Nora Conklin
Key takeaways
- 6:09Forrester's biannual State of ABM survey finds one in five practitioners (20% in 2024, down only modestly from 25% in 2022) are doing "ABM in name only" — claiming ABM programs while not adhering to ABM best practices.
- 12:17Buying groups nearly doubled in Forrester's 2025 buyer journey survey: from 8 to 13 members inside the purchasing organization and from 4 to 8 external members, making lead-based approaches unworkable.
- 14:2042% of surveyed marketers struggle to identify the right buyers within target accounts, 42% report limited access to actionable contact data, and the number one feedback from sellers on qualified accounts is that they don't know who to contact.
- 30:4772% of respondents say the ability to target individual buyers and contacts would be a key differentiator in ABM success, and nearly 60% expect better contact-level data to improve customer retention.
- 32:50Measure contact-level ABM through marketing sufficiency and marketing lift rather than raw ROI claims — one systems integrator saw retention rise 17% when it engaged three executives within an account.
Questions Nora Conklin answered
Conklin recommends measuring marketing sufficiency — the optimal level of engagement with buyers connected to opportunities — citing a systems integrator whose retention rose 17% when three executives per account were engaged. Lisitski says leadership ultimately wants revenue, but pipeline booked and pipeline lift are measurable within 3-6 months and serve as strong leading indicators, with vanity metrics like webinar attendance useful only as early signals.
Forrester x Influ2: Contact level ABM31:48 · with Dmitri Lisitski
Lisitski describes combining search, social, third-party content and engagement signals across a buying group — for example, a leader clicking an ad followed by a colleague searching for the product — with LLMs helping interpret how signals connect. Conklin adds that it is detective work and a team sport across marketing, sales, revenue development and customer success, using signals to validate hypotheses about who is engaged and how teams are structured.
Forrester x Influ2: Contact level ABM36:30 · with Dmitri Lisitski
Conklin says it depends on the program goal and starting point — expansion versus net-new — and recommends isolating marketing lift to show ABM's incremental contribution. Lisitski cautions against loose ROI claims, prefers sticking to tangible revenue and lift metrics, and notes that broader business context (like valuation multiples on added revenue) can make a seemingly break-even program highly valuable.
Forrester x Influ2: Contact level ABM40:59 · with Dmitri Lisitski
In Nora Conklin's words
“This is really changing the game for B2B marketing, because this is making it very clear that the lead-based approach is not going to work.”
“It's amazing how much I hear, even from those that are just starting with ABM: how do we know that ABM made the difference, that these opportunities wouldn't have closed anyway? Isolating to marketing lift really tells that story.”