In 2004, ITSMA coined the phrase “Account Based Marketing” (ABM) and defined it as “treating individual accounts as a market in their own right.” It’s a structured approach for developing and implementing highly-customized marketing campaigns to markets of one, i.e., accounts, partners, or prospects. This approach, typically employed in enterprise-level sales organizations, involves marketing and sales taking a close look at key business issues facing the target, mapping them to individuals, and tailoring campaigns to address those issues.

A recent SiriusDecisions State of Account-Based Marketing survey showed that over 90% of marketers recognize the value of ABM. Companies utilizing ABM practices have reported better alignment with sales, increased abilities to close bigger deals with target accounts, while also increasing pipeline velocity.

Insights on Social Selling from LinkedIn’s Survey of Sales Executives

“The world of business is going through a seismic shift in how we engage with our clients; therefore, there will be leaders and laggards throughout this evolution,” says Alexander Low,
Head of Client Development, JLL in LinkedIn's "Proven Strategies From the World’s Top Sales Professionals". But what he is referring to? What’s this great change in how salespeople interact with their prospects? The answer is the same change that is revolutionizing all of our lives--the revolution is social networking--which in the business world, when it is used to find and nurture clients to maximize quality contacts, is called, “social selling.”