omething is amiss with the state of B2B marketing. Most companies acknowl- Sedge that there is a huge opportunity to engage customers much more effective- ly as buying behavior shifts online. Many have tried to accomplish this with account-based marketing (ABM), which concentrates the efforts of the marketing, sales, and service teams on engaging high-priority accounts in a more personalized way—fully leveraging the breadth of digital channels to augment traditional offline sales efforts—to improve business results. But, for many, ABM has proven difficult to implement, and initial efforts have fre- quently failed. That’s because ABM is usually marketing-led, without sufficient buy- in from the sales and service organizations. In fact, the term account-based market- ing is a misnomer. Alignment and integration across marketing, sales, and service are essential to personalize account engagement and optimize end-to-end customer journeys. The term account-based engagement (ABE) more effectively captures the require- ments and coordination needed to deliver highly personalized and integrated pre- 1 It conveys the cross-functional integration and post-sales customer experiences. necessary to shift the paradigm from just generating and closing leads to orchestrat- ing opportunities in the complex ecosystem of larger accounts. To identify what it takes to succeed with ABE, BCG interviewed 34 senior execu- tives at 21 technology, manufacturing, and business services companies that recent- The term account- ly implemented ABE programs. We found that ABE, done well, delivers impressive based engagement results, although most have struggled with initial efforts to implement it. Our study conveys the shows that companies that have persisted and successfully managed ABE imple- cross-functional mentation challenges have realized faster pipeline growth, higher close rates, larger integration necessary average deal sizes, and greater customer retention. Indeed, every company should to orchestrate learn from the experiences of the ABE trailblazers. opportunities in the complex ecosystem of What Is Account-Based Engagement? large accounts. Over the past decade, most B2B buyers have enthusiastically embraced the internet to research options, evaluate vendors, and, sometimes, buy goods and services. This digital shift has catalyzed technological advances that are helping B2B marketers engage with buyers more effectively through online channels such as email, conver- sational messaging, social media, display advertising, and websites. It has also re- sulted in an explosion of data that is helping companies understand customer en- gagement and surface indicators of buying intent that B2B marketers can use to Boston Consulting Group 3