I am currently sitting in the conference hall at the Sales Hacker London 2017 watching a panel discussion chaired by Roelof Hengst (Director @ Winning by Design). 

The first question Roelof posed was funnily enough something that I was discussing just yesterday with one of my clients: 

Is Account-Based Marketing (ABM) really something new, or have we been doing it for ages?

Two of the panelists' responses resonated with me:

Panelist Jada Balster (Marketing Director @ Workfront) remarked that the theory behind ABM has been around for a very long time, but the actual implementation of ABM has seemingly gained a lot of traction in recent years. Jada believes that all marketing should be account-based if it is to be successful. I agree.

A second panelist Martin Moran (Managing Director @ InsideSales.com) made the case that 'accounts' should be thought of as mere individuals, given the frequency with which people move between jobs. This is so true. If you focus your ABM strategies to markets of one, to those key stakeholders that you really want to build long-term, valuable working relationships with, you'll be able to reap the benefits several times over for years to come. 

It's a timely remark for me as just this morning a new opportunity has arisen via a key stakeholder of mine who has recently started with a new organisation. 

To yesterday's point: ABM is powerful and will help you to foster meaningful, fruitful, and reciprocal business relationships.