Account Based Marketing vs Lead Generation: Why It’s Time to Rethink Your Strategy
A conversation with Kristina Jaramillo, President at Personal ABM.
In today’s B2B world, account based marketing vs lead generation isn’t just a battle of tactics—it’s a clash of mindsets. While lead generation focuses on volume and filling the top of the funnel, account-based marketing (ABM) is about precision, alignment, and long-term revenue growth.
But here’s the catch: many companies think they’re doing ABM when they’re really just putting a shiny label on their old lead-gen playbooks. According to Kristina Jaramillo, President of Personal ABM, true ABM is not a campaign—it’s a strategic transformation.
The Problem: ABM is Misunderstood and Misapplied
“ABM isn’t just better targeting. It’s a company-wide go-to-market strategy that aligns marketing, sales, customer success, and product around shared revenue goals.”
Most organizations jump into ABM by identifying a list of accounts, defining a few goals, and layering campaigns on top of existing demand gen efforts. But they fail to rethink their content, messaging, team structure, or go-to-market motions. In essence, they’re doing targeted lead generation, not ABM.
| Element | Lead Generation | Account Based Marketing |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | Generate as many leads as possible | Land and expand strategic accounts |
| Measurement | MQLs, form fills, engagement rates | Stage progression, win rates, NRR |
| Ownership | Primarily marketing | Cross-functional: Sales, Marketing, CS, RevOps |
| Approach | One-to-many campaigns | 1:1, 1:few, or 1:many with personalization |
| Content | Generic and persona-based | Account-specific and insight-driven |
Why ABM Often Fails to Deliver Revenue
Here’s what Kristina sees time and time again:
Companies treat ABM as a bolt-on tactic, not a fundamental shift.
Sales and marketing aren’t aligned on account selection, goals, or success metrics.
The program lacks executive sponsorship and cross-functional ownership.
Teams don’t tailor messaging to strategic priorities or address the status quo bias in buying committees.
ABM is measured with tactical metrics like MQAs, not business outcomes.
ABM can’t be delegated to a single marketing manager or retrofitted to an existing funnel. It has to be designed to solve the biggest revenue problems—whether that’s breaking into enterprise accounts, reducing churn, or expanding current customers.
A Better Approach to ABM: Start With the Revenue Gaps
Kristina’s team begins every ABM engagement by identifying where the revenue leaks are:
Are we losing to competitors we should beat?
Are customers churning after a short term?
Are we unable to move upmarket?
Once the problem is clear, the strategy follows:
Align sales, marketing, CS, and RevOps around shared objectives.
Redefine the Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) based on high-value customers.
Develop account-specific messaging tied to strategic business priorities.
Focus on internal buyer enablement, not just external outreach.
Track meaningful KPIs like deal velocity, ACV growth, and multi-threading success.
“ABM is not about the next deal. It’s about driving the greatest revenue streams year over year.”
Don't Just Buy Tech. Build Strategy First
Intent platforms like 6sense and Demandbase have become synonymous with ABM—but Kristina cautions against this mindset.
“ABM tech doesn’t equal ABM strategy. Buying a platform doesn’t fix broken processes or align your teams.”
Intent data only reflects current behaviors—it’s speculative, not predictive. It doesn’t tell you if the account is culturally aligned, ready for change, or worth pursuing. Tech should enable a strategy—not define it.
Real-World Proof: How Messaging Changed Everything
Kristina shared the story of a freight analytics company struggling to expand deal sizes. Their content was aimed at transportation managers—the platform users—not decision-makers. Their main competitor even offered a similar solution for free.
By shifting the messaging to show how their platform integrated with demand forecasting, inventory management, and margin protection, they repositioned their value for C-suite leaders. That shift helped them land and expand accounts on Gartner’s Top 25 Supply Chain list.
Metrics That Matter in ABM
To measure ABM success, forget MQLs. Kristina recommends focusing on:
Stage progression
ACV growth
Win rates against competitors
Engagement with C-suite buyers
NRR (Net Revenue Retention)
“If your ABM isn’t improving deal size, win rate, and retention—you’re not doing ABM.”
Final Thoughts: Time to Kill the Triangle
One of Kristina’s boldest takeaways? It’s time to ditch the outdated ABM pyramid.
The one-to-many → one-to-few → one-to-one model is too rigid and siloed. Instead, think of it as a dynamic funnel, where high-fit accounts earn deeper personalization based on engagement, strategic fit, and growth potential.
TL;DR: Account Based Marketing vs Lead Generation
ABM isn’t an evolution of lead gen—it’s a fundamentally different strategy.
ABM focuses on revenue, retention, and relationship building, not just pipeline.
True ABM requires executive sponsorship, team alignment, and account-specific engagement.
Tech alone won’t save you—strategy must come first.
Kill the pyramid. Build programs that are integrated, adaptive, and focused on the entire account journey.
Want to hear more stories from revenue leaders? Subscribe to The Revenue Lounge podcast to never miss an episode!
