We’ve all been there – introducing ‘ABM’ to an older school leadership team steeped in the lead mentality can prove itself to be extremely challenging.  Boards and CROs are very rooted in their lead mentality.  So how do you make the transition or switch to a new way of operating?

To convince old-school CEOs, CROs, and investors on the best path for aligning go-to-market (GTM) teams and effectively meeting sales targets and based on our experiences over the years, here are 10 key tips to consider on your change management journey:

1. Speak their language – CEOs, CROs, and investors are focused on metrics like revenue, pipeline, and deal velocity. Translate your account-based marketing (ABM) strategy into these tangible outcomes they understand.   
2. Speak their use cases – illustrate how deals you and they lost could have benefitted from more orchestrated outreach and quantify that impact.  Qualitative research here could be helpful.
3. Quantify the value – Calculate the revenue potential of your target accounts based on your ideal customer profile (ICP) and average deal size. Then estimate the percentage of that potential you can realistically capture through ABM in a given period based on propensity-to-buy data. 
4. Align on KPIs – Work with leadership to define the right metrics for your organization’s goals, whether it’s new pipeline, account penetration, or deal velocity. Ensure both marketing and sales are tracking towards the same north star metrics.  Without this, you’ll never succeed.
5. Demonstrate quick wins – Pilot your ABM approach on a subset of accounts first. Showcase early successes in generating pipeline and closed deals from your targeted efforts to build credibility.  Propose pilots, not overhauls.
6. Leverage data – Use tools like 6sense to provide data-driven account prioritization and insights into buying stage. This helps sales teams focus their efforts on the right accounts at the right time.  This is likely information they’d not have access to with their lead model that might be one person view of a buying committee.  This will take work.
7. Emphasize the long term benefit of process – once you’ve built credibility, outline the cross-functional processes, from account selection to orchestrated plays across marketing, sales, and customer success. A structured, measurable process builds confidence across all parties.  It scales.
8. Retrofit, don’t transform.  Keep the existing lead processes and build ABM on top of what already exists with unified funnel reporting..  Think of more of an evolutionary change vs. a transformational process around your GTM strategy.  Start by aligning with their existing sales processes and metrics that they’re comfortable with, like lead generation, MQL/SQL volumes, etc. then add ABM to the mix.
9. Leverage 3rd party validation.  The pioneers get the arrows, this is a good reason to bring in a 3rd party to help orchestrate the change and share what is possible rather than taking career risk on trying to do all the change on the back of your career.  It is much easier to fire a 3rd party or blame a 3rd party as well not that anyone wants to go into a relationship with that mentality.  But sharing the risk may also be a prudent strategy.
10. Highlight competitor threats – Older school Sales leaders may perk up if you can show how competitors are pulling ahead by aligning to modern buying behaviors through tools and processes you lack.  This couples well with the earlier point on closed lost use cases.

The key is translating ABM into metrics and processes that resonate with leadership’s existing mindsets, while incrementally proving the value through data and results. With quick wins and continuous optimization, you stand a better chance at evolving their perspectives.

What are you finding valuable in your interactions with non-Marketing executives when introducing this kind of change?