Uncovering the Truth About Account-Based Strategies in Europe

Account-based marketing strategies have been around for a while now, and over the years marketers have begun to realize that this hyper-targeted, personalized approach yields much greater returns than a traditional ‘spray and pray’ approach.

But is that true everywhere? At Demandbase, we wanted to get a better understanding of how strategies differ across Europe. What are the differences in account-based strategies between certain regions (if any)? Who’s taken the lead, and who’s got some catching up to do?

In our pursuit of answers, we decided to speak with 10 senior marketers based in the UK, Germany, and Benelux for a pulse check on account-based strategies in Europe, a snapshot of where we’re currently at, and to find out what the world of account-based strategy looks like.

Since we don’t have time in this blog to go over everything, we’ve narrowed it down into our top 3 takeaways. But if you want to learn more (and after reading this, you probably will) be sure to check out the full report!

Location, location, location

ABM maturity can change dramatically as soon as you step over the border from Belgium to Germany. To get a better idea of how immediate and noticeable this shift is, we spoke with three EMEA marketing experts — Philippe Ruttens, Andreas Bernhard, and Christian Weiss — about how technology and culture can affect how businesses approach the implementation of account-based strategies.

Whereas Philippe was “not really aware of any specific ABM agencies or dedicated consultants, apart from [himself],” Andreas noted that — especially in the last five years — Germany has come into its own in terms of account-based strategy.

“Some of our clients have only just adopted an account-based approach,” Andreas says, “while others have been practicing it for five years or more.”

While Benelux represents a strong area for B2B growth and performance marketing, Philippe notes that it trails behind where account-based strategies are concerned, which he attributes in part to how and where these tools are built — primarily in the US and UK.

Christian believes that a general reluctance to try out the un-tested is — in part — what keeps Germany lagging behind English-speaking countries in ABM maturity. “While other cultures might try new approaches and technologies and fail, at least they’ve tried it.”

ABM maturity can change dramatically as soon as you step over the border from Belgium to Germany. To get a better idea of how immediate and noticeable this shift in how businesses implement account-based strategies is, we spoke to Philippe Ruttens — the global lead of ABM, demand generation, and digital marketing at cleverbridge in Benelux —, Andreas Bernhard — the managing director at The Marketing Practice (TMP) in Germany —, and Christian Weiss — Autodesk’s director of ABM, EMEA.

Whereas Philippe was “not really aware of any specific ABM agencies or dedicated consultants, apart from [himself],” Andreas noted that — especially in the last five years — Germany has come into its own in terms of account-based strategy.

“Some of our clients have only just adopted an account-based approach,” Andreas says, “while others have been practicing it for five years or more.”

There are two major factors at play when it comes to determining Europe’s ABM maturity: technology and culture.

While Benelux represents a strong area for B2B growth and performance marketing, Philippe notes that it trails behind where account-based strategies are concerned, which he attributes in part to how these tools are built — mainly in the US and UK.

On culture, Christian says that a general reluctance to try out the un-tested is what keeps Germany lagging behind English-speaking countries in ABM maturity. “While other cultures might try new approaches and technologies and fail, at least they’ve tried it.”

From “hand-off” to “orchestrated team”

The issue of sales and marketing alignment, Philippe believes, is not specific to (or, indeed, worse in) any one specific region or country. “I’ve been in B2B marketing for 25 years, and it remains an issue across almost every region,” he says. It’s a challenge that transcends language, borders, and time.

For businesses practicing account-based methods, the ideal scenario would be to involve client success, product, and account teams in order to deliver a seamless, end-to-end ABM approach. But, as Philippe points out, that’s difficult to achieve when sales and marketing teams are still struggling to properly understand each other.

“Marketing and sales need to be best buddies,” says Paul Fleming, senior sales director EMEA at Autodesk. “For both teams, your time is restricted and precious. Sales don’t work on volume anymore. It’s all about quality, and marketing has a huge role in ensuring that quality.”

But communication within a company isn’t the only hurdle that sales and marketing teams in EMEA must work together to overcome. There are also a number of regional nuances between countries that sales and marketing must align on. “In Germany,” Christian explains, “marketing and sales carry mixed opinions of each other. German companies often work in silos — meaning marketers throw leads over the fence to sales, and that’s it. Sales then, quite rightly, complains about the lead quality.”

For Christian, like many others, the more each of his teams understands the values of and appreciates each other’s work, the better the collaboration between them.

Data silos and fragmentation

Sales and marketing alignment (or, more often, misalignment) isn’t the only issue those teams face. If, rather than pooling resources and intelligence together, these teams keep everything siloed, they’re essentially working with one hand tied behind their back. This can lead to a fragmented GTM where both sales and marketing are looking at the same picture, but through different lenses.

Frediana Bia, senior manager, regional marketing EMEA at Ciena (based in the UK), says “the sales team is aware and willing to collaborate, and, in order to be fully integrated, we’d need to leverage available tools to share information (i.e. intent, etc). From that point of view, there’s a lot more to be done.”

Alongside data silos, misalignment of sales and marketing more often than not leads to poor results. And not only these lackluster results, but a fragmented go-to-market where you and your teams are forced to rely on hunch-based tactics and cold calling that creates omni-spam and pushes a clunky buying process.

From these interviews, it became clear that getting a single source of the truth when it comes to data is a key way to ensure your organization is optimally aligned to targeting your customers and prospects.

Don’t forget to check out the rest of the report!

This is just a tiny taste of the full survey results. There’s lots more to read about, including: COVID-19’s effect on ABM maturity across these regions, behavioral differences associated with culture and geography, metrics and analytics, ABM’s trajectory, and more! Check out the report to learn all about it.