Challenge · We can't reach the decision-makers at our target accounts

We know who our ideal customers are. But we can't reach the decision-makers.

In short: If you know who your ideal customers are but can't reach the people who decide, it's rarely down to too few campaigns. You're reaching the wrong roles, at the wrong moment, with no reason for a next step. Account-based marketing turns that around: fewer accounts, the people who decide in each one, and a reason to talk now. STOF to Grow designs that approach in its Market activation programme.

The choice is made. You know which customers fit you best, and sales can name them on the spot. Yet you can't reach the people who decide. Messages go unanswered, a demo stalls after one meeting, or you've been with one department for years while the rest of the company doesn't know you.

That's rarely down to too little activity. Usually there's too much: campaigns for everyone who looks like the customer, instead of a plan for the customers you actually want. In a large B2B purchase, six to ten people have a say. If you only know one of them, you're waiting for a decision that's being made somewhere else.

How do you recognise it?

Sales can name the ten most important target customers, but not who decides on the purchase there.
You're in with one department or site, and every new location has to be won all over again.
Marketing measures reach and downloads, sales measures meetings, and nobody measures progress per account.
Events and webinars are full, but rarely with people from the accounts that matter.
A deal gets stuck at procurement, IT or security, because they only joined at the end.
The account plans sit in a spreadsheet that nobody opens after the first month.

Why more campaigns don't help

A campaign looks for people who resemble your customer. But in a large purchase it's not about resembling, it's about exactly this organisation, these people and this moment. A message to the most senior title you can find rarely reaches the person who feels the problem every day, or the one who holds the budget.

On top of that, sometimes the door is simply shut. There's already a supplier, procurement only works with known parties, or the organisation has just reorganised and half the contacts are gone. No campaign helps then. Only a plan that works out, account by account, how things work there.

Account-based: fewer accounts, more depth

Account-based marketing (ABM) reverses the order. You don't start with a target audience, but with a short list of accounts. For each account you answer three questions:

Which accounts, and why now? Where does a conversation this quarter move an opportunity forward? A new site, a new director or an upcoming tender create the moment.
Who needs to be in the room? Who holds the budget, who feels the problem, who assesses it technically and who guards procurement? Those are the roles that shape the decision.
What does each account leave with? A reason to take the next meeting, with an owner on both sides.

That makes account-based work a matter of collaboration, not a marketing trick. Marketing and sales choose the accounts together, share one picture per account and measure the same things.

What an account map makes visible

At the heart of the approach is an account map: for each priority account, the buying group, with a name, the strength of the relationship and a next step for every role. A map like that shows three things you'd otherwise miss:

Coverage. Where you're strong and where you're absent. Often the relationship turns out to be good at one site and missing at the level where decisions are made.
Opportunity. Where you're credible, and which customer is the reference that opens the next door.
Action. One step per gap, with an owner and a date. Sales and leadership see progress without extra reporting.

The map belongs in your CRM, not in a spreadsheet. That's where sales already works, and where it stays current.

The STOF rhythm for account-based growth

Look and listen — we look at won and lost deals and at the CRM, talk to the account owners, and find out for each account what's changing now.
Make a sharp choice — a short list of target accounts with one objective each, the buying group mapped, and a deliberate choice about what's not on the list.
Align — marketing and sales make one plan: a message per role, one owner per contact, and everything in the CRM.
Follow through — a pilot of about ninety days, measured on follow-up meetings and opportunities. Then you decide what to scale.

A sensible place to start

If the choice of ideal customer is made, Market activation is the logical step: we design the account-based approach and support the first pilot.

If you're still unsure about that choice, or marketing and sales disagree on who the ideal customer is, start with a Positioning sprint or a Growth diagnosis. A plan for the wrong accounts only makes the wrong work more efficient.

When is STOF a good fit for this challenge?

STOF fits growing B2B organisations with a substantial deal size, a sale with several decision-makers and a sales team that wants to take part. For years, Nona built account-based programmes in enterprise SaaS, covering the UK, Benelux and the Nordics. If you're looking for an agency to run ads and campaigns, we're not the right partner. We design and support; execution stays with you.

Want to sharpen the profile first? The guide Ideal customer profile shows in six steps how to choose the organisations that deliver the most, and who doesn't fit.

Cases

What that looked like at Driftawave

Driftawave

First a complete brand, then a route to market and the systems to run it every week. In two months the account database grew almost tenfold and visibility in Google more than doubled.

Frequently asked questions

What is account-based marketing?

Account-based marketing (ABM) is a B2B approach in which marketing and sales choose a short list of target accounts together and treat each account as a market of its own. For each account you map who decides, why the moment is now and what the next step is. You measure progress per account, not the reach of a campaign.

How many accounts do you start with?

Few. For a first pilot, often five to fifteen accounts, with a handful of them fully mapped. Better a small number done well than many done halfway. You scale once you know what works.

How is it different from lead generation?

Lead generation looks for many people who show interest, and qualifies them afterwards. Account-based work chooses the organisations first and then finds the right people inside them. The first delivers volume, the second conversations with the people who decide. Many B2B organisations need both, but for their most important customers mainly the second.

Do we need expensive software?

No. A well set-up CRM is enough to start. Dedicated ABM software can help later, but only once the choices and the collaboration between marketing and sales are in place.

How do we start?

With a free 45-minute introductory call with Nona or Carlijn. We look at which accounts you really want, where the door stays shut, and what a sensible first step would be.

Start with the accounts that matter.

In a free 45-minute introductory call, we look at which accounts you really want, where the door stays shut, and what a first step would be.

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