ACCOUNT-BASED MARKETING:IMPLEMENTATION FRAMEWORK & SALES AND MARKETING ALIGNMENT

Abstract

During his internship in a Belgian Fintech company, the researcher of this thesis observed the complexity of the sales process of companies working in the same context as his internship company. Companies selling expensive and sophisticated solutions to large enterprises often have long and complex sales cycles, involving a high number of decision-makers. It is complicated for a company to sell in such a context. This is why more and more of these companies are implementing ABM (Account-Based Marketing). This recent concept is a strategy used by companies, in which sales and marketing focus their efforts on large companies – called accounts – with a high sales potential. In spite of that, ABM is an understudied subject. In fact, while it is the new B2B marketing buzzword in the managerial world, there is very little academic literature on the topic. Companies that want to get into ABM can find countless information on the topic on the Internet but there are no academic recommendations on how to actually implement it. This is why the first contribution of this thesis is the creation of an ABM implementation framework. This step-by-step guide will help managers to implement ABM within their company or to improve their already existing ABM process. The experts in this domain all agree that sales and marketing alignment is a prerequisite for successful ABM. However, just like for the first contribution, there is no academic literature supporting this statement. Therefore, sales and marketing alignment in the context of ABM has been researched in this thesis. The results are recommendations that identify the elements of ABM on which sales and marketing must be aligned, the reasons why the alignment is important, and the ways to align both services. They can be used by managers willing to align both services in their ABM strategy. For this qualitative research, the researcher used the case study methodology, and his internship company as the case company. The ABM experience of this company has been captured by an in-depth interview and a focus group. On top of that, the documentary evidence from two non-scientific books was gathered and used. Combined, these data collection methods have enabled the researcher to develop the findings of his research. These two above-mentioned contributions allow for the increase of the academic knowledge on the topic. Next to this, they can support managers in implementing or improving ABM within their company.