I used to think account-based marketing (ABM) was just a fancy way of saying “we’re throwing more money at sales.” It always seemed bloated, requiring big teams, expensive tech stacks, and months of coordination between sales and marketing that, let’s be honest, rarely worked in sync.
But that version of ABM is dead. And thank God.
Today, a three-person team with the right mindset, AI tools, and a human-first strategy can run smarter, more personal, and more effective ABM campaigns than companies spending 10x more.
This post is a condensed version of a playbook I shared in our B2B Growth Marketing course. If you’ve ever felt like your outbound efforts were just noise in a sea of spam, this one’s for you.
Forget the “ABM framework” slides. Here’s what it really means: you’re targeting fewer, more valuable accounts, and you’re doing it in a way that actually matters to them.
Traditional lead gen is a volume game. ABM is a relevance game.
You’re aligning sales and marketing around a shared hit list. You’re creating content that fits their reality, not yours. And you’re building relationships instead of firing off cold sequences like a robot with a quota.
Most B2B companies don’t need to reach millions. If you’re being honest, you probably only need a few dozen dream accounts to close to hit your revenue goals this year.
Start with your ICP, your ideal customer profile. What’s common among your best customers? Industry? Geography? Headcount? Tech stack? Revenue? Use your CRM and first-party data to pull those signals. Then layer on intent data using tools like G2 or Apollo.
If someone is actively comparing your competitors, they’re warm. If they’re researching your category, even warmer. That’s not a cold list. That’s a short path to a conversation.
Too many campaigns are built around a single persona. But B2B buying is messy. There’s no single decision-maker. There’s a buying committee: users, budget owners, influencers.
So instead of targeting just “the VP of Marketing,” map out everyone involved. The IT lead, the CFO, even the end users. You’re not selling to one person. You’re convincing a team.
Use Sales Navigator to pull out these contacts. Build them into your CRM or outbound tool. You’re setting up the chessboard.
Before you send a single message, show up. Follow their company on LinkedIn. Comment on their posts. Share useful insights. Be a real person, not a “lead gen engine.”
And yes, this is scalable.
With Sales Navigator, you can monitor what your targets are posting. Then add a simple daily workflow to engage naturally. No automation tools required. Just a bit of curiosity and intent.
This step builds familiarity. And familiarity crushes resistance.
Most people still think of AI as a content writing tool. That’s a waste. We use AI as a research assistant.
Our favorite is Relevance AI. We built a little agent we call Atlas, it runs daily research on leads, pulls in company news, LinkedIn activity, funding events, and delivers us a digest with talking points.
This means no more 15-tab research marathons before writing a message. You get high-context insights at scale, without losing the human touch.
Now you’re ready to reach out. But if you’re still sending “Hi {FIRSTNAME}, I saw you’re in X industry…” you’re doing it wrong.
ABM outreach isn’t about personalizing names. It’s about personalizing insight. Talk about their recent product launch. Comment on a competitor’s move. Reference a pain point specific to their role.
Use voice notes. Record quick Loom videos. Create a short, valuable asset just for them. And here’s a power move: send them to a personalized landing page tailored to their company using tools like Lovable.dev or Bolt.new.
It feels like VIP treatment, because it is.
A good ABM campaign isn’t measured by open rates. You’re tracking:
Use your CRM, SalesIQ, or Segment to pull those insights. Automate the alerts to your team using n8n. The goal is not more dashboards. The goal is clarity.
Because it’s real. It feels human. You’re not just automating tactics, you’re aligning psychology with strategy.
AI helps you scale. Behavioral cues help you land. And when sales and marketing are rowing in the same direction, you build a system that actually moves the needle.
If you’re new to ABM or skeptical it’ll work for your team, start small. Pick 10 accounts. Build one campaign using this approach. See what happens.
In most cases, you’ll notice faster engagement, deeper conversations, and more qualified pipeline.
This is the new playbook, one that respects your buyer’s intelligence and your team’s time.
And if you want the full system, messaging templates, prompts, campaign builders, it’s all in our B2B Growth Marketing course.
But whether or not you take the course, the message is this:
You don’t need a huge team or huge budget to do account-based marketing that works. You just need better questions, better tools, and a bias toward being human.
Let’s do more of that.
Enroll in the B2B Growth Marketing Course now.
Who is it for? It’s made for founders, marketers, and operators who deal with long sales cycles, complex funnels, and big-stakes decisions, and want real strategy that drives actual results.
This isn’t just a remix of generic growth hacks. We go deep into what actually works in B2B: account-based marketing, AI for personalized marketing collateral and sales enablement, lead gen that’s driven by real intent, growth loops, retention, referrals, and the psychology that underpins all of it.
We specifically cover:
And a lot more!
