Account-Based Marketing (ABM) has exploded in popularity for B2B Saas since 2024, and the end of the heavily funded growth-at-all-costs era, and for good reason. Research shows 87% of companies implementing ABM report higher ROI than any other marketing approach.
ABM flips the traditional lead-gen funnel on its head, treating each target account as a “market of one” and focusing resources on the best-fit prospects. But as effective as ABM is, it’s not “just another marketing campaign” you can silo in one department.
True ABM success requires tight alignment across Marketing, Sales, and Customer Success – and that’s where Revenue Operations (RevOps) comes in.
As a RevOps leader on HubSpot, you should be a HubSpot/RollWorks enthusiast, and if you are, you’re in a unique position to supercharge your company’s ABM strategy. In this article, we’ll explore the impact of RevOps on ABM in B2B SaaS from a RevOps expert’s perspective.
We’ll cover how RevOps enables ABM success through an integrated tech stack (hello, HubSpot and RollWorks!), unified data and reporting, cross-functional processes, and insights that guide strategy.
You’ll also learn how RevOps drives cross-functional ownership of ABM programs and how our proprietary ARISE GTM methodology helps align teams fast. We’ll even throw in a handy RevOps ABM playbook and an FAQ section to address common questions.
Let’s dive in and get ready to align your revenue team to hit those high-value accounts with precision. (Don’t worry, we’ll keep it friendly, professional, and maybe a little cheeky along the way – it’s the Arise GTM way.)
In case you need a quick refresher to share with your team, account-based marketing (ABM) is a strategic approach where Marketing and Sales focus on a defined set of target accounts (often high-value prospects or key customers) and treat each one with personalised campaigns and outreach.
Instead of casting a wide net for leads, you’re laser-focused, targeting the red-hot accounts your business wants to win. This focused strategy aligns closely with complex B2B buying processes (think multiple stakeholders, long deal cycles), and typically yields significantly larger deal sizes and better win rates.
In fact, 86% of marketers report improved win rates with ABM, and deal sizes often end up over 50% larger. No wonder ABM is often hailed as “the most effective marketing strategy out there” for B2B companies.
However, ABM isn’t a solo endeavour. It’s jointly implemented by Sales and Marketing (and often Customer Success and Product, too), working in tandem. The approach demands deep personalisation, coordination, and a cultural shift in how teams pursue revenue.
Aligning Marketing, Sales, Customer Success, and Product around the buyer’s journey is fundamental to ABM. Everyone rallies around a shared goal: to engage and win the target accounts by solving their specific challenges. This “revenue team” mindset, where all customer-facing teams move in lockstep, is exactly what RevOps is designed to foster.
Before we jump into RevOps, it’s worth noting that ABM success takes time and commitment. ABM programs typically run 6–12 months or more and require leadership buy-in and patience to bear fruit. It’s not about quick wins or vanity lead numbers; it’s about long-term, high-value growth.
As a RevOps leader, you’re perfectly positioned to set those expectations with execs and ensure the whole organisation treats ABM as a strategic initiative, not just a campaign-of-the-month.
If ABM is the strategy that aligns sales and marketing on high-value accounts, Revenue Operations is the engine that keeps that alignment running smoothly. RevOps is all about breaking down silos, aligning processes, and making data accessible across teams – which sounds like an ABM dream scenario.
In fact, you could say RevOps was made for ABM. It provides the framework and discipline to make sure all the moving parts of an ABM program stay coordinated and effective.
Here are a few reasons RevOps plays a pivotal role in ABM:
Unified Data and Insights: ABM runs on data, from identifying the right target accounts to personalising outreach and measuring engagement. RevOps ensures free-flowing data across your tech stack so that marketing, sales, and CS all work from a single source of truth.
No more debates about “whose data is right” or hunting for info on a key account; RevOps architecture makes every relevant data point available to the teams who need it, when they need it. This unified data is the glue that holds your ABM strategy together. It guides intelligent targeting (so you aim your spears at the right fish) and enables the personalised, meaningful touches that ABM is known for.
If ABM is about creating a holistic, customer-centric experience, you can’t do it without unified data, and that’s exactly what RevOps delivers.
Aligned Teams and Processes: A successful ABM strategy demands tight alignment between marketing and sales at every step, from account selection to outreach cadence to closing the deal. RevOps, by definition, exists to align marketing, sales, and customer success under one revenue umbrella.
With RevOps in charge, you effectively have a dedicated “air traffic control” ensuring that marketing and sales are collaborating, not operating at cross purposes. RevOps can implement joint planning, SLAs, and feedback loops between teams, for example, setting rules for how and when Sales follows up on marketing engagements at target accounts, or how both teams coordinate on account-specific messaging.
By fostering this cross-departmental synergy (some call it “smarketing”, but we’ll stick with RevOps!), you eliminate the classic friction where Marketing says “we delivered the leads” and Sales says “these leads are garbage.” In ABM, Marketing and Sales win or lose together, and RevOps makes sure they have the processes and accountability in place to truly function as one Revenue Team.
Customer-Centric Focus Across Lifecycle: ABM isn’t just for new logo acquisition – it’s also about expanding and retaining key accounts (land-and-expand). RevOps, with its purview over the entire customer lifecycle, ensures that Customer Success is looped into ABM efforts when appropriate.
For example, RevOps might help integrate upsell/cross-sell plays into your ABM program for existing customers (often your Tier 1 accounts). By enabling processes that include Customer Success in account planning or account reviews, RevOps helps drive truly cross-functional ownership of ABM. This means your company delivers a seamless experience from the first marketing touch, through the sales cycle, into onboarding and expansion.
Each team knows their role in the account plan, and everyone shares responsibility for the account’s success. That kind of end-to-end ownership is hard to achieve without a RevOps function bringing the silos together.
Strategic Guidance and Optimisation: RevOps isn’t just tactical; it’s strategic. As a RevOps leader, you look at the full revenue picture and make data-driven recommendations. In an ABM context, you’ll be the one analysing which target accounts are engaging, which aren’t, where the bottlenecks in the account journey are, and what tweaks to make.
You might surface insights like, “Our Tier 2 accounts in the healthcare segment are showing lots of engagement but not converting to pipeline – perhaps our messaging isn’t hitting the mark, let’s adjust our content.” Or, “Accounts with product trial usage are closing 2x faster – let’s get more trials in front of our ABM target accounts.”
By monitoring ABM metrics holistically (from first touch to revenue), RevOps provides the feedback loop that guides the ongoing strategy and execution. Essentially, RevOps acts as the analytics and optimisation engine for ABM, ensuring the program learns and improves over time. This also helps in justifying ABM investment to leadership with real data (e.g. attribution of revenue to ABM efforts).
In short, RevOps provides the foundation for ABM to thrive. It brings the data, the tech integration, the process rigour, and the cross-team alignment needed to execute ABM effectively. As one article put it, without unified data and aligned teams, you’ll struggle to create the holistic, personalised campaigns ABM requires. But with RevOps, marketing and sales are armed with the right insights and processes to “throw their spears” at the best opportunities and capture them.
