What Characteristics of an ABM Manager Should You Screen For?
A good account based marketing manager can be hard to come by. When it comes to all things ABM, the talent pool is relatively small compared to other fields of marketing. That’s why Sloane Staffing has you covered with characteristics of an ABM manager you should screen for.
Data Driven Mindset
A data-driven mindset is crucial when screening for an ABM Manager. From analyzing market ROI to analyzing click data to implement A/B tests, your ABM Manager should be able to give you examples of data they tracked in their previous roles.
An ideal ABM Manager should be able to review CRM data and create an ideal customer persona (ICP) and should know tools to match your target audience. How do they interpret and optimize data?
Ask questions such as:
How would you decide which accounts we should target?
What benchmark statistics do you keep track of when managing an ABM program?
How do you balance serving marketing and sales the data they value to ensure a successful ABM program for all parties involved?
Campaign Management Skills
A foundational skill your ABM manager should possess are campaign management skills. They should understand your business’ goals while creating campaigns. A successful campaign is more important than a great idea and understanding goals, however. How would your potential ABM manager manage and track their campaigns and what tools do they use?
Questions to screen your potential ABM manager about their campaign management skills could look like:
Can you provide an example of a successful ABM campaign you have run in the past?
How do you define goals for ABM campaigns?
Where do you find most organizations struggle when managing their ABM campaigns, and how do you plan on doing things differently?
Can you walk me through your process from start to finish when creating, managing, and tracking campaigns?
Strategic Mindset
There are not a ton of ABM experts out there. So when it comes to finding your ABM manager, it is crucial that they have a full understanding of the sales cycle, from awareness to acquisition. Account based marketing is not like email marketing that has been done for the past 40 years. Remember, ABM is a strategic approach, not a tactic.
Your ABM manager should have the strategic skills to get the buy in from both marketing and sales teams. They should be able to persuade marketing to create collateral hyper focused on targeting to run their go-to-market motions.
When screening, don't just limit yourself to finding someone experienced in the 6sense platform, for example. Find someone that also knows ABM as a whole strategy aside from tools, whether it be Demand Base, Terminus, etc. This will ensure that your ABM manager can strategically think creatively based on what industry their company falls in and lead a good account based marketing program.
Consider these questions when screening for how strategic your ABM manager may be:
Tools or strategy, which is more important to you?
We have not done ABM before, how would you approach things to ensure ABM is successful for us?
What content do you think works best for each phase of the buying journey?
How do you stay on top of industry changes, and what have you found to be a successful strategy in the last year?
Collaborative Attitude
Your ABM manager should be someone that can work well with others, whether that be with team members from marketing or sales. The main focus is to tie sales and marketing together and be someone that can communicate priorities, strategically develop solutions, and manage successful campaigns all while collaborating with the rest of your company.
Allow your screening process to be a good time to get to know your potential ABM manager. Ask questions such as:
What does collaboration look like to you?
How should an ABM manager get buy-in from the marketing team?
What personality traits make for a good ABM manager?
How would you navigate the challenges of working with a stubborn teammate or someone who has their mind set on something you disagree with?
