How do you operationalize ABM across sales, marketing, and RevOps?

When ABM is treated like a marketing campaign, it dies a slow death.

You get shiny playbooks. You get templated sequences. But you don’t get revenue.

Because the real power of ABM only shows up when sales, marketing, and RevOps run it together… with a shared target, shared motion, and shared accountability.

Let’s break down how to make that work.

What does it really mean to operationalize ABM?

It means ABM isn’t a project. It’s a go-to-market motion.

If you’re still launching ABM “campaigns,” you’re thinking too small. Operationalizing ABM means:

• Everyone agrees who the top accounts are
• There’s a system to track engagement across channels
• Sales and marketing touchpoints are coordinated, not siloed
• Data flows cleanly between teams
• The entire motion is tied to pipeline and revenue

ABM becomes a way you run your business, not just a thing marketing does once a quarter.

Why do ABM motions break down between teams?

Because too often, they’re built in a vacuum.

• Marketing launches a targeted campaign but doesn’t sync with sales on timing or messaging
• Sales ignores the warm signals from marketing and sticks to their usual list
• RevOps isn’t set up to track attribution properly, so nobody trusts the numbers

It’s not always dysfunction. Sometimes it’s just no one owning the end-to-end motion.

How do you align sales, marketing, and RevOps around ABM?

You don’t start with tactics. You start with a shared goal.

That means:

• Target Account Selection: Co-create the list. Sales should never see it for the first time in a campaign deck.
• Account Plans: Document the whitespace, the buying group, the triggers. Make it collaborative.
• Sequencing: Marketing and sales touchpoints should build on each other, not compete for attention.
• Weekly Syncs: No, not just a Loom video. Real-time review of active accounts, signals, and blockers.
• Feedback Loops: What’s working? Where are we getting stuck? RevOps helps surface insights.

ABM only works if everyone sees their fingerprints on it.

What systems and processes do you need in place?

Tools are only helpful if they talk to each other.

Here’s what you need:

• CRM that tracks by buying group not just contact-level engagement
• Engagement platform that lets you see marketing and sales touches in one timeline
• Attribution setup that reflects the ABM journey, not just last touch
• Dashboards that show account progression, not just lead volume
• Enablement workflows that train both sales and marketing on new plays

And most importantly…

• A single source of truth for account data. If sales and marketing are looking at different reports, you’re already off track.

What does “good” ABM look like in action?

• Sales references a whitepaper that marketing sent two days ago
• An SDR flags an engaged buying group member, and the AE sends a video reply within the hour
• Your dashboard shows account progression by tier, with conversion benchmarks
• You catch a stuck deal because RevOps flagged low engagement mid-funnel
• Everyone can name the top 20 accounts this quarter… and what their last signal was

No one asks, “Is this working?” because the results are baked into your pipeline meetings.

TL;DR

Operationalizing ABM means:

• ABM isn’t a marketing campaign. It’s a shared revenue play
• Sales, marketing, and RevOps must build and run the motion together
• Systems, syncs, and accountability are what make it real
• When done right, it feels like one team talking to one buyer

What’s next?

We’ve talked strategy. Now let’s talk execution.

Next up: “What goes into a shared revenue playbook for ABM?”

We’ll unpack what actually lives in that playbook… how to build it… and how to make sure everyone actually uses it.

Want a quick audit of your current ABM setup?