The ABM Journey Years 1 through 5

“It was less expensive than a bus”

In the latest episode of the Healthtech Marketing Show, I interview Erik Johnson, Harmony HIT’s VP of Marketing, a client of Health Launchpad, and longtime friend of the podcast, Kelly McDermott, Caregility’s Chief Marketing Officer.

The topic of our conversation was the Account-based Marketing (ABM) journey, specifically what the first few years of adopting ABM look like and how your marketing organization will operate after four years of executing ABM.

Erik and his team began executing an ABM pilot in 2024 with the help of Health Launchpad and are scaling its use in 2025. Kelly started her ABM journey in 2020 and has been using Demandbase from the get-go.

Listen to Their Stories

In this episode, Erik and Kelly share their stories. In Erik’s case, this was a second attempt at helping a company get started with ABM. In Kelly’s case, ABM was an alternative to buying a bus. You will have to listen to the episode to hear more about it.

Early Implementation Challenges (Year 1-2)

We have run two surveys on ABM with healthcare technology marketing executives that are part of the Healthtech Marketing Network. In 2024 approximately 40% of health tech marketers surveyed had not started ABM but were actively considering it.  When we conducted this research this March, the number had not changed. 40% of healthcare technology marketing executives are still considering but have not got started.

Why Do Healthtech Marketers Hesitate To Get Started With ABM

Erik’s story is most likely similar to what others are facing. In the podcast, he shared how his organization faced several foundational challenges that were significant barriers to getting started:

1. Tech Stack Limitations: Harmony Healthcare IT legacy systems (Sugar CRM and Act-On) that weren’t naturally designed for ABM, creating integration challenges with modern ABM tools.
2. Manual Processes: Without sophisticated automation, early ABM requires significant manual work to track account engagement, compile reports, and determine next actions.
3. Attribution Difficulties: How will you justify the investment? In Erik’s case, with the early-stage programs, it was hard to connect specific ABM tactics to pipeline outcomes, making ROI measurement challenging.
4. Resource Constraints: Starting with limited budget and expertise, companies often need to get creative, either by “renting” capabilities through partnerships or using smaller, specialized tools rather than enterprise platforms. Health Launchpad provided that solution.
5. Sales Alignment Challenges: Getting sales teams on board can be a major obstacle. They will need to understand the ABM approach and learn how to respond to new engagement signals rather than rushing to contact accounts that aren’t ready.
6. Learning Curve: Determining which tactics work for your specific audience requires experimentation. For example, Erik found that content syndication and LinkedIn lead forms weren’t effective, while video content performed exceptionally well.

Later Stage Challenges

You have ABM up and running.

Your executive and sales teams are believers.

“Life is easy breezy”.

Not so much.

As Kelly McDermott from Caregility described in the podcast, you will face a new set of challenges that are typical of a mature ABM program:

1. ABM Resource: You will likely have to hire a dedicated resource to manage all this. When budgets need to be cut in tough times, this resource will be among the last to be eliminated.
2. Integration Complexity: More sophisticated tech stacks (Demandbase, HubSpot, Salesforce, ZoomInfo, Definitive, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, etc.) require greater integration expertise and management. You will need to develop new skills and capabilities to keep your tech stack humming.
3. Sophisticated Reporting Needs: Once you have ABM cranking, the expectations for what and how you measure marketing’s impact are raised to another level. Advanced metrics around velocity, conversion rates through multiple stages, and attribution across longer sales cycles become priorities.
4. Organizational Alignment: As programs mature, maintaining alignment between marketing, sales development representatives (SDRs), and field sales over more extended periods requires constant communication.
5. Scaling Content Production: You will need to feed the ABM best with more specialized content for different buying stages, personas and use cases. This is one of the constant challenges for advanced ABM practitioners.
6. Budget Justification: As tools and resources are invested more extensively, more sophisticated attribution models are necessary to justify continued or expanded investment. Unfortunately, ABM is expensive.

Erik, Kelly and Adam Discuss the ABM Journey

The ABM Timeline

To give you a clear picture of what the ABM journey looks like, we have translated the lessons from Erik and Kelly into a timeline identifying what you will need to focus, your key activities, metrics, technology needs and how to get organized.

Year 1:

• Focus: Account identification, basic awareness metrics, simple engagement tracking
• Key Activities:
  • Defining target account lists in collaboration with sales (Erik’s “several hundred accounts”)
  • Creating essential ABM content for different funnel stages
  • Experimenting with various ad formats and content types to determine what works
  • Establishing basic measurement frameworks to track early engagement signals
• Metrics:
  • Ad impressions (e.g., accounts “aware” after receiving 5+ ad impressions)
  • Website visits from target accounts
  • Essential engagement signals like content downloads
  • Movement of accounts through early-stage ABM funnel stages
• Organization:
  • Primarily marketing-driven with basic sales input on target account selection
  • Regular updates to sales on account engagement, though often without clear action protocols
  • Exploration of SDR integration points
• Tools:
  • Often starting with more straightforward tools or external partnerships (Erik used Propensity via the relationship with Health Launchpad)
  • Leveraging existing CRM and marketing automation, even if not ideal
  • Heavy reliance on manual tracking in spreadsheets for cross-platform data

