1 Audience

The goal here? To define your “Top 10” Tier 1 accounts with precision.

🛠 Tools you’ll need: Sales Navigator + Pronto

In most cases, the most strategic accounts — the ones you absolutely want to land — won’t be showing buying signals yet. And chances are, they’re already using a competitor’s solution.

In Pronto’s case, we know these targets are Growth Agencies.

So, what’s the best way to find more of them? Use a Lookalike strategy.

Pronto already works with similar clients like EraB2B.

Here's a 2-step strategy to build your lookalike list:

1️⃣ Build your Lookalike list directly in Pronto, then save it

  • Log into Pronto
  • Head to the Companies section
  • Use the “Lookalikes” feature under “Find Companies” to enter the name of an ideal client you’d like to replicate
  • Once Pronto generates the list, you can click “Save to LinkedIn” to fine-tune the result
Pro Tip: No reference client to mimic? Unlikely. But if that’s the case, start directly from Sales Navigator with manual account search.

2️⃣ Narrow down your Top 10 using Sales Navigator

As covered in the “Structuring Your Tiering” section, the end goal here is to finalize your Top 10 list.

If you include too many accounts, you won’t be able to deploy the resources needed to do true Tier 1-level outreach.

So stay strict and focus on the Top 10 (Of course, if you’ve got 10+ SDRs and the firepower to scale up, go bigger).

To filter the list down, we used this Boolean search: (outbound OR prospection) AND (agency OR agence) and we expanded targeting to all of Europe.

Here are some other smart filters you can use:

  • Companies actively hiring
  • Companies showing headcount growth
  • Companies that recently raised a round
  • Companies with strong social following 

Mapping Your Accounts

Once your Top 10 list is locked in, it’s time to dig inside those companies and identify 3 key personas per account.

🎯 At minimum, you need:

  • 1 Decision-Maker
  • 1 Influencer
  • 1 Operator

Why segment by persona?

Because in any complex B2B sale (especially with Tier 1 accounts), multiple stakeholders are involved — and each has different roles, motivations, and objections.

Role What they do
🎯 Decision-maker Gives the final yes/owns budget
🔍 Influencer Shapes the decision internally
🛠️ Operator Uses the product day-to-day

Each requires different messaging, touchpoints, and content formats.

How to identify personas in your target accounts?

1️⃣ Look at your current sales cycle

  • Who signed the contract?
  • Who joined the demo calls?
  • Who asked the strategic questions?
  • Check your CRM, call recordings, and email threads.

2️⃣ Map the org chart

LinkedIn + Company websites + Sales Navigator =  Scan for job titles and department structure.

Example in a B2B revenue team:

  • CRO / VP Sales = 🎯 Decision-maker
  • Head of Sales Ops = 🔎 Influencer
  • SDR Manager = 🔧 Operator

3️⃣ Deduce based on buying role

Ask yourself these 3 questions per lead:

Question (If the answer is YES)
Persona Type
Will they use the product day-to-day? 🛠️ Operator
Are they involved in evaluating the solution? 🔍 Influencer
Do they control the budget or final say? 🎯 Decision-maker

Concrete example

LinkedIn Title Persona Type Primary Objective
VP Sales / CRO 🎯 Decision-maker ROI, vision, business impact
Head of Sales Ops 🔍 Influencer Integration, team efficiency, KPIs
SDR Manager / Lead 🛠️ Operator Ease of use, adoption, workflow fit

Pronto’s Tier 1 Mapping – Growth Agencies

LinkedIn Title Persona Type Primary Objective
🛠️ Operator Ease of use, adoption, workflow fit
🔍 Influencer Integration, team efficiency, KPIs
🎯 Decision-maker ROI, vision, business impact

In Pronto's case: 

Job title Type de persona
SDR - Sales - Growth 🛠️ Operator
CMO 🔍 Influencer
Founder 🎯 Decision-maker

⚠️ Each case is unique

For Pronto, the personas could’ve also been mapped like this:

Job title Type de persona
SDR - Sales 🛠️ Operator
VP of Sales 🔍 Influencer
CMO 🎯 Decision-maker

🎯 Decision-maker

The key is understanding how decisions are actually made within your target companies.

Example for Growth Agencies:

The Growth Lead uses Pronto = 🔧 Operator

The CMO tracks the results = 🔎 Influencer

The Founder owns the budget = 🎯 Decision-maker

Or in another setup:

SDR self-uses Pronto = 🔧 Operator

VP Sales notices better performance = 🔎 Influencer

CMO signs the check= 🎯 Decision-maker

This diversity is exactly why you shouldn’t generalize personas across your Tier 1 list. Instead, go specific: find the right people, one company at a time.

You can use LinkedIn’s Relationship Mapping feature to visually track gaps and spot opportunities inside your target accounts.

Here’s our full article on Sales Navigator mapping.

This tool helps you:

  • Identify missing roles and account opportunities
  • Track which persona types are covered
  • Plan how to influence each decision-maker

4️⃣ Scrape your mapped leads with Pronto

Once you’ve identified the right contacts:

  • Add them to a prospect list
  • Use Pronto to scrape and export all their info
  • Enrich your lead list in Pronto with missing data (job title, email, LinkedIn profile, etc.)

