Ask This Question Before You Write Another Word of ABM Messaging

Article at a Glance

What’s the one question to ask before writing any ABM content?

“What problem are we helping buyers solve right now, and why is it urgent for them this quarter?” If your team can answer that clearly and the answers match, you’re ready to write. If the answers differ, your ABM strategy has a gap, and it’s better to find it before you write the copy.

Why can messaging fall apart when we agree on goals and our target account list?

Agreeing on who you’re going after isn’t the same as agreeing on what you’re saying to them. Marketing might focus on one problem, sales could lead with another, and leadership might expect results tied to a third. Nobody is wrong, but the story buyers hear ends up scattered.

How do I know if my team is misaligned on the buyer’s problem?

A couple of signs usually show up together. Marketing sees good engagement, but sales says conversations aren’t landing. Sales keeps hearing one pain point while your ABM content highlights another. Or leadership expects pipeline while the messaging is still introducing the problem. Seeing one of these is a nudge, while seeing two or three means it’s time to talk.

Why doesn’t making the messaging broader solve the problem?

Broad messaging seems safe, but it’s rarely relevant to anyone. Trying to cover every persona and stage at once waters down even a well-defined ideal customer profile. A message built around one problem will always beat one that tries to cover everything.

What should teams decide together every quarter?

Two things: the main problem you’re solving, and the buyer stage you’re focused on right now. Settle those, and your B2B marketing, sales conversations, and follow-up all start reinforcing each other. That’s what makes an ABM strategy become one story instead of three.

A campaign launches, engagement looks healthy, and then sales says the conversations aren’t going anywhere. Reps hear one pain point on calls, while the emails and ads focus on a different one. Nobody did anything wrong. The goals were agreed on, and the target account list was solid, but each team had filled in the buyer’s problem differently.

I’ve been trained in StoryBrand, so I’ve seen this pattern play out again and again. It’s rarely a creative problem, and no amount of polish on your ABM content can cover for it, because buyers can feel it when the story shifts depending on who’s talking. A strong ABM strategy starts with one shared answer about the buyer’s problem, and it takes just a few minutes to check. Here’s how to ask it, so your ABM strategy and B2B marketing tell one story instead of three.

The Question, Word by Word

The question is short, but each part of it is doing a specific job: “What problem are we helping buyers solve right now, and why is it urgent for them this quarter?”

• “Right now” forces a single answer. Ask a team for the buyer’s problems, and you’ll get a list. Ask for the one that matters now, and people have to choose.
• “Why is it urgent?” separates what buyers care about from what they’ll act on. Plenty of problems are real but easy to put off, and your ABM content has a much better shot when it speaks to the one that can’t wait.
• “This quarter” keeps the answer specific. “Buyers want to grow faster” isn’t something a campaign can act on, but a problem with a deadline is.

If someone can answer all three parts without hedging, you’re in good shape. If the answer sounds more like a brochure than a decision, the ABM strategy isn’t ready for copy yet. The same goes for your target account list: the sharper the answer, the easier it is to tell which accounts it applies to.

How to Run It Across Teams

Start by asking marketing, sales, and leadership the question separately. If everyone answers in the same room, the first confident voice tends to set the tone and the rest of the group nods along. Written answers, or quick one-on-one conversations, show what each team believes.

Then lay the answers side by side. Sometimes they match, which is a good sign your ABM strategy is anchored to one shared problem and the messaging can move forward. More often they don’t, and that’s useful. A mismatch shows where the story splits, and it’s much cheaper to find out now than weeks into a campaign.

When the answers differ, you don’t need a long debate. Start with the problem sales hears most often on calls, since that’s the clearest evidence of what buyers are dealing with. Then check it against your target account list: is this the problem those accounts are facing this quarter? Once the group agrees on one answer, write it down and share it, so it’s the first thing anyone sees before they brief the next piece of work.

Signs You Need to Ask It Today

Misalignment on the buyer’s problem rarely announces itself. It shows up as a handful of small frustrations that each look like their own issue. Here are three worth checking against whatever you have in market right now:

• Marketing sees engagement, but sales says conversations aren’t landing. Clicks, opens, and downloads look healthy, yet reps keep describing calls where the buyer doesn’t connect with what they saw. People are interested in something, just not the thing sales is talking about.
• Sales leads with one pain point while campaigns highlight another. If the problem a rep brings up on a call isn’t the one in the ad or email that got the meeting, buyers notice the shift.
• Leadership expects pipeline, but the messaging is still introducing the problem. Awareness-stage messaging can’t meet a decision-stage goal, and the gap can turn into frustration on both sides.

Any one of these alone could be a coincidence. Two or three together point to the same root cause: nobody agreed on which problem comes first. Pull up your last few campaign briefs next to your recent sales call notes, and you'll spot the mismatch easily. That’s your cue to ask the question this week, before another round of work goes out under an ABM strategy that’s pulling in different directions.

Remember: Going Broader Won’t Save You

Covering every problem is the easy move for a team that can’t agree on one. Mention efficiency and cost savings, then stretch the message so it fits every stage of the journey. It seems like a safe bet, since nothing important gets left out.

The trouble is, a message built to fit everyone isn’t written for anyone. Buyers can tell they’re reading something general, and they move on. Accounts landed on your list because they share specific traits, and a watered-down message ignores the very thing that made them a fit.

Aligned teams do the opposite. They choose the primary problem for the quarter and the buyer stage they’re focused on, and stick with both. That choice carries into campaigns, sales conversations, and follow-up, so reps reinforce what marketing put out instead of working around it. Buyers get one consistent story, and a focused ABM strategy is what makes that possible.

Get Everyone Telling the Same Story

Strong messaging starts with a shared answer to one question: what problem are we helping buyers solve right now, and why does it matter this quarter? Get marketing, sales, and leadership to agree on the same answer, and the writing, sales convos, and follow-up all get easier because everyone tells the same story.

If you want help getting your team to that answer, bring everyone to a private ABM in a Day Workshop, and we’ll work through it together!