Now, let’s get more specific on how RevOps leaders enable ABM success, focusing on four key areas: technology, data, process, and insights.
One of the first things RevOps can tackle to boost ABM is technology integration. In ABM, your tools need to talk to each other so that no critical account activity falls through the cracks. A fully integrated tech stack, with HubSpot and RollWorks at the core, is a game-changer for running coordinated ABM campaigns.
HubSpot is often the central nervous system for RevOps teams in B2B SaaS. It’s not just your CRM; it’s also marketing automation, sales engagement, and even a customer success platform (with Service Hub) all in one. HubSpot has built-in ABM features that RevOps can leverage, such as the Target Accounts dashboard, account-level properties, and company-centric workflows.
For instance, in HubSpot, you can switch to an Account (Company) view of your funnel rather than just leads, and designate Target Accounts that fit your ICP. RevOps should ensure this is configured, so Marketing and Sales can jointly see which target accounts are engaged, which are open Opportunities, and so on.
HubSpot also lets you define your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) criteria and automatically tier accounts. Many teams use tiers like Tier 1 (highest value/prime targets), Tier 2, Tier 3, etc., sometimes including existing customers as Tier 1 for expansion.
A RevOps leader will work with Sales/Marketing to set these definitions and use HubSpot to operationalise them (so everyone sees the same tier labels and focuses accordingly).
RollWorks, on the other hand, is a popular ABM platform for account-based advertising, intent data, and account insights. Integrating RollWorks with HubSpot allows you to do some really powerful ABM tactics. For example, RollWorks can identify high-value target accounts and serve them ads or track their engagement, then sync that data back to HubSpot.
With a RevOps-managed integration, your systems will automatically share information: when a target account interacts with a RollWorks ad or visits your site, HubSpot can log that engagement. This means Sales can get real-time alerts or see engagement scores, and Marketing can trigger specific nurture actions.
According to one integration guide, RollWorks captures account engagement data and syncs it to HubSpot, providing your sales team with real-time insights to prioritise and nurture leads effectively. In short, an integrated HubSpot+RollWorks stack lets you execute coordinated, multi-channel account outreach and have all the response data in one place.
To illustrate, imagine Account A from your target list surfs an ebook landing page via a RollWorks ad. RollWorks detects this and updates Account A’s engagement score. Through the integration, HubSpot gets this update and could automatically trigger a task for the sales rep: “Hot account activity, follow up with a personal email” (or even auto-enrol the account into a tailored sequence).
Conversely, if your sales rep lands a meeting with Account A, HubSpot could inform RollWorks to adjust ads or stop targeting that account with top-of-funnel content. These kinds of automated workflows between RollWorks and HubSpot ensure marketing and sales are always in sync on the next steps for an account.
In fact, you can set up rules like: when an account is added to an ABM campaign in RollWorks, trigger a specific sequence in HubSpot, or when an account’s engagement score reaches a threshold, notify the sales owner to prioritise it. RevOps can design and implement these workflows to orchestrate seamless hand-offs and touches – it’s like having a plays orchestrator running 24/7 in the background.
Beyond HubSpot and RollWorks, RevOps will look at integrating any other tools that feed into the ABM process. This might include LinkedIn Sales Navigator (for account research and outreach), intent data providers, enrichment tools (to get accurate account data), or even direct mail platforms for ABM gifting.
The key is connecting data and actions across all these tools. RevOps might use HubSpot as the central hub, with APIs and integrations ensuring that, say, intent signals from 6sense or Bombora flow into HubSpot, or that when Sales books a meeting (logged in Chili Piper), it updates the account status everywhere. An integrated stack reduces manual data entry and ensures no one is blind to important account activities.
In summary, RevOps enables ABM by building a cohesive tech ecosystem: marketing and sales can use their specialised tools (like Marketing using RollWorks for ads, Sales using HubSpot sequences for outreach), while RevOps makes sure those tools are connected. The result? Less friction, more transparency, and the ability to execute ABM campaigns that hit on multiple channels while staying coordinated.
If you’ve ever had the nightmare of marketing running an account-targeted ad campaign while sales had no clue, or vice versa, an integrated stack is the antidote. And with platforms like HubSpot and RollWorks working in tandem, you set the stage for ABM at scale with ease.
(Pro tip: If you’re on HubSpot Enterprise, take advantage of features like custom objects or playbooks to capture ABM-specific data – e.g. a custom object for “Account Plans”, and keep it linked to companies. RevOps can get creative in tailoring the CRM to meet ABM needs. The goal is to have the entire account picture visible in one place for your team.)
One of the greatest gifts RevOps gives to an ABM program is clean, unified data and reporting. When you’re targeting a finite list of accounts and coordinating touchpoints, the metrics that matter can get complex. You need to track engagement across multiple stakeholders, marketing and sales activities, pipeline and revenue attribution by account, and present it in a way that everyone from the CMO to the SDR can understand their impact. RevOps steps in to provide that single source of truth and the dashboards that keep ABM efforts accountable.
Consider the variety of data streams in ABM:
Marketing might track account impressions, ad clicks, website visits, content downloads, and event attendance for each target account.
Sales tracks calls, emails, meetings, and opportunity stages for those accounts.
Customer Success (for existing customer targets) tracks product usage, support tickets, NPS scores, etc.
Finance or leadership cares about the pipeline generated from target accounts and, ultimately, the revenue won.
RevOps’ mission is to consolidate these into a coherent picture. In practice, this means setting up a data architecture where all relevant activities tie back to the account record (often the Company object in HubSpot). A RevOps leader will, for example, ensure that:
Every contact is associated with the right company (so individual interactions roll up to the account level).
There are consistent definitions (e.g. what counts as an “engaged account” or a “marketing qualified account”) and properties in the CRM to flag them.
Integration points (like the RollWorks sync) feed data into the right fields or associated records in HubSpot.
With unified data in place, you can achieve true closed-loop reporting for ABM. This means you can trace a won deal back to the ABM campaign activities that influenced it.
For instance, your reports can show: Account X was in the Q1 ABM campaign, saw 5 ads, attended our webinar, then became an opportunity and closed for $100k, and marketing influenced $50k of that pipeline while sales touched it 7 times.
Having this level of attribution and visibility is critical to demonstrating ABM ROI (which, recall, is often superior to other approaches). RevOps will typically build dashboards that might include:
Account Engagement Dashboard: Showing each target account’s engagement score, recent activities, buying stage, and owner. (Great for weekly ABM team meetings to review progress account by account.)
ABM Funnel Metrics: e.g. number of target accounts identified, how many engaged (any activity), how many in opportunity stage, how many closed – basically conversion rates at the account level. You might show that out of 100 target accounts, 60 engaged meaningfully, 20 became opportunities, and 5 closed, etc.