More Resources

How to Strategically Engage and Conquer Buying committees
Delve into the complexities of engaging buying groups and unveiling strategic approaches to conquer the challenges that arise. In Sales, the key to accelerating deals lies in understanding the nuances of buying group dynamics.

Top 15 Guided Selling Tools for 2025
Top 15 Guided Selling Tools for 2025 RevOps 10 min Imagine that you are planning to build a new house but are unsure where to start. You have a basic idea of what you want but are not an expert in home construction or design. In such a situation, you would need a skilled architect who understands your needs, preferences, and budget and then guides you through designing your dream home. The architect would help you make informed decisions about your new home’s design, materials, and features. Similarly, a guided selling tool uses customer data and sales expertise to help customers navigate the purchasing process and make informed decisions. It can provide personalized recommendations based on the customer’s needs and preferences, answer questions, and offer advice to help them choose the right product or service. What is Guided Selling? Guided selling is a strategy involving a structured approach to lead potential customers through the sales process. It is the process of analyzing current sales, historical sales, and customer data to help sales reps provide tailored product recommendations to customers and increase the likelihood of conversion. Let’s say you are shopping for a new laptop. You visit a website that offers guided selling, and you’re prompted to answer a series of questions. The questions might include things like: What will you primarily use the laptop for? Do you need a large screen or a lightweight design? How important is battery life to you? What is your budget? Based on your responses, the website would then recommend a few different laptops that meet your needs. It might provide detailed information about each laptop, such as the processor, RAM, and storage capacity, as well as customer reviews and ratings. The website might offer additional guidance, such as recommending accessories or providing information on warranties and support. Throughout the process, the focus is on helping you make an informed decision based on your unique needs and preferences. Guided selling can be particularly effective for complex or high-value products or services where customers may require more personalized guidance and support to make informed purchasing decisions. By providing a more consultative sales approach, guided selling also helps to establish long-term customer relationships. How Does Guided Selling Work in B2B SaaS In B2B SaaS, guided selling typically involves a sales representative or a customer success manager who guides the customer. The process usually begins with the customer expressing their needs and goals and the guide using that information to suggest relevant products or services. The guide may use various tools, such as a software demo, to help the customer understand the features and benefits of each option. In addition, guided selling often involves providing educational resources to the customer to help them better understand the product or service and how it can help them achieve their goals. This may include case studies, white papers, or other content that provides valuable insights into the benefits and use cases of the product. Let’s have a look at the guided selling process in detail: The Process of Guided Selling Tools The guided selling process is a customer-centric approach to sales that involves guiding potential customers through the buying process by providing personalized recommendations, advice, and support. The following are the general steps involved in a typical guided selling process: 1. Gathering customer information The first step of the process involves collecting data on the customer’s needs, preferences, budget, and any other relevant information that can help the sales process. 2. Identifying customer pain points In this stage, the sales team uses the information gathered in the previous stage to identify the customer’s pain points or areas of concern.This is typically done through a series of questions or a needs assessment. 3. Providing product recommendations Based on the customer information and pain points identified, the sales team provides recommendations on the products or services that best meet the customer’s needs. 4. Presenting solutions At this stage, the sales team presents the recommended products or services to the customer and explains how they address the customer’s pain points. The sales representative provides information about the recommended products or services, including their features, benefits, and pricing. 5. Handling objections If the customer has any objections or concerns, the sales team addresses them and provides additional information or alternative solutions as needed. 6. Closing the sale Once the customer is satisfied with the recommended product or service, the sales team closes the sale by facilitating the purchase process. 7. Follow-up and customer support After the sale is complete, the sales team provides follow-up support to ensure the customer is satisfied with their purchase and offers any additional assistance or support as needed. Examples of Guided Selling Tools in Businesses Here are some examples of techniques of guided selling tools: 1. Automate sales playbook To ensure consistent performance, sales playbooks should be automated. Guided selling relies on a solid foundation of methodologies, blueprints, and plays that facilitate the sales process. It’s important to choose a solution that simplifies the playbook for sellers, allowing them to follow the plan and consistently advance deals easily. 2. Identify specific needs In some situations, customers may need a clearer idea of what they are looking for when they visit your website. In such cases, a brief questionnaire can be used to determine and guide their specific requirements. For instance, if you run an online clothing store, you could ask customers questions about their preferred fit and fabric to steer them toward products that best match their preferences. This approach can increase the likelihood of a purchase by helping customers make informed decisions based on their needs. 3. Real-time response For a guided selling software to be effective, it needs to be adaptable and flexible, able to react to changing circumstances in real time. At a fundamental level, ensuring that sales representatives remain attentive to communication and other sales activities can reduce the time it takes to close deals and result in higher revenue velocity. In other cases,
