SAN FRANCISCO, April 30, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Today at Demandbase's Marketing Innovation Summit for B2B, SiriusDecisions unveiled the results of its 2015 State of Account-Based Marketing (ABM) Study. The survey reveals that ABM is essential to improving sales and marketing alignment, but many marketers believe they lack the support needed to succeed at ABM. While 92 percent of companies recognize the value in ABM, going as far as calling it a B2B marketing must-have, only 20 percent have had full programs in place for more than one year. The study shows wider adoption is expected with more than 60 percent planning to invest in technology for ABM to better align sales and marketing over the next twelve months.

"B2B marketers are realizing that marketing to large quantities of individuals doesn't result in quality sales opportunities," said Peter Isaacson, chief marketing officer at Demandbase. "ABM is fast becoming the B2B strategy of choice because it truly aligns sales and marketing while focusing their teams on the highest value accounts. I expect adoption to grow rapidly as companies that have made this switch have seen tremendous results by focusing their efforts on attracting, engaging, converting and measuring the accounts that are most likely to buy."

Additional findings include:

• Strong sales and marketing alignment with ABM: All companies practicing ABM claim to be at least somewhat aligned with sales, with 34 percent saying they were tightly aligned.
• High willingness of companies to try ABM: Companies in the study see the value of ABM, with 52 percent of respondents currently having pilot programs in place.
• Sales involvement is high: 74 percent of respondents work with sales to define account goals and plans, and 67 percent get help from sales on account insights.
• Where marketers have more alignment has to do with their peers: Respondents said just 46 percent are getting help with ABM from other marketing functions.
• Major skills gap: 47 percent of companies surveyed say that they don't feel their ABM teams have the skills needed for ABM and that marketing teams need more support to succeed at ABM.

"We're in the early days of an important change in how B2B companies go about delivering on their revenue goals, and ABM is a critical aspect of this shift," said Megan Heuer, vice president and group director at SiriusDecisions. "What makes ABM so attractive right now is the way it combines insights for strategy and technology for execution. Marketing teams who understand ABM are in a powerful position to better align to what sales needs, and to make smart choices about the right actions to take and the right time to take them to grow high-potential accounts. What we'll see in the year ahead is whether marketers acquire the skills and resources they need to fully realize the promise of ABM."

Heuer is scheduled to give a keynote at Demandbase's Marketing Innovation Summit for B2B on Thursday, April 30, 2015. During the session, Heuer will discuss how ABM helps to align marketing efforts with sales goals, share examples of success and highlight data from the survey.

About Demandbase

Demandbase is the leading advertising and personalization company for B2B. The Demandbase B2B Marketing Cloud is the only subscription-based ad targeting and web personalization solution that enables marketers to connect campaigns directly to revenue. Demandbase makes it possible for businesses to deliver personalized ads targeting specific businesses across the web, and then tailor the messages on their websites to convert these companies to customers. The B2B Marketing Cloud is powered by patented technology that enables marketers to identify and segment companies on the web and delivers detailed, targetable business attributes in real-time. The B2B Marketing Cloud connects to existing sales and marketing technologies – including CMS, CRM, marketing automation, analytics, chat and others – and provides a unified view of all activity across the entire sales funnel. With Demandbase, businesses can target, engage, convert and retain the customers that matter most to their bottom line. Enterprise leaders and high-growth companies such as Adobe, Salesforce.com, Box, CSC, DocuSign, Dell and others use Demandbase to drive better marketing performance. For more information, visit http://www.demandbase.com.

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SOURCE Demandbase

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