Multi-touch Attribution for ABM: Highlighting which marketing touches or sales touches are most common in successful account journeys (for example, maybe accounts that saw a certain case study were more likely to convert – insight for marketing; or accounts that had an executive-to-executive meeting closed faster – insight for sales).
Pipeline and Revenue Tracking: The real bottom line – how much pipeline and revenue your ABM target list is generating. RevOps ensures deals are tagged properly (e.g. with an “ABM” campaign tag or simply by virtue of being attached to a target account) so you can report, “Our ABM program generated $X in pipeline and $Y in closed deals this quarter.”
By delivering these insights, RevOps helps keep the ABM program data-driven. Teams can spot what’s working and what’s not in near real-time and adjust.
For example, if the unified data shows a particular segment of accounts isn’t responding, maybe the team pivots their messaging or focuses on a different vertical next quarter. Or if a certain marketing tactic is yielding a ton of engagement (say, personalised videos), RevOps will catch that in the data and can double down on it.
Another huge benefit of unified data is "lead to account matching" and deduplication. In ABM, you often have multiple people from the same account interacting. RevOps can set up rules so that if, say, a webinar form comes in, the system checks if that person’s company is on our target list or already an account in CRM, then routes appropriately (maybe that contact is marked as part of an existing target account rather than treated as a new random lead).
This prevents the scenario of marketing accidentally nurturing a contact separately from the account plan. It also means Sales gets a heads-up: “Oh, someone else from Acme Inc. engaged with us – let’s inform the account owner.” HubSpot’s ABM tools assist here by automatically associating contacts and companies and even suggesting target accounts based on lead activity.
In essence, RevOps makes sure everyone is looking at the same scoreboard. When you walk into an ABM strategy meeting, Marketing isn’t bringing their own spreadsheet of “leads engaged” while Sales brings a different report of “deals”. Instead, you have one shared dashboard, crafted by RevOps, that shows the full account journey. This transparency builds trust between teams (no more finger-pointing over numbers) and keeps all eyes on the prize: turning target accounts into revenue.
Finally, unified reporting is also a powerful way to maintain executive buy-in. ABM can be a slow burn, so while the sales cycles play out, the RevOps leader can report intermediate progress: e.g., “We’ve engaged 75% of our target accounts this quarter, up from 50% last quarter, and influenced $500k in pipeline – the deals will close in coming months.” Showing these leading indicators, backed by solid data, will keep the C-suite confident that the ABM strategy (and RevOps’ efforts) are worth the continued investment.
Technology and data alone won’t drive ABM; process is the glue that binds people’s day-to-day actions. One of RevOps’ superpowers is designing and implementing processes that cut across Marketing, Sales, and Customer Success. When it comes to ABM, RevOps acts as the architect of cross-functional processes to ensure everyone plays their part in a coordinated way.
Let’s break down some key processes RevOps might put in place for ABM:
Target Account Selection & Review Process: Instead of Marketing picking target accounts in a vacuum, RevOps can facilitate a collaborative process to select and update target accounts. For example, you might set up a quarterly meeting where Marketing, Sales, and CS leaders review the ICP criteria and nominate accounts. RevOps brings in data (firmographics, product usage, past engagement) to help prioritise.
Once the list is set, RevOps documents it in the CRM (e.g., using a property or list that marks the official target accounts) and makes sure everyone is notified of their named accounts. RevOps might also establish a monthly check-in to discuss if any accounts should be added or if new intel suggests a change in strategy for an account. This governance ensures the whole revenue team has buy-in on which accounts to focus – a prerequisite for true cross-functional ABM execution.
Account Engagement Playbooks: RevOps often collaborates with Sales/Marketing Enablement to create playbooks or sequences for engaging target accounts. In HubSpot, this could mean setting up a series of tasks or sequences for BDRs once an account reaches a certain engagement threshold.
For instance, a playbook might say: “If a target account hits an engagement score of 50 (meaning they’ve opened emails, visited site, maybe interacted with content), then Sales Development will execute Play #3: a sequence of a personalized email, LinkedIn InMail, and phone call over a week.” Marketing might simultaneously run Play #3 on their side: perhaps a direct mail gift followed by a high-value piece of content via email.
RevOps ensures these plays are documented, templatized, and triggered by the systems as much as possible. By codifying the plays, you reduce randomness – every account gets a consistently high-quality touch pattern. Plus, new team members ramp up faster because there’s a clear cookbook.
Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and Notifications: In ABM, speed and coordination matter. If a target account suddenly “raises their hand” (say, someone requests a demo or the account surges in website visits), you want Sales on it immediately. RevOps can implement SLAs, for example, if a target account fills out a high-intent form, Sales must follow up within 2 hours.
To support this, RevOps might set up automated Slack alerts or tasks in HubSpot to ping the account owner instantly. Conversely, if Sales discovers an account is not a fit or is unresponsive, there could be a process to feed that back to Marketing (maybe the account gets downgraded out of the target list next cycle).
Setting these rules of engagement and mutual expectations is classic RevOps work. It keeps marketing and sales accountable to each other and ensures no ABM opportunity is left behind due to human lag or miscommunication.
Cross-Functional ABM Stand-ups/Meetings: RevOps can drive regular ABM sync meetings, perhaps a weekly 15-minute stand-up between the account’s marketing campaign manager, the sales rep, and a CS rep if applicable. In these quick syncs, they share updates: “Marketing emailed them this week, got a response from one contact; Sales has a meeting scheduled; CS noted they just renewed last month (if existing customer).
Next, Marketing will push a case study, and Sales will try to get a champion on a call.” RevOps doesn’t have to run every meeting, but they can ensure the cadence and structure exist. These interactions build the muscle memory of working together on accounts. Everyone knows who’s doing what, and any gaps or overlaps get sorted out in real-time.
Customer Success Handoff for Expansion: Often overlooked, but if your ABM includes current customers (for cross-sell/up-sell), RevOps should map out how opportunities are handed to Account Management or CS. For instance, if Marketing nurtures an existing account with a new use-case campaign and the account shows interest, does it go to the Account Manager to expand? If Sales closes a new deal that should be handed to CS, is the ABM context (like “they responded well to X campaign, interested in Y feature”) passed along?
RevOps can create processes so that when a target account becomes a customer or expands, all the history and context is captured for CS, and they are looped into the ABM system (perhaps now that account is tiered differently or moves to a different playbook). This ensures the ABM mindset of personalised attention continues in the post-sale relationship, driving better retention and lifetime value.
In enabling these processes, RevOps often uses HubSpot workflows, task automation, and playbook features to enforce them. For example, HubSpot’s playbooks (the feature) can provide sales reps with call scripts or email templates tailored to ABM scenarios. Workflows can assign tasks or change lifecycle stages based on triggers (like engagement or time delays per SLA). The idea is to bake the process into the tools so it’s easier for teams to follow and harder to drop the ball.
