We’re diving deep into ABM with Andrei Zinkevich. And no, we’re not talking about expensive ABM tech stacks and intent-based display ads. We’re talking about getting your hands dirty, figuring out your real ICP and aligning your sales and marketing teams around them, ABM.

Andrei is an entrepreneur and has been in the trenches of sales and marketing for over 15 years.

The case study we discussed generated $300k in revenue from 6 deals which closed from an ABM campaign focused on 30 target accounts.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

• When less leads can actually mean more revenue
• How to develop your actual ICP that is more than just firmographics
• What questions to ask during in-depth customer interviews
• How to get your customers to take the time to do the customer interviews
• How to warm up your accounts
• The timeline and bandwidth needs for an ABM campaign
• How to combine direct mail and gifting with personalized digital content hubs

Andrei’s recommendations for building ABM campaigns:

1. Focus on best use cases, not revenue, when figuring out your ICP
2. Ensure that leadership is onboard with focusing on customer interviews
3. Make sure to also analyze common patterns of why deals are lost
4. Focus on no more than 30 accounts for an ABM pilot
5. Ensure that you analyze and dig into the negative campaign responses
6. Do real personalization - no, not the dynamic name and company insert into emails.

You’ll need to listen to the full episode if you want to hear the Lightning Round, but here are a few highlights:

• Andrei is a huge fan of ActiveCampaign
• Andrei hates the words “growth” and “scalability” - you will have to listen to the episode to find out why.
• If you know anything about Soviet era cartoons, you will have probably heard or seen Karlsson on the Roof, which was Andrei’s favorite growing up.

  
  Proofpoint’s POV:

Well, confirmation bias really is a thing, because this was one of our favorite episodes. Not because the rest of our guests haven’t shared great content, but because Andrei really hit on many of the points we usually stress to our clients:

• More leads doesn’t necessarily mean more revenue
• You don’t need an expensive tech stack to run ABM
• Display ads are generally a waste of money
• You need to spend the time to do the research - talking to customers is absolutely paramount
• A real human touch is time consuming, but is extremely beneficial when it comes lead-to-close rates

So we loved everything Andrei had to say about ABM, and honestly, we can’t find a single thing to nitpick with any of his recommendations.

The only thing to bring up is that ABM as Andrei is describing it may not be the place you want to start. It really depends on where you are in terms of your marketing playbook evolution.

For example, if you are a fairly new startup and don’t have a good idea of who your real ICP is, it’s too soon for ABM. Or even if you are a company who is just trying to transition from the “lead gen hamster wheel” you should probably first focus on building up a demand gen playbook before going down the ABM route.

This is because solid demand gen execution will provide that extra layer of awareness and scale that will be able to supplement an ABM effort.

A bit more about Andrei:

Andrei is the co-founder of Fullfunnel.io and ROIplan. He was born in the Ukraine and lives in beautiful Croatia. 

Helpful Links & Resources:

• Andrei’'s LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/azinkevich/
• Andrei’s podcast: https://fullfunnel.io/podcast/
• Andrei’s Company: Fullfunnel.io
• Andrei’s Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/b2bmarketersnfounders

Connect with Mike & Gaby at Proofpoint:

• Mike’s LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikegrinberg/
• Gaby’s LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabriellaisrael/
• LinkedIn Company Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/company/proofpoint-marketing-llc
• Proofpoint YouTube Channel: http://bit.ly/ProofpointonYouTube
• Proofpoint Website: www.proofpoint.marketing