Year 2:

• Focus: Refining engagement signals, developing account journeys, implementing process improvements
• Key Activities:
  • Refining content strategies based on Year 1 learnings
  • Doubling down on successful formats (e.g., video content)
  • Developing more sophisticated orchestration between marketing and sales
  • Beginning to track multiple individuals within target accounts
  • Implementing more formalized SDR processes
• Metrics:
  • Marketing qualified accounts (MQAs) with defined scoring thresholds
  • Progression to sales-qualified leads and opportunities
  • Conversion rates between ABM funnel stages
  • Starting to correlate marketing activities with pipeline generation
• Organization:
  • Integration with SDR functions, with more apparent trigger points for SDR outreach
  • More regular review of engagement data with sales
  • Clearer handoff processes between marketing, SDRs, and sales
• Tools:
  • Introduction of more specialized ABM technologies
  • Better integration between existing marketing and sales platforms
  • Development of dashboards for tracking account progression

Years 3-4:

• Focus: Full pipeline visibility, sales cycle optimization, attribution modeling, expanding use cases
• Key Activities:
  • Building a comprehensive account journey map. The diagram above depicts how Kelly and her team tracked the journey of a major prospect
  • Implementing land-and-expand ABM strategies for existing customers
  • Creating specialized content for new personas identified in buying committees
  • Developing more sophisticated lead nurturing sequences for engaged accounts
  • Applying ABM tactics to specialized scenarios (like Kelly targeting accounts with active RFPs)
• Metrics:
  • Detailed conversion rates between all funnel stages (e.g. percentage tracking)
  • Velocity metrics showing time in each stage
  • Full account journey mapping with activity volumes
  • Growth in buying committee size over time (Kelly noted growth from 1 to 17 people)
  • ROI analysis on ABM investments
• Organization:
  • Integrated marketing, SDR, and sales approach with clear roles and handoffs
  • Regular cross-functional reporting and analysis
  • Specialized ABM expertise withinthe  marketing team
  • SDRs fully integrated into the ABM process
• Tools:
  • Multiple integrated platforms with sophisticated reporting dashboards
  • Custom reporting solutions. Kelly and her team have developed specialized Salesforce dashboards
  • Advanced intent data monitoring and real-time alerts

Year 5+:

• Focus: Predictive modeling, strategic account penetration, advanced personalization
• Key Activities:
  • Implementing predictive analytics to identify next-best-action for accounts
  • Highly personalized account-specific campaigns
  • Integration of ABM with customer success for a complete lifecycle approach
  • Developing playbooks for different account scenarios and buying patterns
• Metrics:
  • Revenue contribution by ABM source
  • Strategic account growth patterns
  • Predictive analytics on account propensity to buy
  • Lifetime value metrics for ABM-sourced accounts
• Organization:
  • Full-funnel team alignment with shared goals and metrics
  • ABM expertise distributed throughout marketing and sales
  • Executive-level visibility and sponsorship
• Tools:
  • Enterprise-level integration with custom dashboards
  • AI-powered recommendations and insights
  • Automated orchestration across channels

Recommendations for Getting Started

So, if you are among the 40% who are considering and thinking about how to get started, here is some food for thought.

1. Start With Process, Not Technology: Kelly and Erik emphasized understanding your processes first. Start by defining your ideal customer profile, target account list, and buyer personas. Map out your current sales process and where ABM can enhance it before investing in expensive technology. As Erik noted, you can leverage existing good processes and improve them gradually.
2. Build Sales Alignment from Day One: Involve sales leadership in the account selection process and establish clear rules of engagement for when sales should (and shouldn’t) engage with accounts showing early ABM signals. As Kelly mentioned, patience is critical – marketers need to convince sales to trust the process and not rush to contact accounts prematurely.
3. Consider a Phased Technology Approach: Rather than immediately investing in expensive comprehensive platforms like Demandbase, consider a “crawl-walk-run” approach. Kelly reflected that, in hindsight, starting with more straightforward tools might have been better than beginning with sophisticated platforms that required outside consultants to manage. Erik demonstrated success starting with smaller, specialized tools until processes were mature enough for more advanced systems.
4. Make SDRs Central to Your Strategy: Both leaders emphasized the importance of SDRs as the bridge between marketing and sales. Consider having SDRs report to marketing initially to maintain focus on ABM objectives. Kelly’s approach of viewing SDRs as a “farm team” for various roles in the organization provides a valuable framework for positioning and developing this critical function.

How Health Launchpad Can Help You

ABM is one of our superpowers. Over, the last five years we have helped eighteen clients get started with ABM. This includes our proprietary ABM Playbook process.

Hey, we even wrote a book on the dang thing!

Unbundled ABM

Over the last year, we have researched and licensed a suite of ABM tools, including measurement dashboards, intent data, programmatic tools, contact data, and more. And we can “rent” them to you so you don’t have to the trouble of licensing them.

If you are interested in learning more, let’s schedule a call.