The outcome of strong RevOps-driven process enablement is that ABM execution becomes repeatable and scalable. Instead of ad-hoc coordination (“Did anyone follow up with that CIO we met at the event?”). You have a defined ABM orchestration where each move is planned, and there’s accountability for it. Marketing trusts that Sales will work the accounts properly, Sales trusts Marketing is nurturing them in parallel, and leadership can trust that the ABM strategy is being executed in a disciplined way across the org.
Plus, good processes free up your talented people to focus on creativity and relationship-building, rather than figuring out logistics. Your sales folks can spend more time talking to the right stakeholders, and marketing can focus on crafting killer content for those accounts – RevOps takes care of the orchestration in the background. Think of RevOps like the stage manager of a play: setting the scene, making sure every actor knows their cues, so the performance (campaign) goes off without a hitch and wows the audience (account).
Running an ABM program is not a “set it and forget it” endeavour. It requires constant learning and tweaking – what ABM practitioners call “optimizing the plays.” This is another area where RevOps leadership shines. RevOps can analyse performance across the entire ABM program and deliver insights to refine the strategy and execution over time.
Here’s how RevOps drives insights in ABM:
Holistic Analytics: Because RevOps has visibility from the very top of the funnel (ads, site visits) to the bottom (closed revenue and retention), you can spot patterns that individual teams might miss. For example, you might analyse: Which marketing touchpoints tend to occur in deals we win vs. deals we lose? Are there certain sequences or content pieces that correlate with success? Perhaps you find that accounts which engaged in webinars had a 30% higher close rate. That insight could prompt marketing to invest more in webinar content for ABM, or prompt sales to invite target accounts to webinars as part of their cadence.
Similarly, RevOps might discover that deals involving a particular partner or technology (e.g. all target accounts using Salesforce took longer to close than those on HubSpot – just hypothetically), which might influence how we tailor our approach or messaging. These kinds of cross-functional insights emerge when someone (you, RevOps) is looking at the big picture data, not just isolated metrics.
A/B Testing and Experiments: RevOps can introduce a bit of scientific method into ABM. For instance, you could run an experiment where half of your target accounts receive a certain sequence of touches (Playbook A) and the other half receive a slightly different approach (Playbook B).
By measuring the outcomes, RevOps can determine which approach yields better engagement or conversion, then roll the winning playbook out to all. Or test things like subject lines in outreach emails, types of offers (e.g. invite to executive roundtable vs. offer a free audit) to see what resonates more with your high-value accounts.
Over time, these micro-optimisations can significantly boost ABM results. RevOps is equipped to set up the tracking for these tests and ensure the results are measured accurately.
Feedback Loop with Teams: Numbers alone don’t tell the whole story. RevOps often gathers qualitative feedback from sales reps, marketers, and CSMs working on the accounts. In an ABM review meeting, Sales might mention, “Account X stalled out because we lost our champion.” Marketing might share, “These two accounts keep engaging with content but won’t take a meeting.” RevOps can compile these anecdotes and identify common threads or systemic issues.
Maybe several deals stalled due to a lack of executive buy-in insight: perhaps we need a strategy to engage the C-suite at those accounts (e.g. an event or targeted content for CFOs). Or if many accounts are consuming content but not moving to opportunity, perhaps the value prop needs sharpening for that industry.
RevOps basically acts as the voice of the data + the voice of the field, merging quantitative and qualitative feedback to guide adjustments in strategy.
Strategic Course Corrections: Every few months, RevOps should help the team take a step back and assess the ABM program at a high level. Is our Ideal Customer Profile still accurate, or did we learn something new that refines it? Are we targeting the right companies, or do we see signs we should adjust the criteria? (Maybe certain firmographics turned out less responsive, while an unexpected segment showed interest.)
Do we have the right team structure for ABM – e.g. do we need an ABM marketing manager or more sales support? These bigger questions benefit from RevOps’ broad perspective and data-driven approach. You might leverage the ARISE methodology here (more on that soon), for instance, in an Assess/Research phase, you gather new data and input to pivot or double down.
The idea is that ABM, like any good strategy, evolves based on what you learn. RevOps ensures it’s a continuous improvement loop rather than running the same playbook regardless of results.
Reporting to Leadership and Celebrating Wins: When things go right, RevOps also helps package the success story. If your ABM program knocks it out of the park, you’ll have plenty of metrics and case studies to share: maybe your ABM accounts closed at twice the average deal size, or you achieved a 50% conversion of target accounts to pipeline. RevOps often prepares the narrative for leadership: “Here’s how our coordinated ABM strategy drove a big uptick in enterprise deals.” This not only proves the value of ABM (and RevOps) but also boosts team morale.
Everyone likes to see their hard work translated into numbers and wins. As the RevOps lead, you can highlight individual contributions too (e.g., marketing’s campaign that opened doors at a tough account, or sales’ creative outreach that clinched a meeting). This fosters a culture of recognition and motivates the team to keep pushing the ABM effort.
In summary, RevOps turns the crank on the ABM flywheel – analysing and optimising so that each rotation (campaign or quarter) is more efficient than the last. With RevOps insights, your ABM program becomes a living strategy that adapts to the market and your business goals. It’s like having a coach who’s constantly watching the game tapes, figuring out how to up the team’s performance next time.
Without this, ABM teams might plateau or repeat mistakes; with RevOps driving insights, you’ll see constant improvement and innovation in how you approach key accounts.
And let’s face it, RevOps folks love a good dashboard and a process tweak, so ABM is a perfect playground for us to flex those analytical muscles and make a tangible impact on revenue.
One of the less tangible but most important contributions RevOps makes to ABM success is fostering cross-functional ownership of the program. ABM only thrives when all revenue-related teams feel jointly responsible for its outcomes. As a RevOps leader, you often become the champion and facilitator of this shared ownership.
What does cross-functional ownership look like in practice for ABM? A few hallmarks:
Shared Goals and KPIs: Marketing isn’t just measured on MQLs anymore, and Sales isn’t just measured on overall quota in isolation. Instead, you establish shared ABM metrics that both teams (and CS) commit to. For example, a common goal could be “Close $X from target accounts this quarter” or “Increase engagement on 80% of our target account list”.
RevOps can help set these KPIs and get agreement from all department heads that these are key success metrics. It’s amazing how behaviour changes when everyone is rowing in the same direction. Suddenly, Marketing will care about sales follow-up on accounts, and Sales will care about the top-of-funnel engagement, because both impact the shared goal.
Joint Accountability: With shared goals comes joint accountability. In your ABM review meetings, you have both the Head of Marketing and Head of Sales (and perhaps Head of CS) reporting on progress together. It’s not a marketing initiative that sales is passively involved in; it’s everyone’s initiative.
RevOps can moderate these meetings and ensure that accountability is balanced. For instance, if engagement is high but pipeline is low, it’s not about blaming Sales – it’s about identifying what’s needed (maybe different enablement or more BDR support).
