Welcome to the ABM, REBUILT blog series. Follow along for practical insights on building modern ABM programs that deliver real revenue impact.
For years, marketers have been told that account-based marketing (ABM) is the future. And it should be. But somewhere along the way, ABM got hijacked by technology vendors, automation, dashboards, and intent feeds. Today, most ABM programs look less like strategic revenue engines and more like overbuilt orchestration machines humming quietly in the background.
In the process, we’ve lost sight of something fundamental: buyers are people. They don’t move through funnels the way we diagram them. They don’t follow nurture tracks, or convert because a platform scored them “high intent.”
ABM was never meant to be a campaign. It was meant to be a dynamic motion. A coordinated, real-time effort to engage buying groups based on what they’re actually seeing, feeling, and deciding.
If anything, ABM is closer to a soccer match (football for my European friends) than a marketing program. You’re constantly reading the defense, adjusting to the field, and moving the ball down the pitch. You win by making smart decisions in the mid-field and the final third – not by having a perfectly choreographed kickoff.
And yet … most organizations invest almost everything in the kickoff.
The Myth of the Top-of-Funnel Fix
Most CMOs are still pouring the majority of their dollars and attention into top-of-funnel activities: brand campaigns, target account activation, intent automation, and SDR outreach. These are important, but they’re not where deals are won or lost.
The mid-funnel and the final mile are where enterprise buying really happens. This is where buyers struggle with:
- Internal alignment
- Risk and fear
- Economic justification
- Validating vendor claims
- Building consensus
These moments aren’t pipeline stages – they’re human stages. And yet they receive the least investment, attention, and strategy.
No wonder deals stall and enterprise sales cycles keep getting longer. Organizations are playing beautiful soccer for the first 10 minutes and then losing the match in the final third.
Why Mid-Funnel and Final Mile Stall Out
Teams don’t fail here because of poor content or not enough touches. They fail because of misalignment and misdiagnosis. Some common penalties:
Over-orchestration kills responsiveness. Workflows assume buyers behave predictably. They don’t. Enterprise buying is nonlinear, political, and emotional.
No one is reading the field. “Intent spiking” is not the same as understanding who’s influential on the buying committee, who’s unconvinced, and who’s afraid of making the wrong decision. Sales knows some of these things and so does marketing. But no one puts it together.
Champions lack support to sell internally. Without narratives, risk frameworks, or persuasive materials, even the strongest champions struggle to move a buying committtee.
ABM teams stop playing once the opportunity opens. Most ABM programs treat opportunity creation as the finish line. But in reality, it’s the kickoff.
What Needs to Change
1. ABM must be situational, not sequenced.
Messaging, content, and outreach must adjust in real time based on buying-group dynamics – not workflow design.
2. Marketing and sales must always be huddling.
Deal-specific collaboration between sales and marketing should be a standard operating motion, not an exception. (Our research found that 63% of marketing teams have no formal process for gathering information from sales for critical buyer identification.)
3. Give champions the support they deserve.
The most impactful investment is helping buyer champions break down internal barriers with risk mitigation frameworks, CFO storylines, internal pitch decks, and competitive teardown kits.
4. Measure progress by decision readiness, not “influence.”
The goal isn’t more meetings. It’s aligned, confident buying groups ready to make a decision.
The CMO Imperative: Expand Influence Beyond Pipeline
Fixing ABM isn’t a campaign problem. It’s a leadership problem.
It’s the CMO’s job to lead cross-functional alignment. That means reframing marketing’s role from “pipeline creation” to “deal momentum creation.” This is where the real revenue leverage lies.
CMOs who embrace this shift become strategic partners to the CRO and CEO. They bring buyer insight into the boardroom, influence deal strategy, and help shape the narratives that win large enterprise opportunities.
And in doing so, they help the entire organization play a better, more coordinated game.
ABM Isn’t Broken — the Approach Is
ABM was never supposed to be an automated series. It’s meant to be a team effort to move real people through real decisions.
When we treat it like a soccer match – fluid, adaptive, human – we start winning again. When we stop overengineering and start paying attention to buyers, momentum returns.
And when CMOs invest in the mid-funnel and the final mile, everything changes: win rates rise, cycles shorten, champions strengthen, and deals stop slipping away. The opportunity isn’t to rebuild ABM. It’s to return it to what it was always meant to be.
Additional Resources
Read the first post in the ABM, REBUILT blog series.
Attend the webinar, The 10 Trends Reshaping B2B Marketing in 2026.
Read the full report, The 2025 State of B2B Pipeline Growth.
