The Total Customer Growth Framework – 100+ Question ABM Planning Template

As a companion tool for the Total Customer Growth book, we created an ABM Planning template that you can use to put the ideas in the book into action.

Why Does an ABM Planning Template Need 100+ Questions?

ABM is complicated. It’s hard to do well, and many companies that have dabbled with ABM have given up for that reason. Secondly, in Total Customer Growth, we have endeavored to look at ABM and ABX holistically, i.e., not just how you use ABM to acquire customers but how you use ABM to grow your existing customers. 

This ABM planning template covers a lot of ground.

We created this after finishing the book, and we were surprised that the questions and checklist items in this ABM Planning Template were so extensive. Frankly, we could have expanded this to a much longer list of secondary questions for many of the items.

How Do You Use the Total Customer Growth ABM Planning Template?

This is designed to help you self-assess your readiness to start and gauge your progress on your Total Customer Growth Journey. This will help you fill the gaps and pinpoint where improvements are needed. The book will help you answer these questions and guide your journey.

 This is organized into two sections. Section 1 is a self-assessment tool that asks foundational questions to help you determine your readiness to start this ABM-based journey. Section 2 are checklists for each stage of your journey. 

Section 1 – Getting Started

This section is a series of questions to help you assess your Total Customer Growth readiness. There are three groups of questions.

1. Strategic Foundations: Do you have clear goals? How well have you defined your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), how well have you defined the buyer journey?
2. Planning: How are you organized for ABM? How well positioned are you to run a 90-day pilot? 
3. Execution: Do you have the tools, tactics, assets, and resources to execute ABM?

Section 2 – Think/Crawl/Walk/Run Checklist

You will have heard of Crawl/Walk/Run if you have researched ABM. The rationale is that ABM is hard and takes a long time to perfect. The journey requires the buy-in and active participation of many colleagues. And you will need to constantly remind everyone about what you are undertaking on this journey.

The notion of Crawl/Walk/Run provides a framework that helps you break down the journey into major steps. Crawl is about exploring and experimenting. Walk occurs when you have validated the value of ABM and started to make ABM an integral part of how you market. Run is when ABM and ABX become embedded in your organization. It is how you sell and market.

We added a preparation stage to this, which we call “Think.”

Why?

You will struggle or fail if you start crawling without thinking through what you are trying to achieve in the pilot, the prerequisites that are needed, what the longer-term road map looks like, what it will take to be successful, and critical strategic issues to avoid.

You most likely realize this. As a strategic marketer, you know it is a risk, which is the root cause of why you may have hesitated to get going or are struggling with ABM.

In Section 2 of the Total Customer Growth ABM Planning Template, we provide a series of checklists for all four stages:

1. Think: Have you completed all the strategic activities needed to start with ABM? The Total Customer Growth book will help you fill in the gaps and execute these activities.
2. Crawl: Have you put all the right things in place to execute a pilot? In the online resources with the book, there are additional ABM planning templates and tools to design an ABM pilot.
3. Walk: Are you ready to deploy ABM more widely across your organization? Do you have the organizational infrastructure and executive support you need? Do you have an appropriate plan in place? Do you have the data, tools, and plans in place?
4. Run: Are you ready to scale ABM across the whole organization? This includes transitioning from customer acquisition to using ABM principles with existing customers. Are you ready for an ABM platform? Do you have an ABM measurement system in place?

How Can You Get the Total Customer Growth ABM Planning Template?

There are two ways:

1. Total Customer Growth Book Resource: If you have bought the Total Customer Customer Growth Book, you will have the instructions to download all the tools, other ABM planning templates, and resources you need. You can buy the book here.
2. Download the ABM Planning Template: Until July 31st, you can download the Total Customer Customer Growth without registering.

Hope you find it useful. Please let me know if we missed anything. We are always looking for ways to improve it.

If you are interested and when you are ready, we can help you on your Total Customer Growth journey. Here are some ways to get started:

1. Check out more posts like this in the Healthtech Marketing Learning Center. It is chock-full of articles, use cases, how-to’s, and ideas to get you started on your ABM journey.
2. Follow me or connect with me on LinkedIn. I publish videos and articles on ABM and healthtech marketing.
3. Work with me directly. Let’s book a growth session and we can explore ways you can improve your marketing using the latest techniques in account-based marketing.