Definition & content creation

How to generate content ideas that actually land

✅ Start by analyzing the pain points and goals of your ICPs.

Ask yourself: What problem are they dying to solve?

No data? No problem. Use ChatGPT’s Deep Research feature.

Once you’ve collected insights, prompt ChatGPT to brainstorm content ideas based on that research.

That said, if you really understand your ICPs and personas, you already know their top pain points.

✅ Identify real signals of interest

Not buying signals — content signals. Yours, as well as of your competitors who operate in the exact same space.

→ What content are they reacting to?

→ What’s getting shared, liked, commented on?

✅ Interview your sales team

→ What objections/questions pop up repeatedly?

→ What content helped close the deal?

✅ Run competitive and thematic market watch

→ Where are your competitors dropping the ball?

→ What pain points are under-covered?

That’s exactly what we did for this guide.

There’s a surprising lack of high-quality, practical content about real ABM strategy.

Content types that resonate

✅ Sector-specific case studies

✅ Real before/after business cases

✅ Simple, clean infographics

✅ Personalized video demos

✅ Best practices checklists

✅ Private webinars for key accounts

✅ LinkedIn mini-series or exclusive newsletters for Tier 1

✅ Pro tips & best practices

✅ Video tutorials

✅ Actionable how-to guides

✅ Templates

⚠️🔥 Tips

Creating high-quality content takes time.

If your GTM / Outbound / Marketing & Sales team isn’t sure where to start, test with LinkedIn Ads before you build out the full content:

  • Launch conversion-focused ads for 2–3 content ideas
  • Double down on the ones that convert
  • Reach out to leads who engaged with the less-performant content and redirect them with stronger offers

How to Tailor Content for Different Personas

Persona Type Key Objective Content That Works
🛠️ Operator Usability, productivity, real-world utility Tips, "how-to" guides, video tutorials, templates
🔍 Influencer Process, efficiency, innovation Webinars, benchmarks, industry studies, process checklist
🎯 Decision-maker ROI, business case, strategic impact Business cases, ROI calculators, personalized demo, CEO letters

ABM Power Tip: Don’t just personalize the content — personalize the form too.
  • Add your target company’s logo to a PDF
  • Create a mini-landing page with their name
  • Record a short video addressed to a real person at the company

That extra effort = “wow” effect

It breaks the noise and shows you’re not sending a template blast.

Pronto Content Examples

LinkedIn post turned into a LinkedIn ads #Conversion

Here the goal is to target Tier 1 Growth Agencies:

  • Launch a lead magnet featuring top outbound agencies
  • Post on LinkedIn, then boost to Tier 1 targets
  • Since Tier 1 audiences are small, expand to Tier 2 for volume
  • Watch which companies mention themselves or engage

We’ll dive deeper into the Tier 2 strategy in the next guide.

Goals of this campaign:

  • Gain visibility with Tier 1
  • Spot warm companies through identification
  • Capture new opportunities

Boosted Post Example → used as ad conversion content

(e.g., when a company like LeadIn self-identifies in the comments)

Other examples also used as cold email content assets.

Specific content for “Growth Operators”

For Tier 1 or Tier 2 Growth Agencies

Content for Tier 1 Decision-makers (typically Growth Agencies co-founders)

Content for Tier 1 Influencers (typically sales managers)

How to implement a top Account-Based Marketing strategy? [Campaign Example]

Prerequisites 

To launch a powerful ABM strategy, you’ll need the right tools.

Here’s the go-to stack we recommend:

Tool Type Tools & Examples What It's For
Audience Builder LinkedIn Sales Navigator Build account lists, map roles, define personas
Scraper & Enrichment Pronto Export, qualify, and enrich leads
Signal Generator & Audience Warm-Up LinkedIn Ads, LinkedIn Get noticed before outreach begins
Sales Automation Lemlist, La Growth Machine (LGM) Automate outreach workflows
CRM HubSpot, Pipedrive, Folk, Attio Track account engagement

Ground Rules for Tier 1 Outreach

Let’s bust some myths before you build your playbook.

Don’t fall for these Tier 1 clichés:

❌ “Tier 1 must be 100% manual”

❌ “Tier 1 = Only C-suite or decision-makers”

❌ “Tier 1 should be handled only by founders or senior executives”

Instead, here’s the Tier 1 approach we use at Pronto:

✅ Combine automation with coordination.

✅ Target multiple personas: operators, influencers, decision-makers.

✅ Use specialized prospectors per persona. You can even include virtual prospectors.