Likewise, if pipeline is high but conversion is low, maybe the issue is in product fit or pricing, which might involve the Product team, and RevOps can bring that into the conversation. The point is, no finger-pointing – ABM results (good or bad) are seen as a collective outcome. RevOps can set that tone from day one.
Collaboration Rituals: We touched on some processes like joint account planning and ABM stand-ups. Those rituals are what turn abstract “ownership” into daily reality. RevOps may formalise cross-team workflows – for example, creating an ABM “tiger team” or task force consisting of a marketer, a sales exec, an SDR, a content strategist, maybe a solutions engineer, all assigned to certain Tier 1 accounts.
This team works together almost like an account squad, planning and executing as a unit. That’s cross-functional ownership at the account team level. If feasible, this model can yield great results because it breaks the usual departmental mould. RevOps can pilot such structures for the highest-value accounts, ensuring that each major account feels like a project everyone’s invested in.
Cultural Alignment: This is softer but crucial. RevOps leaders often evangelise the why of ABM to all teams to build a culture of alignment. You might hold training sessions or informal lunch-and-learns explaining how ABM benefits everyone: Marketing gets higher quality engagement, Sales gets higher win rates and bigger deals, CS gets more engaged customers who feel truly understood, and the company grows faster.
By communicating wins (“Hey team, look how our joint effort cracked into Account Y after 6 months, fantastic job to all involved!”). You reinforce the value of working together. RevOps is like the coach hyping up the team spirit. You can also leverage your company values or vision, for instance, if customer-centricity is a core value, frame ABM as living that value by deeply understanding and serving the customer (account).
All of this helps departments see ABM not as extra work, but as a better way of working that makes their jobs easier in the long run (because aligned teams just operate more smoothly and effectively).
Leadership and Governance: Often, RevOps reports up to the CRO or COO, which gives you a bird’s-eye view to convene cross-functional initiatives. You might set up an ABM Steering Committee that includes RevOps, Sales, Marketing, CS, and even Product leaders, meeting periodically to oversee the ABM program.
By having a formal governance body, you signal that ABM is “owned” by the organisation, not by a single department. RevOps usually coordinates this committee, ensuring meetings have agendas like reviewing metrics, unblocking resource needs (e.g. maybe you need budget for a special campaign or an ABM tool), and aligning on next steps. This top-level ownership filters down through the ranks.
Ultimately, RevOps drives the mindset that ABM is a team sport. When done right, you’ll hear marketers talking about “our target accounts” with pride, and salespeople acknowledging how critical marketing’s role was in warming up an account. You get away from the silo mentality (“marketing did their thing, now it’s on sales”) and move to unified execution. This is where RevOps’ neutrality is an asset – you’re not playing for one side, you’re playing for the revenue outcome, so you can broker that unity.
One more benefit: cross-functional ownership helps sustain the ABM program through challenges. If initial results are slow, a single team might be tempted to give up (“Marketing might think: these accounts aren’t responding, let’s go back to broad campaigns”).
But if all teams co-own ABM, they’re more likely to stick with it, troubleshoot issues together, and iterate until it works. The shared commitment carries the program through the learning curve.
And when the wins do come, like a breakthrough deal, a big renewal, the celebration is shared too. There’s nothing quite like the camaraderie of a cross-functional team that landed a “whale” account together. It builds momentum and relationships that pay dividends beyond just that account. Sales trusts marketing more (and vice versa) because they’ve been in the trenches together. This trust and alignment can then spill over into other initiatives (not just ABM), improving overall go-to-market execution. That’s the RevOps magic – creating alignment that scales success across the business.
At Arise GTM, we often talk about our ARISE GTM methodology®, a five-step framework (Assess, Research, Ideate, Strategise, Execute) for building go-to-market strategies. This methodology is a powerful enabler for RevOps leaders looking to implement or improve ABM because it provides a structured approach to align teams, systems, and tactics quickly.
Let’s briefly see how each stage of ARISE can apply to driving ABM success:
Assess: In the Assess stage, you benchmark your current state. For ABM, a RevOps leader would assess the organisation’s readiness: Do we have an ideal customer profile defined? Are sales and marketing aligned today or far apart? What does our tech stack look like (do we have tools like HubSpot/RollWorks in place, properly configured)? What baseline data do we have on target accounts or past ABM efforts?
This honest assessment helps identify gaps. Perhaps you find data quality issues, or that marketing and sales have completely different target lists, problems to fix before scaling ABM. Through assessment, you also get leadership and stakeholders on the same page about where you are and what success will look like. It’s essentially the preparation phase to ensure everyone understands the starting point and the objectives.
Research: This stage is about gathering insights and conducting analysis. In ABM, that means deep-diving into your market and accounts. RevOps can lead the charge on refining the Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) by analysing historical data:
Which account characteristics correlate with our biggest wins?
Which industries or company sizes have the fastest sales cycles?
Additionally, research includes collecting input from customer-facing teams and even customers themselves. You might interview sales reps for qualitative insights (“What common pain points do you hear from our best customers?”) or analyse win/loss reports.
Competitive analysis fits here too: understanding where your competitors are strong or weak in those target accounts. Essentially, the Research phase arms your ABM team with knowledge to craft spot-on value propositions and messages for the target accounts. It’s also a good time to research and segment the target account list, dividing it into tiers, industries, etc., based on data. RevOps ensures this research is data-driven and collaborative, providing a solid foundation for the strategies to come.
Ideate: With data and insights in hand, now it’s time to brainstorm and design the ABM approach. In the Ideate phase, you bring together key team members (marketing strategists, sales leaders, maybe your content lead, etc.) to creatively plan campaigns and tactics for your targets. This is where you outline things like:
What’s our central theme or big idea for engaging these accounts?
What multi-channel plays can we run?
Are there new ideas like a personalised microsite for each target account, or a custom executive event?
It’s blue-sky thinking grounded in the research. RevOps plays facilitator and reality-check here, encouraging innovative ideas but also considering how to implement them operationally. Since RevOps knows the systems and processes, you can guide the group: “That idea is cool, and we could automate part of it via HubSpot,” or “Interesting approach, how would we measure success there?”
By the end of Ideate, you should have a set of proposed campaign plans, content needs, and process tweaks tailored for ABM. It’s basically designing your ABM playbook in detail, before you commit resources to execution. Often, multiple ideas are considered, and the most feasible and impactful are chosen to carry forward.
Strategise (Strategize): In this phase, you turn the ideas into a concrete action plan and decisions. Think of it as finalising the ABM strategy. RevOps will help map out the timeline, assign owners, and define the processes for execution.
For ABM, strategising might include: selecting the final target account list (maybe narrowing down to the top 50 for a pilot), defining the specific plays for each tier of accounts, allocating budget (e.g. ad spend for RollWorks, direct mail budget for Tier 1 accounts, etc.), and setting up the measurement plan (what KPIs, dashboards?).