A 30-60-90 Day Guide for First-Time Directors of Revenue Operations
A 30-60-90 Day Guide for First-Time Directors of Revenue Operations RevOps 10 min Starting a new job as a Director of Revenue Operations is an exciting opportunity to make a significant impact on a company’s revenue growth. To ensure success in this role, it’s essential to have a strategic plan that guides your actions during the crucial first three months. Here’s a 30-60-90 day plan that will help you strategically manage revenue operations and drive sustainable growth. We recently spoke to Hassan Irshad, Director of RevOps at FEVTutor. He shared his approach to this powerful framework, demonstrating how each phase (30, 60, and 90 days) builds strategically upon the last to deliver alignment, trust, and sustained improvement. By breaking down complex goals into achievable milestones, the 30-60-90 day approach empowers RevOps leaders to initiate meaningful change without overwhelming teams. For all the RevOps leaders, it’s a way to approach change with purpose, driving measurable impact and laying the groundwork for long-term success. The 30-60–90 day framework must be an indispensable tool and here is how you can implement progressive, sustainable growth strategies from day one. First 30 days for a Director of Revenue Operations The purpose should be to gather insights and understand the organization, especially the needs and challenges of different teams. 1. Goals for first 30 days: i. Meet Key Stakeholders Meet with cross departmental teams like Finance, HR, and Sales to understand their goals, challenges, and priorities. ii. Document Everything Create a “lay of the land” document summarizing findings on different team goals, challenges, and processes. iii. Understand the Product Take product demos, listen to sales calls, and use tools that show how the product is sold. This helps in understanding the customer needs better. iv. Dive into Your CRM Understand your CRM (whether Salesforce or HubSpot) to assess how the data is organized. This is to check whether it’s easy to use, and identify immediate improvements. The CRM should be the central source of truth, with other tools supporting it. The data should be unified with easier adoption for the teams. v. Build Trust Internally Establish trust within your teams by listening carefully, asking questions about how RevOps can help, and addressing quick fixes to show you’re there to help. Having this trust shows them that you’re here to support their success. Quick wins, such as small fixes that make people’s jobs easier, helps in establishing credibility early. 2. Establish Clear KPIs i. Understanding Team KPIs It is important to ask you stakeholders about the KPIs that matter to understand their goals and what their expectations are. ii. Aligning KPIs Across Teams Different departments oftentimes work in silos. RevOps should strive to align these departments and check if these KPIs match the overall business objectives. Gaps must be closed if their KPIs don’t align. iii. Setting RevOps KPIs As you approach the end of the first 30 days, start establishing RevOps-specific KPIs that match company goals, which may involve metrics like revenue increase, conversion rates, or improvements in overall efficiency. 3. Tech Stack Audit Deep dive into the existing tools that your company is using. Identify all redundancies, and find opportunities to streamline the entire tech stack. i. Map Out Tools Compile a list of all tools used by teams, noting their purpose and how they work with the CRM. ii. Evaluate Use and Cost Determine if tools are actively used or if there are duplicates. Look for cost-saving opportunities by consolidating tools when possible. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVDJ9KI1tGw&t=869s Next 30 days – Alignment and Control The next 30 days marks a shift from discovery to alignment. The goals should be to create cohesion between departments (e.g., Sales, Marketing) and laying down effective controls. The improvements need to be implemented without overwhelming the teams. This phase combines further exploration with actionable improvements with the primary task being bringing the teams into sync. 1. Ways to bring your teams together i. Encouraging cross-team collaboration by addressing silos and ensuring all teams work toward shared quarterly or company-wide goals. ii. By creating alignment, you help teams see RevOps as a support system rather than an enforcer. This keeps communication channels open and creates buy-in. iii. Based on your findings, introduce controls wherever needed to improve workflow. Example: If close dates aren’t being recorded properly, this could skew reports. Meet with sales, identify the root cause (e.g., manual data entry that is taking too much of a reps’ time), and provide solutions or tools to make their tasks easier. Ensure that controls are practical and developed with the trust built in the first 30 days. Foster internal consensus within teams so that these improvements are adopted seamlessly. 2. Navigate Organizational Politics (i) Barrier Removal Larger organizations may have internal politics or ingrained processes that resist change. Find an internal “sponsor” who trusts and supports RevOps initiatives and can authorize actions to navigate any resistance. (ii) Trust and Consistency As you implement changes, make sure your efforts consistently demonstrate how RevOps can make work easier and more efficient for everyone. 3. Evolving the Tech Stack (i) Assessing Tech Needs If tools aren’t fully integrated (e.g., a tool not writing data back to the CRM), identify their gaps and consider evolving the tech stack. (ii) Holistic View Use insights from the discovery and alignment phases to start envisioning necessary tech improvements that align with company goals. Beginning of the 90-Day Phase: Vision and Execution This phase, described as “Vision and Execution,” involves shaping and executing a strategy based on insights gathered from the discovery and alignment phases. a. Roadmap Creation Create a roadmap covering the next two quarters, focusing on long-term, high-impact changes that align with business goals. Use learnings based on stakeholder needs, organizational goals, and the findings from the first 60 days i. Set Priorities Collaborate with end users (Sales, Marketing, Customer Success) to understand their pressing needs and align the roadmap with these needs. ii. Strategic Execution Prioritize initiatives that will have immediate revenue impact or