📊 Quantitative Goals for 1 Tier 1 Account (over 12 weeks)

Execution Goals 

Hit at least 20–25 touchpoints per account:

  • LinkedIn Ads for brand awareness
  • LinkedIn Ads for conversion
  • LinkedIn outreach
  • Cold emails
  • Cold calls

Engage 3–5 key people inside the account:

  • 1–2 operational profiles
  • 1–2 influencers
  • 1 decision-maker

Performance Goals

🤝 4 qualified meetings:

  • 1 with an operator
  • 1 with an influencer
  • 1 cross-functional

🎯 1 LinkedIn ad-based conversion per account

📩 ≥ 40–50% response rate across the account (e.g. 2 replies from 5 contacted personas)

👨‍🔬 Qualitative Goals

Build trust and expertise perception

→ Become a strategic partner, not just another seller.

Gather insights on internal processes

→ Learn their pain points, internal blockers, and how they buy — even if you don’t close.

Improve brand perception

→ Be top-of-mind when the timing is right.

🦸 Team Roles in ABM

In a classic B2B scale-up setup:

Role Target Persona Primary Objective
AE / Sales 🎯 Decision-makers Close deals, champion ROI
Senior SDR 🔍 Influencers Qualify leads, open doors
Junior SDR / Virtual SDR 🛠️ Operators Identify pain points, warm the ground
Marketing Create and deliver content
ABM Manager / GTM Lead / Head of Growth Drive strategy and alignment

In Pronto’s Case:

Prospector Target Persona Type
Theos | Growth & Outbound 🛠️ Operators
Pierre | SDR, Cold Calling 🎯 🔍 🛠️ All personas
Nicolas | Marketing & Ads 🎯 Decision-makers
Mathieu | Sales 🔍 Influencers
Iker | ABM Strategy

Campaign Setup

Sequencing Your Outreach

The key here is to contact everyone, but not the same way or at the same time.

That’s a rookie mistake. One of the most common missteps? Targeting decision-makers first.

Sounds logical, but in strategic ABM, it’s often smarter to work bottom-up.

Start by getting on the radar of operators — give them time to explore and test your product firsthand. Once they’re engaged, move up the ladder to the influencers, then finally go for the green light from the decision-maker.

That said, avoid running cascading sprints.

Instead, here’s a proven sequencing playbook that actually works.

Pro Tip: If one persona replies, don’t stop the campaign for the others. The goal is to eventually bring everyone to the table for a joint meeting.

LinkedIn Ads in ABM

In an ABM strategy, LinkedIn Ads have two clear jobs:

Objective ABM Goal
Awareness Get noticed by the account
Conversion Generate strong signals (lead magnet, forms)

🧰 Best LinkedIn Ad Formats for ABM

Format ABM Strength Best Used For
Boosted Post Dead simple to deploy Awareness
Single Image Ad Fast, targeted, and scalable Brand awareness & recognition
Carousel Ad Great for storytelling Business cases, framework
Video Ad Emotionally engaging, high differentiation potential Short demo, teaser, storytelling
Conversation Ad Simulates conversations, includes CTA Audits, mini-quizzes, conversion
Lead Gen Form Form built into LinkedIn to collect data Quick conversion
Document Ad
(new)
Lets users download a PDF in-feed Guides, checklists, mini reports

A/B test examples in LK content + LK ads

Here’s the result after just one day of pushing an influencer post targeted at GTM teams and growth agencies.

👉 Post by Imad: View on LinkedIn

Linkedin outreach & cold email

In Pronto’s Tier 1 strategy, every written interaction is 100% manual.

But if your Tier 1 includes more than 10 accounts, scaling becomes essential. That’s where automated sequences come into play.

Here’s what a smart automation flow might look like 👇

Cold Calling

In Pronto’s case, Pierre-Jean and Mathieu cold-call in tandem for double motivation and real-time optimization.

Here’s a snapshot of Mathieu in action, taken by Pierre mid-session.

ABM Strategy Recap: How to Close Your Top 10 Accounts

In 2025, closing a strategic account is no longer about luck or a one-off clever sequence.

This guide walked you through the shift from random outbound efforts to a disciplined, orchestrated ABM strategy — backed by data, action, and intent.

Here’s what you’ve now mastered:

✅ How to identify, score, and tier your ICPs

✅ How to map out the right personas in each account — operators, influencers, and decision-makers

✅ How to sync traditionally siloed channels: LinkedIn Ads, cold email, cold call, and content

✅ How to align marketing and sales around the same high-value accounts

✅ How to deliver a cohesive, sequenced, personalized experience

✅ And above all: how to close Tier 1 accounts without waiting for buying signals — driving long-term ROI

🎯 Final Word

ABM isn’t a tactic. It’s a discipline.

It requires structure, tight collaboration, and a mindset shift: from chasing volume to focusing on value.

You’re not going after 1,000 random leads anymore.

You’re building meaningful bridges to 10 accounts that could change your entire year.

Whether you're a hungry startup, a scaling agency, or a fast-growing SaaS:

your Top 10 isn’t going to come to you. You’ve got to go after them.

🎁 Want to apply this exact method to your own Tier 1 — or challenge your current strategy? Shoot me a message. I’ll reply personally. — Iker

🚀 What’s Next?

The Tier 2 ABM Guide is dropping soon.

Interested?

Meme teasing Tier 2 Account-Based Marketing after mastering Tier 1 lead targeting strategy

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