It also means ensuring we have the content and resources lined up, if one tactic is a custom whitepaper for each account, strategise how to produce that at scale (perhaps a template with variable fields?).
RevOps ensures everything is documented and signed off: for instance, a playbook that says “For Tier 1 accounts: Steps 1-10 will happen, owners X/Y will do them, using these tools, expecting these outcomes.” Essentially, Strategise turns the brainstorm into a project plan.
At Arise GTM, we place heavy emphasis on documentation and sign-off in this stage, it’s what makes execution smooth and keeps everyone accountable. As a RevOps leader, this is where you also double-check that all systems are ready (tech configured, data prepared, team trained on any new tool or process).
Execute: Now, it’s go time, launch the ABM program and execute the plan. RevOps’ role in execution is to support the teams as they do the work and to keep a close eye on the machinery. You’ll be making sure those workflows you set up are firing correctly (e.g. is HubSpot actually triggering tasks when it should?), adjusting any tech settings on the fly, and monitoring early data.
Execution for ABM can be intensive, marketing launching campaigns, sales doing outreach, events happening, etc. RevOps might help coordinate daily or weekly status updates, quickly troubleshoot issues (like “oh, the leads from the webinar weren’t properly associating to companies – fix that”), and basically ensure the plan is carried out.
Because you did the Assess through Strategise steps, execution is a lot smoother – you’re not making it up as you go; you’re following the playbook. Of course, reality will throw curveballs, and RevOps is there to catch them.
For example, if a certain account suddenly goes dark, RevOps can flag it, and perhaps the team changes tactics. Or if a new high-fit account comes into view, perhaps you add it to the program mid-stream. Throughout execution, RevOps also starts collecting results to compare against expectations (closing the loop back to Assess next round).
One powerful aspect of ARISE is that it’s deliverable inside HubSpot and other tools. For RevOps, that means many of the assets from this methodology live in your CRM/automation platform, from custom reports to workflows to playbooks.
At Arise GTM, we’ve even built ARISE as a kind of pre-configured model in HubSpot with custom objects, reports, and sequences. The idea is that by the time you’re Executing, you’re leveraging a well-oiled system rather than improvising. This framework can accelerate getting an ABM program off the ground in under 30 days in many cases, which is a huge win for RevOps leaders who need to show quick progress.
By using a methodology like ARISE GTM, RevOps leaders ensure that nothing is skipped – you’re systematically aligning teams and strategy at each step. It prevents the common pitfalls of ABM implementation, like jumping to execution without buy-in (Assess/Research handles that) or failing to measure (Strategise handles defining KPIs). It also ensures cross-functional input is baked in, note how every stage involves collaboration:
Assess involves hearing from all departments about the current state.
Research involves data and input from various sources.
Ideate brings the creative minds from multiple teams together.
Strategise aligns leadership and doers on the plan.
Execute involves everyone carrying out their part.
This mirrors the cross-functional ethos RevOps preaches. ARISE is essentially an enabler for RevOps to do ABM right. It provides a repeatable blueprint, so you’re not reinventing the wheel, and it’s proven across numerous SaaS companies (we’ve honed it through many engagements, winning awards along the way).
So if you’re embarking on or refining an ABM initiative, consider applying the ARISE framework to structure your approach. It’s like having a recipe for ABM success – you still add your secret sauce (the unique value prop and creativity for your accounts), but the fundamental steps ensure nothing crucial is left out. As we like to say, ARISE helps you “plug the gaps easily and completely” in your go-to-market strategy, ABM included.
Ready to put things into action? Here’s a step-by-step RevOps ABM playbook – a checklist of practical steps for RevOps leaders to implement or improve an account-based marketing program. Use this as a guide to make sure you’ve covered all the bases:
Define Your ABM Goals and Team: Start by clarifying what you want to achieve with ABM. Is it to break into a new market segment? Increase enterprise deal size? Expand existing key accounts? Set specific goals (e.g. “Generate $2M in pipeline from ABM accounts in 6 months” or “Land 5 Fortune 500 customers this year”). Ensure you have leadership buy-in on these goals. Form your core ABM team – include stakeholders from Marketing, Sales, and Customer Success. As RevOps, you may act as the project lead, but make sure each team has an owner for ABM efforts. Establish that this is a joint initiative from day one.
Identify and Tier Target Accounts: Leverage data to compile your initial target account list. Use your ICP criteria to pick high-fit accounts – consider firmographics (industry, size), technographics, past engagement, etc. If you need to refine your ICP, do that first (our guide on avoiding ICP mistakes might help). Once you have a list of potential targets, segment them into tiers. For example:
Tier 1: Top strategic accounts (e.g. 10-20 accounts with the highest potential or existing strategic customers to expand).
Tier 2: Important accounts with good potential (maybe 50 accounts).
Tier 3: Scalable segment (hundreds of accounts fitting a profile, for one-to-many programs).
Tiers help allocate effort – Tier 1 gets highly personalised 1:1 treatment, Tier 2 a mix of 1:few and scalable touches, Tier 3 more automated one-to-many. Bring Sales and Marketing together to agree on the final list and tiers (alignment starts here!).
Align Your Tech Stack (HubSpot, RollWorks, etc.): Audit your current tools and ensure they’re set up for ABM. In HubSpot, activate the ABM features:
Switch to company-based view and turn on the Target Accounts tool.
Define your ICP properties in HubSpot and set up ideal profile tiers (HubSpot can score companies on fit).
Create custom fields if needed (e.g. “Tier” or “ABM Program” checkboxes).
Ensure contacts are associated with companies correctly (RevOps might run a quick data cleanup).
Integrate RollWorks with HubSpot if you haven’t: set up the syncing of account lists, engagement data, and ensure your target account list in HubSpot is feeding RollWorks campaigns. Check other integrations – connecting LinkedIn Matched Audiences, syncing webinar platforms, etc., so that account interactions are captured. If you use Salesforce or another CRM alongside, make sure the data flows similarly.
Basically, get the plumbing in place so that once campaigns run, all data goes into HubSpot (or your central system) for those accounts. Do a test run with one or two accounts to verify tracking (e.g., see that an ad impression or site visit reflects on the account’s timeline in HubSpot).
Develop Account Insights and Content: Work with marketing (and perhaps a sales analyst) to gather key insights on each Tier 1 and Tier 2 account. This might mean creating an “Account Brief” for each: company overview, key contacts, known pain points, any prior touchpoints or history, competitor presence, etc.
Simultaneously, audit your content and messaging – do you have the assets needed to engage these accounts? Identify gaps and produce high-impact content tailored to common challenges those accounts face (case studies, whitepapers, personalised decks). For Tier 1 accounts, you might even create custom content (like a personalised video or microsite).
RevOps can facilitate a content map: ensure that for each stage of the account's journey, you have something relevant. If you have a content personalisation tool or just HubSpot dynamic content, set that up to deliver custom messages to target accounts (for example, your website could greet known visitors from target companies with a personalised message). These preparations will empower the team to deliver a highly relevant experience, which is the hallmark of ABM.
