DEAL SIZE, COMPLEXITY AND IMPORTANCE
Account-Based Marketing is best suited for deals that have high monetary value, significant complexity where many people are involved in the evaluation and approval process, and that take a significant amount of time to win. ABM integrates complex motions between Marketing, Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) and Account Management across complete sales cycles, with elements that may touch every person in the prospect organization that has a role in the process.
THE TWO MARKET SEGMENT CHARACTERISTICS FOR ABM
Account-Based Marketing works best for two specific types of market segments. In one case, the market segment has a fixed number of prospect accounts that does not materially change over time and you have had significant success penetrating some portion of this market segment and can replicate your success with other "look-alike" organizations. In the other case, organizations are constantly coming in and out of the market for your solutions, and you can meet their need at their moment of need.
In the first case the goal is to be in front of all prospects all the time, and win deals as prospects demonstrate need until you reach 100% market penetration.
In the second case the goal is to detect which of your prospects are "in-market" for your products or services as they discover the need and commit to procuring a solution, and then present a well-orchestrated campaign that engages each of the people at the prospect account who are involved in the buying process at the right times and in the right ways.
Fundamentally, the first case is an "always on" approach with a targeted list of prospects, while the second case has an ever-evolving prospect list which targets prospects only when they are ripe for your marketing effort.