Winning in business is rarely automatic. In fact, it’s nearly impossible when your teams aren’t speaking the same language.

A common example in the B2B world? Misalignment between sales and marketing teams when it comes to what constitutes value.

Marketing, a function too often driven by volume-based lead quotas, does everything and anything to attract inquries. Sales, a function that’s judged on its ability to meet revenue-based goals, ignores those inquries, preferring to instead focus on building relationships with high-value, existing accounts. The result? A bloated pipeline that leaves everyone feeling frustrated.

But the real problem? Too many B2B teams aren’t meeting each other in the middle.

For years, B2B marketers and sales teams have debated whether high-touch account-based marketing (ABM) or demand generation (i.e., lead gen) is the best strategy to keeping the growth engine going.  But here’s the truth: you don’t have to choose one.

The most effective B2B approach blends ABM and demand generation to create a full-funnel marketing strategy that attracts, nurtures, and converts the right accounts. Sales and marketing teams just have to do a little more alignment work upfront.

ABM and Demand Gen: A Powerful Combination

Breaking Down the Differences

To understand how ABM and demand generation work best together, it’s important to first understand how they differ. Each approach serves a unique role in the marketing funnel, complementing rather than competing with each other.

ABM: Targeted, Personalized, and Account-Centric

Unlike broad lead-generation tactics, ABM takes a quality-over-quantity approach, ensuring that marketing efforts are concentrated on the most promising opportunities (i.e., strategic accounts). It prioritizes customized content and engagement strategies designed to nurture long-term relationships.

Demand Generation: Broad, Scalable, and Volume-Based

Demand generation on the other hand…

  • Attracts and nurtures a larger audience
  • Focuses on brand awareness and inbound lead generation
  • Uses content marketing, SEO, and paid media to drive interest
  • Often the first step before ABM engagement begins (more on that in a bit)

Why ABM Works in B2B

B2B buyers expect personalized engagement. Why might that be?

Think about it. Decision-makers are bombarded with generic marketing messages daily. Naturally, they gravitate toward vendors who take the time to understand their specific needs, underlying the reason so many salespeople prefer to spend their efforts on the high-potential customers they already know.

ABM supports this by creating hyper-targeted outreach that addresses an account’s pain points and goals.

So, how can demand generation help?

The Case for Integrating ABM and Demand Gen

Rather than operating in separate silos, these strategies work best when they feed into each other.

Demand generation can help by surfacing high-potential accounts, but this is where that extra upfront work between sales and marketing needs to come in.

How do you do it? Here’s a simple four-step strategy:

1.     Align Marketing and Sales with a Unified Strategy

Alignment between sales and marketing is a must for ABM and demand generation to work together.

Action Step: Start by by developing a shared ideal customer profile and clear communication channels to reach your intended audience. This sounds simple, but it’s not always easy. For best results, you need to go beyond who you think your ideal customer is by digging deep. Analyze past customer data, identify common attributes among high-value clients, refine messaging to address specific pain points, etc.

2.    Use Demand Gen to Identify High-Intent Accounts

Armed with the knowledge of the audience you’re targeting, where to reach them, and what’s on their minds, your next move is to build a demand generation plan to attract prospective buyers. But remember, that’s only the beginning of the marketing work. Successful integration of demand gen with ABM depends on your ability to identify the right leads for your sales team. How?

Use your data to find behavioral insights that could signal opportunities for ABM.

Action Step: Track engagement with high-value content (eBooks, webinars, product pages) and use lead scoring to prioritize top accounts.

3.    Personalize ABM Outreach Based on Demand Gen Data

Once demand gen has nurtured and pinpointed potential high-value leads, lean into your ABM tactics and further tailor your message. Deliver content that aligns with specific customer pain points and business needs, alert them to a challenge they may not even realize they’re having, etc.

Action Step: After you identify your potential high-value accounts, take your time to learn about them before reaching out.

4.    Measure Success with Shared Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Tracking separate metrics for ABM and demand generation can create confusion and misalignment. Instead, adopt a unified measurement approach that evaluates how both strategies contribute to revenue growth. By focusing on KPIs such as your marketing-influenced pipeline, engagement levels, and revenue impact, you’ll gain a clear understanding of how ABM and demand gen work together to drive success.

Key Metrics to consider:

  • Marketing-influenced pipeline (How many ABM accounts originated from demand gen efforts?)
  • Engagement levels (How do demand gen leads interact with content before moving into ABM?)
  • Revenue impact (How do ABM and demand gen efforts collectively drive closed deals?)

Final Thoughts: ABM and Demand Gen Work Better Together

The debate between ABM and demand generation is outdated. Instead of choosing one, the best B2B marketers are combining the strengths of both to create marketing engines that attract, nurture, and close high-value accounts.

Want to refine your ABM and demand gen strategy? Let’s talk! Dennison Creative helps B2B companies build integrated marketing approaches that drive real results. Contact us today to learn more.