A Look Inside a Live Scrappy ABM Engagement

A lot of ABM case studies show up after everything works.

Pipeline might be up, but by that point, all the interesting parts, like the decisions and actual build, are behind the scenes.

So instead of waiting months to package this up, we’re doing something different.

This is a real, anonymized look at a live engagement, including what we’re building and why it works, before all the final numbers are in.

The Context: A Strong Foundation, But No System

The company we’re working with (keeping them anonymous for now) is an enterprise SaaS platform built for multi-location brands, supporting thousands of organizations and over a million locations globally.

They had a lot going for them. A strong product, solid content, and a team that knows its market.

But like a lot of teams at this stage, they had the ingredients without the system.

Campaigns and content existed, which was great. Unfortunately, they weren’t consistently tied to accounts, buying stages, or a repeatable motion, especially as they looked to expand a proven campaign into new verticals.

What they needed was structure.

The Structure Behind the Engagement

When we came in, we didn’t start by launching new campaigns.

We started by building the system.

There’s a lot of noise in ABM (and more acronyms than we can even keep up with). But when you strip it down, a strong account-based approach comes down to four simple questions:

1. Who are we targeting?
2. How are we reaching them?
3. What are we showing them?
4. And how do we know it’s working?

That’s the foundation we use on every engagement.

Part 1: The 4D Framework (How We Structure Execution)

We call this the 4D Framework.

• Data → Who are the right accounts and why?
• Distribution → How do we reach them in a way that feels natural?
• Destination → What proof are we sending them to?
• Direction → How do we track signals and act on them fast?

It’s meant to be simple. The goal here isn’t to build something that looks good in a deck, but to create a system Sales and Marketing can run together.

Part 2: The Account Progression Model (How We Measure What’s Working)

The 4Ds tell you how to run ABM. The Account Progression Model tells you if it’s working (deeper dive on that here).

Instead of treating campaigns like disconnected tactics, we anchor everything to where an account is:

• Awareness
• Initial engagement
• Meaningful engagement
• Sales conversation/qualification
• Opportunity
• Re-engagement

This is because accounts don’t jump from “never heard of you” to “booked a meeting.” They progress.

Once you can see that progression clearly, it gets easier to spot what’s working, what’s not, and where accounts are getting stuck.

Putting It Together

For this partnership, combining these two frameworks gave us a solid structure of:

• Who to focus on
• How to reach them
• What to show them
• And how to move them forward

From there, execution gets a heck of a lot more repeatable.

What This Looked Like in Practice

After the framework was in place, the focus shifted to execution.

Though instead of jumping straight into campaigns, we built things in layers: focus → structure → activation.

1. Focus First: Vertical + Targeting

We started by narrowing the scope.

Rather than going after every possible account and industry, we prioritized a core vertical (QSR) based on fit and existing traction.

From there, we:

• Cleaned and tiered the target account list
• Aligned on key personas across the buying committee
• Created a clear prioritization model for where Sales and Marketing should spend time

This gave us a critical foundation: a shared understanding of who really matters right now.

2. Turned Content Into a System

The team already had strong content. The issue was what they were doing with it.

So we audited everything:

• Webinars
• Guides and reports
• Case studies
• Product and solution pages

Then we mapped that content to buying stages and real customer problems.

We also built messaging themes around the issues that consistently show up in this space. The result was a shift from scattered assets to a system where content supports account progression.

3. Built a Repeatable Campaign Structure

Instead of creating one-off campaigns, we built a consistent path accounts could move through:

Awareness → Engagement → Conversion → Re-engagement

Everything was anchored in a few core operational themes (ops, QA, management, training), allowing the program to stay consistent while adapting messaging by vertical.

This is what made the program scalable. Once the structure works in one vertical, you can extend it without rebuilding from scratch.

4. Launched the Core Plays

With the structure in place, we activated a coordinated motion across channels.

• Ads (ZoomInfo + LinkedIn) to drive targeted awareness and retargeting
• A vertical-specific resource hub to act as the central destination for education and
• Sales and Marketing sequences to turn engagement into real conversations

Each piece was designed to connect to the next. Ads drove to relevant content, content set up outreach, and outreach felt contextual instead of cold.

5. Mapped Everything to Progression

One of the biggest shifts was moving away from just tactics to driving progression.

Every part of the program had a job:

• Ads → create awareness
• Content → build engagement
• Sequences → create conversations
• Sales outreach → drive conversion

Nobody had to ask what they should do next. The question instead was, “What does this account need to move forward?”

That’s where things start clicking.

6. Built to Scale (Not Just Launch)

Everything we built was designed to be repeatable.

• Plays can be reused across accounts
• Content can be repurposed across stages
• The framework extends into new verticals

So this wasn’t just a campaign launch. Really, it was a system the team can keep running and scaling over time.

Early Signals

It’s still early, so we’re not going to pretend this is a “pipeline doubled overnight” story. Yet. 

That’s not the point of this phase anyway. What we can say is that the foundation is working.

• Sales and Marketing are aligned around the same accounts and motion
• Execution is clearer (what to run, when to run it, and why)
• The team has more confidence because there’s a system behind the work

Those are the signals that matter first. From there, we’re watching how accounts respond:

• Are the right accounts engaging?
• Are they moving through progression stages?
• Are conversations starting where they should?

It’s about validating that the system is doing what it’s supposed to do. And right now, it is.

The Difference Between Running Campaigns and Building a System

This is a good example of how we approach every engagement.

We’re not here to just spin up campaigns and hand over a report (that’s shortsighted). Our team is here to build the system behind it.

Which means:

• Creating a structure that teams can run
• Aligning Sales and Marketing around the same motion
• Turning one-off efforts into repeatable plays

And just as important, we don’t do it from a distance. We work embedded with the team, close enough to understand what’s happening day-to-day, and hands-on enough to help move things forward.

Steal the Framework We Use With Clients

Want to apply this to your own team? Don’t start from scratch!

We built an ABM planning template that walks through the same system we use with clients. Grab your copy and start building your own program.