Design ABM Campaigns and Plays: In collaboration with marketing and sales, outline the campaigns and sequences for engaging the target accounts. This includes: advertising plan (e.g. LinkedIn Ads or RollWorks display ads targeting accounts), outreach sequences (what combination of emails, calls, social touches will sales do and when), and any special tactics (events, direct mail, executive connects, etc.).
Map these activities on a timeline, for instance, Month 1 might be about warming up with thought leadership content, Month 2 focusing on specific solution pitches, etc. Create a playbook document or use project management tools to lay out the plan. Make sure roles are clear: who does what and when. Then, configure what you can in your tools:
Build the HubSpot sequences/templates for sales now, so reps can easily enrol contacts when the time comes.
Set up RollWorks campaigns with the right creative and account list.
Schedule content (blogs, emails) if possible.
Set task reminders in HubSpot for manual steps (like “Week 2: SDR send Connection Request on LinkedIn”). Essentially, pre-load as much of the execution as you can into systems and calendars. This playbook acts as your flight plan for the ABM journey.
Enable and Train the Team: Before launching, gather the troops for an ABM training session. Walk Sales, Marketing, and CS through the plan. Show them the new dashboards or tools in HubSpot – for example, demonstrate the Target Accounts view, how to log activity properly, and how to use any new snippets or templates.
Explain the workflows: if Marketing is sending direct mail, how should Sales follow up when it’s delivered? If a lead comes in from a target account, how will it be routed? Ensure everyone understands the SLA expectations (e.g., follow-up times). This is also a chance to build excitement, share the big-picture vision and how this is different from business-as-usual.
Often, reps love the idea of focusing on fewer, better leads, so get them pumped that this is a special program. Address questions and emphasise that open communication is expected – if something’s not working, we’ll fix it together (RevOps will be listening!). Essentially, set the team up for success with knowledge and tools, so there’s confidence going into execution.
Launch and Execute Cohesively: Time to hit the go button. Kick off the ABM program with a splash – maybe a company-wide announcement or a Slack message: “Our ABM pilot is live – wish the team luck!” As the plan unfolds, monitor closely. Use your dashboards to watch engagement. Encourage the team to share updates: a salesperson getting a meeting, or marketing seeing an account spike in web traffic.
These quick wins should be celebrated in real-time to keep momentum. If you see any red flags (e.g., low email response rates), huddle with the team and adjust on the fly, maybe tweak the messaging or cadence. RevOps should keep a checklist of execution, ensuring each planned activity happens.
For example, if week 3 called for a webinar invite to all target accounts, did those emails go out? If not, follow up with the owner. Keep everything moving according to plan as much as possible.
Yet, stay agile, if an account suddenly shows buyer intent outside of the planned schedule, react to it (have sales reach out immediately rather than waiting for the next planned touch). Continual coordination is key; consider a brief weekly sync with the core ABM team to review progress and next steps (even 15 minutes can surface important adjustments).
Measure, Learn, and Optimise: As data comes in, track it against the goals you set.
Is engagement rate meeting expectations?
How many meetings or opportunities have been generated?
Gather the team to do a midway review (if it’s a long campaign) or post-mortem (if it’s a shorter pilot). Identify what worked and what didn’t. Perhaps you find that accounts responded well to a certain piece of content, but a particular email sequence underperformed. Use these learnings to refine your approach.
Optimisation might involve re-segmenting accounts, trying new content, adjusting your scoring model, or providing additional training to reps on a certain skill (e.g., social selling if LinkedIn outreach lagged).
Document these insights: RevOps often owns the “lessons learned” document to carry knowledge forward. Then implement changes for the next round. ABM is iterative; expect that you won’t get everything perfect out of the gate. The key is to continuously improve. If you’re using ARISE, you’d formally cycle back to Assess and Research with the new data to plan the next campaign even better.
Expand What Works: Once you start seeing success (and you will, if you stick to the plan!), consider scaling up. Maybe you pilot ABM with 20 accounts and land a couple of big wins. Now you have internal case studies. Use that to justify expanding the program, perhaps add more accounts or roll out ABM to another segment of the market.
Ensure you have the capacity and resources to maintain quality while scaling quantity. You might need to invest in additional tools (maybe an ABM-specific enablement tool or content personalisation platform) or even hire roles like an ABM campaign manager or a dedicated BDR for ABM accounts.
RevOps can make the business case for these based on the pilot results. Also, integrate ABM into the broader go-to-market strategy – it shouldn’t remain a siloed “special project” if it’s proving effective.
For example, align it with your demand gen: maybe general marketing nurtures a wider audience and flags any high-fit accounts to add into ABM. The ultimate goal is to embed ABM as a core, ongoing strategy enabled by RevOps, not a one-off effort.
Communicate and Celebrate: Keep stakeholders in the loop throughout. Provide regular updates to leadership – e.g., a monthly ABM progress report with leading indicators and wins. Also, communicate to the broader team, share success stories like “We just cracked into XYZ Corp after 6 months of ABM efforts, huge congrats to Marketing and Sales team on that account!”
Recognise team members who go above and beyond, perhaps in a company all-hands. This positive reinforcement cements the cross-functional spirit. When others see the wins, they’ll be eager to support or even join the ABM initiative. Over time, ABM becomes part of the company DNA, with RevOps as its steward. And don’t forget to give yourself (RevOps) a pat on the back, too. Orchestrating ABM is no small feat, and your behind-the-scenes work is driving visible business outcomes!
This playbook is a guideline. Tailor it to your organisation’s needs and maturity. If you already have some ABM elements in place, you might focus on the steps where gaps exist (e.g., maybe you have an account list but no SLA process – implement that).
If you’re starting fresh, following these steps in order will help you launch ABM in a methodical, impactful way. Remember, the key themes are alignment, data-driven decisions, and iterative improvement, all bread and butter for RevOps. With you at the helm, your ABM strategy has a much higher chance of delivering stellar results.
A: RevOps is the orchestrator and enabler of ABM. As a RevOps leader, you ensure that marketing, sales, and customer success are aligned on target accounts, sharing data, and following coordinated processes. You manage the tech stack (like HubSpot and RollWorks integration) so all account insights flow seamlessly. You also own the reporting, providing dashboards and analysis to track ABM progress and ROI.
Essentially, RevOps provides the foundation (tools, data, process) that allows the ABM strategy to run effectively. Think of RevOps as the program manager of ABM, working cross-functionally to keep everyone on the same page and the engine running smoothly.
A: All of the above, and that’s the point! ABM is a team sport. Typically, Marketing and Sales are the primary executors of ABM (with Marketing often driving campaigns and Sales handling direct outreach). However, RevOps should co-own the program with them as the facilitator of alignment and measurement. RevOps might not write the marketing content or make the sales calls, but it ensures those activities are coordinated and aimed at the right targets.
