What is ABM: selling to a few companies, one by one

A company has 40 potential customers. It buys advertising built to reach 4,000. The clicks arrive, a few people leave their details, and none of them is one of the 40.

If your list of potential customers fits in a spreadsheet, reach isn't the problem. The problem is that you know little about each row.

That's what ABM is for. Account-based marketing, in plain terms, means selling to a short list of companies by name, treating each one as its own market.

This guide explains what changes compared with selling to many, how to build a short list and when this path is the wrong one. If you're not sure which of the two you're in, start with do you sell to many or to few?.

Many or few: the difference is what you watch

When you sell to many, you look for people who resemble your customer and measure what each visit does. When you sell to few, you look for specific companies and watch what happens inside each one.

	You sell to many	You sell to few (ABM)
Who you look for	people who resemble your customer	companies, by name
What you watch	what each visit does on your site	what changes inside each company
Your tool	advertising	the account list
When you act	when someone clicks	when a signal appears
What tells you it's working	what comes back for every $1 spent	how many companies on the list move forward

Neither column is better. They are two different problems, and using one's tool on the other is the most common mistake. With 40 possible companies, measuring clicks means measuring with the wrong yardstick.

How to build a short list

You don't need software. You need a spreadsheet and some time to decide.

One. Write the names. One row per company. If you have to think hard to reach 50, that's a good sign: the list is really short. If you reach 500 without effort, you probably sell to many.

Two. Pick the person. The company name isn't enough. In each one, note who decides or influences what you sell: the role and, if you know it, the person.

Three. Note why that company. One sentence per row: what does it have that makes what you do relevant to it? If you can't write it, that row isn't an account yet, it's a name.

Four. Note what changed. A new manager, a job posting, a new warehouse. It's what gives you a reason to write now and not last month. The ones you can see from the outside are covered in the signal-based selling guide.

Five. Write by hand. One message per company, saying what you saw in the first line. It's slower than a mass send. That's why it works: the company notices the message is for them.

What changes day to day

With a list of 40, some things you stop doing and others you start.

You stop measuring reach. Impressions and how many people visited your site don't matter.
You start watching progress. Of the 40, how many replied, how many had a conversation, how many are at a different stage than a month ago.
You stop writing to everyone the same way. Each message starts from something that changed in that company.
You start deciding who to call first. The list isn't worked top to bottom: it's ordered by what changed.

The hard part isn't the idea, it's consistency. Reviewing the list once a week, always on the same day, is what gets neglected most, because nobody asks for it.

When ABM doesn't work

If you sell to thousands of people, this path is the wrong one. You can't follow each potential customer, and there the average rules: it's more useful to measure your advertising than to build a list.

It also doesn't work if your service connects to nothing that changes in a company and can be seen from the outside. And it's slow: it isn't a way to get customers next week.

There's a middle case. If you sell to a few hundred, you can start with the 50 that matter most and treat the rest as a large market. You don't have to pick only one.

Frequently asked questions

What is ABM?
Selling to a short list of companies by name, treating each one as its own market. The name comes from account-based marketing.

How is it different from advertising?
Advertising looks for people who resemble your customer and measures what each visit does. ABM starts from specific companies and watches what changes inside each one.

How many companies should my list have?
As many as you can follow one by one every week. If deciding who to write first means you stop checking half of them, the list is longer than you can handle.

Does it work for a small business?
It does if you sell to few: a consultancy, a services company or a startup with high-ticket deals, where each customer is worth a lot. If you sell fast-purchase products to thousands of people, it doesn't.

Do I need software?
Not to start. A spreadsheet and a fixed slot each week are enough for a list of 40 companies. Software helps when the list grows or when you already know which changes work for you.

If you sell to few and want me to tell you which companies on your list I'd look at first, see how we build a sales process around you. If you sell to many, scan your site for free and see what it measures today.