The beginning of an ABM love story between a consultant and client starts with admitting that not every company is ready for ABM or can implement ABM at all.
A good consultant should be able to say “no” on time before sets an organization up for failure, and contributing to unfairly giving ABM a poor reputation as a framework, waste company’s budget and internal credibility.
What ABM Requires
Often, independent ABM consultants struggle to elaborate further than the cliché: “Stop chasing leads. Start targeting accounts.”
That’s the starting point, but the strategy has to show what that means operationally,
ABM isn’t a campaign. I’ve seen ABM agencies propose an ABM pilot initiative, not even a campaign, to a client that didn’t have an ABM strategy in place yet.
As a GTM itself, ABM requires changes across Marketing, Sales, Customer Success, and RevOps.
In order to make Marketing shift from generating volume to generate coverage within target accounts, making MQL definitions irrelevant, an organization needs to change its infrastructure.
This infrastructure change has to be aligned and committed with Sales, because they will start shifting from working leads to working accounts. Prospecting will not be possible without deep account research. Qualification criteria have changed entirely; it is about if the account shows signals of in-market behavior across multiple contacts and figuring out what those signals are.
And a key part of the Account-Based GTM is that Customer Success becomes part of the revenue engine. Expansion plays run parallel to acquisition plays. Accounts move through the buying journey stages with all teams involved simultaneously.
RevOps rebuilds reporting infrastructure because pipeline metrics change, and forecasting models are different because account scoring replaces lead scoring. The entire measurement framework shifts from individual conversion metrics to account progression metrics.
And, before any of this happens, you need the foundation, your ICP strategy, because ABM doesn’t work in an ICP-for-all environment–actually ABM doesn’t fit well with any XX-for-all–. So, ICP segmentation based on real revenue data, knowing which segments convert well and retain well. Signal discovery, patterns, buying journey mapping, cross-functional alignment, definition of “qualified account”, have to be in place before thinking on ABM implementation.
Skipping the foundation and jumping straight to tactics is building ABM inspired tactics on top of the wrong infrastructure.
Read well and be an honest human
The first conversation with a potential client should be diagnostic, making questions that reveal readiness. After that conversation, you see a clear foundation problem, tell them the truth, and move on. Because it is easy to get companies lured by the siren song of ‘magical’ ABM.
I get ABM consultants need to close deals as much as their clients, but saying “Yes” when the answer should be “No” creates two failures.
The consultant fails because ABM doesn’t deliver results and their reputation suffers most likely getting a detractor. The company fails because they invested budget, time, and its leadership loses confidence.
What Readiness Looks Like
ICP: Make sure that the company is not mistaking segments with ICPs. i.e Can you describe your ideal customer beyond firmographics? Do you know which customer segments convert well and retain well?
Data infrastructure: Making sure your data is ready for ABM. i.e Can you map accounts to buying journey stages based on signals? Can anyone pull a target list easily?
Signal capture: ABM without signal visibility is guesswork. i.e Do you know when target accounts are researching your category? Can you detect job changes, hiring signals, tech adoption patterns?
Sales and Marketing alignment: If Sales and Marketing can’t align on priority accounts, ABM won’t work at scale. i.e When Marketing passes a “qualified account” to Sales, do they agree on what that means?
Metrics and goals: ABM requires different success metrics, if leadership hasn’t aligned on what those are, you’ll optimize for the wrong things. i.e Is Marketing still measured on MQLs while you’re trying to run ABM?
Cross-functional commitment: ABM needs all team committed to it. i.e Are Customer Success and RevOps involved in ABM planning?
Resources: If leadership expects immediate pipeline, expectations aren’t aligned with reality. Do you have the people, budget, and time to build ABM infrastructure?
Technology: Tool-first ABM fails. Strategy-first ABM, with tools selected to support that strategy, works.
These are diagnostic questions that reveal where gaps exist.
ABM Requires Foundation First
ABM is a structural change that requires foundation, alignment, and commitment across Marketing, Sales, Customer Success, and RevOps.
Not every company is ready for that, and an ABM consultant should know this.
The best ABM consultants are the ones who can say “no” and put the potential client interests first.
That honesty is what makes ABM work.
ABM consultant and advisory services takeaways
ABM readiness requires foundation work before implementation. Diagnostic questions reveal gaps: Can you describe your ICP beyond firmographics and identify which segments convert well and retain well? Can you map accounts to buying journey stages based on signals? Do Sales and Marketing agree on priority accounts and qualification definitions? Is leadership aligned on ABM success metrics, or is Marketing still measured on MQLs? ABM without this foundation becomes tactics built on broken infrastructure.
A good ABM consultant’s first conversation should be diagnostic, not prescriptive. They should ask about ICP clarity, data infrastructure readiness, signal capture capability, Sales and Marketing alignment on target accounts, cross-functional commitment from Customer Success and RevOps, and whether leadership expectations align with ABM’s timeline. These questions reveal where foundation gaps exist and whether the company is ready to execute or needs months of infrastructure work first.
Companies often mistake broad segments for ICPs. Saying “we target Fortune 500 tech companies” describes a segment, not an ICP. True ICP segmentation requires understanding which customer segments both convert well and retain well versus False Positives that are easy to acquire but churn quickly. This requires analyzing actual revenue data, signal patterns from closed-won versus closed-lost deals, and buying journey progression to identify accounts where both acquisition and retention work.