Many companies establish a joint ABM task force or committee (with marketing, sales, CS, and RevOps representation) to “own” ABM collaboratively. RevOps often chairs this committee. So, while day-to-day tactics might live in Marketing/Sales, RevOps is the glue holding it together and often the neutral party accountable for the overall success metrics.
A: HubSpot and RollWorks complement each other to deliver a full-funnel ABM approach. HubSpot acts as your central CRM and marketing automation platform – it’s where your account data, segmentation, email sequences, and sales activities live.
RollWorks is an ABM platform that provides account identification, digital ad campaigns, and intent signals. When integrated, RollWorks will sync target account engagement data into HubSpot (like ad clicks, site visits, or account scoring).
HubSpot can then trigger follow-ups or adjust account statuses based on that data. For example, if RollWorks flags a surge in interest from Account ABC, HubSpot could notify the sales owner to reach out immediately.
As a RevOps leader, your job is to set up and maintain this integration: make sure the right account lists are syncing, the data fields map correctly, and both Marketing and Sales know how to use the combined toolset. You may need to tune the RollWorks account scoring model or adjust HubSpot workflows that respond to RollWorks triggers.
Ongoing, RevOps monitors that the systems stay in sync (no data breaks) and that the team is leveraging the integration fully (for instance, using RollWorks’ intent data in HubSpot to prioritise accounts). In short, RevOps owns the technical and process glue between HubSpot and RollWorks to ensure a smooth ABM operation.
A: Key ABM metrics span the entire account journey. As RevOps, you’ll want to track:
Account Engagement: e.g., how many target accounts engaged with at least one activity, and an engagement score or index per account.
Meetings/Opportunities from Target Accounts: how many target accounts converted to sales conversations or open opportunities?
Pipeline and Revenue from target accounts: the total pipeline generated and deals won from the ABM list (often compared vs. a baseline or vs. non-ABM accounts).
Conversion Rates: percentage of target accounts that became opportunities, and percentage of those that closed. This helps show ABM funnel efficiency.
Touchpoint Attribution: which marketing and sales touches were most influential (multi-touch attribution). For example, seeing that 70% of won ABM deals had a C-level meeting involved, or that direct mail was present in 50% of wins.
Engagement by Channel: e.g., ad engagement metrics (impressions, clicks per account), email engagement (opens/clicks by account), event attendance by target accounts, content downloads by account.
Sales Activity: how many outreach touches per account, and correlation to outcomes (to ensure sales is adequately working on each account).
Program ROI: ultimately, compare the revenue influenced by ABM to the investment (ad spend, dedicated resources) to demonstrate ROI (remember those stats, ABM typically yields higher ROI, so prove it internally).
These metrics should be sliced by tier, segment, or campaign as needed for clarity. RevOps will compile this data (likely via HubSpot reports or BI tools) and present insights, like “Tier 1 accounts have a 20% conversion to opportunity versus 10% for Tier 2, perhaps due to more personalized touches.” or “We’ve already closed $500k from ABM accounts this quarter, a 50% increase QoQ.” The goal is not just to collect numbers, but to provide analysis on what’s working and where to optimise, bridging back to strategy.
A: Absolutely, ABM and broader demand gen can and should coexist as parts of your overall go-to-market strategy. They serve different purposes and often feed each other. Traditional demand gen (inbound content marketing, broad campaigns, etc.) creates general awareness and a volume of leads, some of which may turn out to be high-fit and can be graduated into your ABM program (for targeted nurturing if they match your ICP).
Conversely, insights from ABM (e.g., a particular message resonates with executives in fintech accounts) can inform your broader marketing. From a RevOps perspective, the key is to clearly define segmentation and lead handling processes so the two motions complement rather than conflict.
For example, you might say: any inbound lead that is from a target account goes straight to the account owner (bypassing normal MQL processing), whereas inbound leads outside the target list go through your usual scoring and nurturing flow. RevOps ensures the CRM is set up to handle this logic.
Also, RevOps will watch the metrics of both motions, ABM often has lower volume but higher conversion, while demand gen has higher volume but lower conversion. Both together drive growth. It’s not either/or; it’s about using ABM for the most valuable accounts and demand gen to cast a wider net for future opportunities (some of which might become ABM targets).
The RevOps team just needs to orchestrate the workflows so that, for instance, marketing isn’t accidentally sending generic nurture emails to a CEO of a target account who’s supposed to be getting white-glove treatment. With good RevOps coordination, ABM acts as a focused layer on top of your broader marketing efforts, and both can thrive.
(Have more questions? As RevOps leaders, our curiosity is never fully satisfied – feel free to reach out to the Arise GTM team for deeper insights or specific scenarios!)
Account-based marketing has the potential to unlock significant growth in B2B SaaS, but only if your organisation executes it in a unified, strategic way. That’s why RevOps is the secret sauce for ABM success. When Revenue Operations leaders apply their expertise in aligning teams, integrating tech, and leveraging data, ABM programs transform from hopeful experiments into revenue-generating machines.
As we’ve explored, RevOps ensures Marketing, Sales, and Customer Success operate as one cohesive “revenue team” focused on what matters: engaging and winning the accounts that will move the needle most.
From building an integrated HubSpot-RollWorks tech stack that provides a 360° view of target accounts, to establishing the reporting that proves ABM’s ROI, to orchestrating processes that get everyone playing in harmony, RevOps turns ABM from theory into practice.
By following a structured approach like the ARISE methodology and the playbook steps outlined above, you can systematically plan, execute, and refine your ABM strategy with confidence. And with RevOps guiding continuous improvement, your ABM program will only get stronger and more effective over time, delivering bigger deals, faster closes, and deeper customer relationships.
Most importantly, ABM done right creates a culture of alignment and customer-centricity that goes beyond just the target accounts; it can ripple positively through all your go-to-market efforts. That alignment is at the heart of what Arise GTM strives for in every engagement.
We believe in direct, human collaboration, a friendly yet professional approach, and even having some fun while we’re at it (yes, ABM war rooms can have pizza and laughs!). As RevOps leaders, when you speak the language of both marketing and sales, you become the translator and catalyst that makes ABM truly work.
So, if you’re a RevOps leader looking to spearhead ABM at your organisation, consider this your rallying cry. You have the power to break down the silos, enable amazing account-focused campaigns, and ultimately drive revenue growth in a way that none of the departments could alone. ABM is a journey, one that’s far more rewarding (and less arduous) when travelled as a unified team. And with RevOps at the wheel, you’ll keep that team on course to success.
Ready to Supercharge Your ABM with RevOps? If you’re excited by the possibilities and want expert guidance to accelerate your ABM success, we’re here to help. Arise GTM specialises in RevOps-driven ABM strategy, from aligning your HubSpot tech stack to coaching your teams on our ARISE methodology.
Contact us today to find out how we can partner with you to build a high-performing ABM program that fuels your B2B SaaS growth. Let’s turn your target accounts into your next best customers, together!